SLUGGISH starts affect managers as well as matches. Northern Ireland's Shane Ferguson sees hopeful signs, though, that boss Ian Baraclough will follow the lead of his predecessor Michael O'Neill and improve after disappointing early days.
O'Neill took until his 10th game in charge to win, a World Cup qualifier at home, to Russia. Baraclough reached double figures without a victory inside 90 minutes in Sunday's friendly defeat by the USA.
However, Ferguson felt uplifted by the second half of the previous outing, 2-0 defeat in Italy in the qualifying campaign opener:
"Yeah, we were saying after the game in Italy, there were a lot of positives to take from the second half performance.
"The manager said after the game we just have to believe in ourselves a bit more and that we can stand up to these bigger nations.
"We had great chances and with Michael at the start we weren't getting the results but the performances were getting better. Sometimes a bit of luck might not be going your way."
Ferguson accepts that Northern Ireland have contributed to their own downfall too, however, by often falling behind and then having to battle back:
"We've looked back on the games and the mistakes we have made. We just have to try our best not to do that in matches because if you go 1-0 or 2-0 down, it does take a lot out of you and you're chasing the game. We are trying to work on that and improve on it."
Once NI did click under O'Neill they were very good at getting the better of teams ranked around or below them, but Ferguson is wary of expecting that to happen against Bulgaria:
"You don't go into games thinking you're just going to roll a team over. It never works out that way, but we have to have confidence to go and do it.
"It's a massive game and winning this game would be great for us and give us a lot of confidence heading into the next qualifiers in September."
Yet if there's no complacency, nor is their nervousness about the winless run and struggle to score, the 29-year-old insists:
"No, we just have to keep creating chances and hopefully when we get those moments and chances we take them. You might not get many in a game, so you've got to make sure we're clinical when we do."
Although he remains a fringe player, he's determined to give himself the best chance of featuring in Baraclough's 3-5-2 system, which suits his style of play.
Having only made two league starts for Millwall this season, he knows he may have to move in the summer: "It's been a tough season and I haven't played as much as I would have wanted.
"Obviously that's going to affect your international career, so you've got to be playing as much as you can. "I just have to think about those things when it comes to the summer.
"I'm out of contract in the summer, I haven't spoken with Millwall or anything so I just have to see how things are in the next few weeks and go from there...
"It's obviously a big thing because you don't want to be training Monday to Friday and not playing on a Saturday, so it's obviously a big decision I'll have to make."
