Worthington upbeat despite defeat

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Worthington was beaten in his first match in full-time charge as a Martin Petrov strike, deflected in by home defender Jonny Evans late in the first half, proved to be the only goal at Windsor Park.

Worthington said: "Overall it was a good exercise, a lot of good stuff, a lot of positives to take away from it, but there are little bits we need to work on. The last 25 minutes were what I am looking for from start to finish."

He added: "I was delighted with the exercise. Bulgaria are a very good team. I thought in the last 25 minutes we really took the game to them and caused them a few problems.

"I really wanted to start like that but the mentality of a friendly can sometimes play tricks on the mind."

Worthington was given a two-year deal last month after guiding Northern Ireland through the tailend of their Euro 2008 qualifying campaign in a caretaker capacity.

The former Norwich manager was particularly pleased with his side's defending and thought they coped with the threat of Tottenham's £30million-rated striker Dimitar Berbatov well.

Berbatov was a willing runner throughout an at times uninspiring contest but was given little to feed on in front of goal.

"He is not a quality player - he is a world-class player," said Worthington. "I thought all three centre-halves that played dealt with him very well.

"He always causes problems so I am very pleased with our performance. Defensively we were very solid against very good players. We stuck to a task. We were rugged, we were determined. We passed the ball very well at times and created some chances."