Aaron Hughes has backed David Healy to continue terrorising defences all over Europe after another landmark night for the striker.Healy was handed a special award by UEFA president Michel Platini before Wednesday night's 4-1 thrashing of Georgia at Windsor Park in honour of his record 13-goal haul in the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign.

Predictably, the Fulham forward marked the occasion with a goal - and, slightly less typically, a second-half own goal - to take his remarkable tally for the province to 34 goals in 64 matches.

But far from last night marking the pinnacle of the 28-year-old's international career, Hughes has backed him to reach even greater heights and fire Nigel Worthington's side to the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.

"We know his goal-scoring record. He turns up, and you know that if he gets chances he's going to get goals as well," Northern Ireland skipper Hughes told BBC Northern Ireland.

"He scored another one, and we hope he'll continue to do that - but we'll see how things go from now until the end of the season for him."

Quite where Healy will spend the remainder of the campaign is open to question, given his lack of first-team chances at Craven Cottage.

It certainly seems that, under current Cottagers boss Roy Hodgson, he has little future with the London club - and it has been suggested he could join countryman Jim Magilton at Ipswich on a short-term loan.

Healy was, however, coy when pressed on the issue.

"Nobody's ever happy about not playing first-team football," he said.

"Jim's a terrific manager; he's done a terrific job. Ipswich are a terrific club, and I'm sure he'll keep doing a terrific job.

"We'll have to wait and see."

Another experienced campaigner to prove a point in Belfast last night was Keith Gillespie.

The 33-year-old insisted in the build up to last night's match - in which Kyle Lafferty's two goals and Peter Thompson completed the scoring - that he still sees a long-term international future for himself under Worthington.

If he felt under pressure for his place, Gillespie responded in the best possible way with a display full of menace and guile as the Georgians failed to control him - particularly in a rampant first-half showing.

The Sheffield United midfielder was thrilled with a good night's work.

"In the first half, the energy throughout the whole team was fantastic - we set out to press them high up the pitch and we did that," he said.

"We made them make mistakes and got goals from that.

"In the second half we got a little bit complacent at times, but sometimes that's to be expected when you go 3-0 up."

Asked whether Gillespie could carry on at the highest level, Hughes added: "I hope so - at least if keeps playing like that every night."

More Football News from TEAMtalk