Keith Gillespie scored an own goal to condemn his team to its second loss in four days as Northern Ireland lost to Iceland in their Euro 2008 qualifying match on Wednesday.

Iceland had taken an early lead through Armann Smari Bjornsson in the 6th minute but Northern Ireland struck back late in the second half when David Healy scored by the spot kick. But Gillespie's own goal a minute into injury time meant that N Ireland lost more ground to Spain near the top of the table.

Having lost to Latvia on the weekend, N Ireland started the game strongly as Iceland keeper Árni Arason was called into action in the first minute to deny Warren Feeney's drive. However the hosts settled down and took the lead 5 minutes later Björnsson was the first to reach Gunnar Heidar Thorvaldsson's cross and drove the ball past Maik Taylor.

Stung by the goal, N Ireland tried to get back in the game as Gary Clinghan and Jonny Evans both fired wide of the target while Arason made a great save to deny Chris Brunt from a free kick. N Ireland continued to press forward in the second half and were nearly rewarded with an equalizer in the 51st minute when Brunt saw his shot smash against the post.

The visitors were given a break in the 71st minute when Healy was brought down in the area by Ragnar Sigurdsson and the Fulham striker made no mistake from the penalty spot to score his 12 goal for his country. Just when it looked like both the teams would have to share the points, disaster struck for Gillespie and N Ireland.

Gretar Steinsson tried to play in Eidur Gudjohnsen but Gillespie reached the ball first. However the Barcelona striker did not give up and tried to close down Gillespie and under pressure from Gudjohnsen, the Sheffield United winger turned the ball into his own net.

N Ireland will be looking to get their campaign back on track when they play Sweden on October 13 while Iceland play Liechtenstein.