Gavin Whyte insists Northern Ireland will travel to Kosovo still full of confidence despite their latest Nations League setback against Cyprus on Sunday.
A goalless draw in Larnaca, three days after a 1-0 home defeat to Greece, fell well short of expectations for a side who were the top seeds going into League C Group 2.
But after two games they are five points off pool leaders Greece and staring a dismal record of no wins from 12 outings across three editions of the competition dating back to 2018.
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Manager Ian Baraclough has put Northern Ireland’s disjointed displays down to the need to integrate a raft of new players into the squad due to a lengthy absentee list, but admitted there were no easy fixes.
Even so, Whyte is confident Northern Ireland can turn things around in Pristina on Thursday night.
“I think we are going through one of those patches,” said the 26-year-old.
“We know what we need to do and we have to keep working hard and I do think results will come.
“It is not the start to the Nations League that we were looking for but we have to go into the match with Kosovo full of confidence. We know what we can do and we need to focus on ourselves. We need to get a win.”
Northern Ireland were feeling the heat in more ways than one in Larnaca, where temperatures were just shy of 30 degrees come kick off at 7pm local time.
And Whyte, who spent last season on loan at Oxford from Cardiff, said the players struggled with the conditions.
“It was really humid and it was tough to get a breath in the first half hour,” he said.
“The boys were blowing. We are not used to this sort of weather and knew it was going to be hard but it’s the same for their team as well and we had to get on with it and I felt we could have done better.
“It was one of those nights when we weren’t at the races but we have to lift our heads and go again.”
Second-half substitute Liam Donnelly agreed that conditions had been difficult, but offered an honest view that Northern Ireland had underperformed.
“A lot of parts from us weren’t good enough,” said the midfielder, who is leaving Motherwell this summer.
“Conditions were a bit difficult with the heat but at the same time there are no excuses. From us it just wasn’t good enough.
“We look at all the games to try and get a victory and especially coming off the previous game we were looking at winning this match and getting three points.”
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