National coach Horst Heese has had to struggle to select his starting line-up for today’s friendly against Northern Ireland at Ta’ Qali (kick-off 8pm).

He has already had to do without Michael Mifsud, Etienne Barbara and Jonathan Bondin. On Monday, Adrian Pulis was another player who was forced to withdraw because of injury.

Apart from the above injured players, Heese is still insisting on not including such established players as Jeffrey Chetcuti and Stefan Giglio of Sliema.

This left the German coach with a certain amount of limitations and yesterday, the coach was concerned that he was again not in a position to field his best formation.

Moreover, he again complained that due to the early start of the BOV Premier League and the European club competitions, he could not analyse his players properly.

Anyway, Heese announced that Orosco Anonam of Sliema will be making his debut for Malta after he became eligible to play for Malta earlier this year. He will be playing on the left flank of midfield.

In that sector, there will also be Ivan Woods on the right flank and Gilbert Agius, Roderick Briffa and Claude Mattocks in the centre of the field.

Heese does not have much options up front as it seems obvious that Andrew Cohen is the only strker available.

At the back, after the withdrawal of Pulis, Heese will play with Peter Pullicino, Brian Said, Luke Dimech and Steve Wellman.

And in goal, it will be Justin Haber, now plying his trade in France, who will take his place back between the sticks.

Today’s match is expected to be a difficult encounter, as international matches are normally for a small country such as Malta.

Heese, however, is expected to adopt an attacking plan in an effort to try and register a win. He said yesterday he reckons the Irish to be in the same class as Iceland, but admitted that to emerge triumphant his boys had to adopt a passionate and aggressive approach, even if this was a friendly match.

Malta has met Northern Ireland five times since the first match in May of 1988. That was a World Cup qualifier in Belfast which the Irish won 3-1. A year later, the Irish beat Malta 2-0 at Ta’ Qali in the return match.

Malta met N. Ireland twice in 2000. In a March friendly at Ta’ Qali, the Irish ran out easy 3-0 winners, but in September, in a World Cup qualifier in Belfast, the Irish had to struggle to win 1-0, and they also had to fight hard to win again 1-0 in the return in Malta in October 2001.

Line-ups

Malta: J. Haber; P. Pullicino, B. Said, L. Dimech, S. Wellamn; G. Agius, R. Briffa, C. Mattocks, O. Anonam, I. Woods; A. Cohen.

N. Ireland (probable): Taylor (Birmingham), Gillespie (Sheff Utd), Craigan (Motherwell), Murdock (Rotherham), Hughes (Aston Villa), Johnson (Birmingham), Davis (Aston Villa), Whitley (Cardiff), Elliott (Hull), Healy (Leeds), Quinn (Peterborough).

Michael Riley of the English FA will control the match.