EVANS ENCOURAGED BY BLANK

McGivern - dismissed.

Northern Ireland defender Johnny Evans believes Wednesday night's goalless draw against Scotland is a perfect platform for their World Cup campaign.

Evans was outstanding at centre-back as Nigel Worthington's 10-man side kept their first clean sheet of the manager's reign.

Maik Taylor pulled off a superb reflex save from Birmingham team-mate James McFadden in the closing stages at Hampden but the visitors were otherwise comfortable even after debutant Ryan McGivern's 57th-minute red card.

Evans has been mainly utilised at left-back by his country but the 20-year-old was quick, strong and accomplished in his timing alongside Stephen Craigan as the Northern Irish held firm.

The province could even have snatched victory had lone striker David Healy added to his prodigious international scoring record by converting a second-half penalty, but Rangers keeper Allan McGregor made an impressive save.

However, Evans was encouraged by a new 4-5-1 system as Northern Ireland prepare for their opening World Cup qualifier in Slovakia on September 6.

"Friendlies are a bit different, but it was good to be playing centre-back, it was only my second time for Northern Ireland," the Manchester United player said.

"We were here to do a job and it's a good platform to take into the qualifiers. Going away from home and keeping a clean sheet, if that was a qualifying match we would have got a valuable point.

"You always get the work-rate with Northern Ireland but with that system, we worked really, really hard.

"With David Healy playing up on his own - he worked his socks off. I don't think he has that much match-fitness, so it was a credit to him.

"It's unfortunate he missed the penalty but he has got that many goals for Northern Ireland, I don't think it matters."

Worthington's men earned only five points away from home in their Euro 2008 campaign - including three from Liechtenstein.

But he believes they can take something from the Bratislava contest if they play like they did at Hampden.

The Northern Ireland manager said: "We have got to give them respect, but we must go into their backyard like we did in Scotland's and perform like we did.

"If we do that we can get a good result. There is a lot of hard work to be done. We got turned over in Latvia and Iceland by these supposedly smaller nations."

The former Norwich manager, whose side also face the Czech Republic at home next month before an away trip to Slovenia, added: "If we get four to six points away from home in the next qualifiers I will be very happy - as long as we keep our home form.

"That is my first clean sheet as Northern Ireland manager and if you can get clean sheets you can build on that."