AS STRIKERS tend to do, Shayne Lavery accepted the forwards' responsibilities for Northern Ireland's continuing lack of goals, a wrong they aim to right away to Kosovo tomorrow night in Nations League C Group 2.
Sunday evening's goalless draw against Cyprus in Larnaca made it a third consecutive competitive match without Ian Baraclough's men finding the net.
Blackpool forward Lavery came close moments after coming off the bench for the final quarter hour, but he hadn't threatened to find the Windsor Park next when as a starter against Greece several days before.
The 23-year-old pointed to the visitors' plentiful possession in Cyprus - almost 60 per cent - but they still barely troubled the home goalkeeper, with only two shots on target from 13 attempts at goal.
"We were disappointed we did not come away with the win. We just couldn't get that finishing touch," said Lavery.
Moving on to take on another team from outside the top 100 in the Fifa Men's World Rankings, Kosovo, Lavery insists the travelling squad are determined to use the recent disappointments as fuel to fire them to victory:
"We want to use the hurt from not beating Cyprus to get the three points against Kosovo later this week. I think everyone is motivated to do that."
To be fair to the NI forwards, they haven't been spurning many opportunities, with chance creation - or lack of it - an ongoing major problem.
Just two goals have been scored in the last seven competitive matches, and only six in the last 10, taking in the entire World Cup qualifying group and this new Nations League campaign.
Four of those six goals came in one game, one of them Lavery's only senior international strike so far, in a 4-1 win away to Lithuania, who are ranked far lower than Kosovo. Northern Ireland have failed to score in seven of those 10 matches.
On the upside, Lavery was impressed by the performance of senior debutants Conor McMenamin and Brodie Spencer, with the former, the Glentoran forward, looking lively and delivering some dangerous crosses.
Even more impressive was Manchester City youngster Shea Charles, who impressed in a cameo role as a sub in the 1-0 home defeat by Greece, then looked calm and assured in a defensive midfield role in his first senior start in Cyprus.
Lavery feels progress is coming, albeit slowly, as a new-look squad missing quite a few experienced men negotiates this latest Nations League section:
"It takes time to integrate players, however I feel like we are moving forward and we are looking forward to the game against Kosovo.
"We are confident that we are gelling more and more as time goes on and hopefully the wins will come with it. There is loads of young talent coming through."
"Everyone just wants to play Kosovo now after the game against Cyprus so that we can hopefully put things right. We want to get the three points."
To achieve that, Northern Ireland must score their first competitive goal since another victory over lowly Lithuania, last November in Belfast.
However, Kosovo will be a tougher test, having won 2-0 in Cyprus before suffering their first loss under Alain Giresse, 1-0 at home to Greece at the weekend, the French midfield legend having taken on the managerial role in February.
"We have watched clips of Kosovo," said Lavery. "They have some decent players who are good on the ball."
So do NI - sticking that ball in the net is the issue.
