Soccer: Northern Ireland boss Nigel Worthington hailed a "magnificent" display from Pat McCourt after the Celtic winger helped deliver a much-needed three points against Brian Kerr's Faroe Islands on Wednesday night.

With a host of attacking talent absent from the Euro 2012 qualifier through injury, suspension and - in James McClean's case, a change of allegiance to the Republic of Ireland - McCourt turned in a vintage display to help defeat the Group C minnows 4-0.

Goals have been hard to come by for Northern Ireland in recent times, but the irrepressible McCourt produced two classics to showcase his mercurial talent.

"Paddy is just an entertainer," said Worthington. "He's quietly confident, not a shouter or a ranter and raver, he just does it. There's not much more you can say, he just has magnificent individual ability.

"For his second goal you just have to stand there in amazement. Sometimes you wonder if he even knows what he is doing himself. He has fantastic ability but to be fair to Paddy it's not just that side of things, it's working for the team too. He has become more of a team player as well."

In addition to McCourt's man-of-the-match showing there was a first international goal for captain Aaron Hughes and a third from Rangers midfielder Steven Davis. But most important of all to Worthington was a second-half team performance that ensured the win despite a nervous hour between the first and second goals.

"The most important thing was getting the points but we made hard work of it in the first half after getting a perfect start," he said. "We got a perfect start because we did what we had practised in training. It got a bit sloppy after that because we were happy to play in front of the Faroes which suited them, but we sorted one or two things out at half-time and they carried it out to the letter of the law.

"I asked them to be ruthless and they did that."

Faroe Islands manager Kerr was not surprised by McCourt's display, having followed his career from its earliest days.

The former Republic of Ireland boss said: "I've known Paddy going back a long time. I saw him as a young player at Rochdale when I was managing the Republic and going to games in the lower divisions.

"He showed a lot of promise and then at Derry City he had some outstanding times. Tonight was a good night for him, we couldn't cope with his skill and technique and it was a brilliant fourth goal."