Northern Ireland boss Nigel Worthington felt he could take a number of positives from his side's 1-0 friendly defeat by Bulgaria on Wednesday.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.

Yet Worthington, with an eye on the World Cup qualifiers starting next season, took the opportunity to look at a number of different players and options and felt the team acquitted themselves well.

Worthington said: "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.

"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."

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."

Bulgaria coach Plamen Markov, for whom the game was his first of a second spell in charge of the national side, was also pleased with how the game went.

He said: "It was a very good challenge and a good performance by our team. I am pleased with the victory because our team needed this kind of performance.

"I have no reasons not to be pleased with what we have done. I think Northern Ireland were a very strong team. It was a good friendly match."

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