It’s noise in the background – Ian Baraclough not interested in critics

Ian Baraclough insisted he was paying no attention to his critics as Northern Ireland’s long-running struggles in the Nations League come under increasing scrutiny.

Having suffered relegation to League C, Northern Ireland started this campaign as top seeds in Group 2 but they still cannot buy a win, with a defeat and a draw so far making it 12 games without victory in the competition.

From the heat of Cyprus where Sunday’s goalless draw brought boos from travelling fans, Northern Ireland have moved to Kosovo where storm clouds are gathering – with one downpour drenching the players as they trained on Wednesday night.

They will go into Thursday’s match in Pristina with a number of fans questioning Baraclough as frustration from Sunday’s drab goalless draw in Larnaca remains fresh.

“I’m not on social media, I don’t read the papers,” Baraclough said. “I concentrate on what I can do to improve things.

“If I was more focused on what was being said about me, I don’t think I’d be doing my job properly. For me, it’s noise in the background.”

Baraclough, approaching two years in the job, still has only three competitive wins from 18 matches, but insisted he remains the right man for the job.

“I’ve got confidence we are on the right track,” the 51-year-old said.

“I knew taking the job it wouldn’t all be plain sailing and I’m confident that we can go through and build from this Nations League and put together a really good series of games in the Euros – that’s the end goal we’re looking at, to qualify for the Euros.

“It’s not where we are now, let’s look at where we are at the end of the Euros.

“We’re not going to go off track, rip up the paper and start again. We’re going through a tough time at the moment but confidence is there