Trai Hume impressed during Sunday's game in Astana
Trai Hume believes Northern Ireland’s young players will only emerge stronger from the adversity of a troubled Euro 2024 qualifying campaign.
The 21-year-old is one of several emerging talents in Michael O’Neill’s squad.
In only his sixth appearance for the national side in Kazakhstan on Sunday, the defender gave an assured performance.
After another single-goal defeat — the fourth in five qualifiers — Hume admits too many big moments are going against Northern Ireland.
That was evident at both ends of the pitch in Astana, with Maxim Samorodov scoring from the Kazakhs’ first shot on target, then Conor McMenamin missed a big chance to level before the interval, with Samorodov making a valiant last-ditch block.
Hume felt there wasn’t much in the game.
“I thought we had a lot of the ball, especially in the first-half,” he said.
“During the game, I thought we controlled the game to our tempo but we seem to just keep on getting punished in the key moments of the game and we can’t seem to punish them. It’s very disappointing.
“I thought they might have only had two or three shots in the game, and they’ve scored from one of them.
“It’s a good strike from their lad but maybe we can do better with it. Then the chances we seem to be getting, we just can’t seem to take at key moments.”
Hume was named the Northern Ireland fans’ player of the match in Kazakhstan, with supporters recognising his reading of the game to sense danger and make a series of key interventions.
It has been a fast rise for the full-back over the last 18 months.
Hume joined Sunderland from Linfield at the start of last year. His first Northern Ireland cap came against Hungary in March 2022.
Already he seems to
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