NI need to ‘back up’ last performance – Hume

Sunderland defender Trai Hume says Northern Ireland need to “back up” their last Nations League performance and try to win their group as they prepare to face Belarus on Friday.

Michael O’Neill’s side beat Bulgaria 5-0 in their last match and now sit top of League C Group 3 going into their final two group games.

“It was a great result. The fans enjoyed it and we enjoyed it,” Hume told BBC Sport NI.

“It’s hard to win games like that and it’ll be hard to back it up but the most important thing is to try and get the three points.”

After Belarus visit Windsor Park on Friday night, Northern Ireland complete their campaign against Luxembourg away on Monday.

O’Neill’s side have established a good run of results at home, having won their past four matches in Belfast – a run that Hume is keen to extend.

“Nearly every time we play at Windsor Park, we get a result or put in a good performance so we just need to keep that up,” he said.

“The fans are brilliant as always so they just need to keep on pushing us and hopefully we can keep winning for them.”

Victory will bring more than just home pride for Northern Ireland.

Securing top spot in their Nations League group could open up a back-door route to the 2026 World Cup finals through the play-offs.

“We need to try and back up [our last performances] as best we can going into these next two games and try and win the group,” Hume added.

“The Euro campaign didn’t go the way we probably wanted it to go with a lot of performances and a lot of results, so building off the back of that I think we’ve done really well the past 18 months.

“It’s a young group and we just need to keep on getting better.”