Late-show Poles keep up pressure on England

Keith Gillespie(R) of Ireland is challenged by Tomasz Rzasa of Poland during their World Cup 2006 qualifying match in Warsaw. Poland won 1-0

Poland kept up the pressure on England for automatic qualification for the 2006 World Cup from Group 6 with a slender 1-0 win against Northern Ireland.

Maciej Zurawski scored the vital goal just three minutes from the end of a match in which Lawrie Sanchez's side had defended solidly.

Zurawski made sure of the three points when he headed home a cross from Miroslaw Szymkowiak with the result also ending Northern Ireland's slim hopes of making the play-offs by grabbing second place in the group.

They had lost 4-0 to England at the weekend while the Poles hammered home their credentials as the main challengers to Sven-Goran Eriksson's men with a 8-0 mauling of Azerbaijan.

The result Wednesday could have been a lot worse had it not been for some excellent saves by goalkeeper Maik Taylor while counterpart Jerzy Dudek kept out James Quinn early on.

But overall Taylor was the busiest of the two goalkeepers, saving twice from Zurawski and then Jacek Krzynowek.

He pulled off two more fine saves in the second half with one stunning stop to keep out Tomasz Frankowski but he was unable to prevent Zurawski's pinpoint header from flying in.