Hume: Northern Ireland Must ‘Back Up’ Previous Performance

Sunderland defender Trai Hume, who has appeared 15 times for the Championship-leading club this season, stated that Northern Ireland must “back up” their last Nations League display and strive to win their group as they prepare to face Belarus on Friday. Michael O’Neill’s squad secured a 5-0 victory against Bulgaria in their most recent match and currently holds the top position in League C Group 3 with two group games remaining. “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.” Following their encounter with Belarus at Windsor Park on Friday night, Northern Ireland will conclude their campaign with an away fixture against Luxembourg on Monday. O’Neill’s team has established a strong record of home results, having won their past four matches in Belfast – a streak Hume is eager to prolong. “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.” A victory would offer Northern Ireland benefits beyond mere home pride. Securing the top position in their Nations League group could provide an alternative pathway to the 2026 World Cup finals via 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.” He concluded, “It’s a young group and we just need to keep on getting better.”