Jonny Evans backs Northern Ireland boss Ian Baraclough

Jonny Evans insists Ian Baraclough still has the backing of the Northern Ireland dressing room as attention turns to next year's Euro 2024 qualifying campaign after a dismal Nations League run.

Tuesday’s 3-1 defeat to Greece will have implications next year; although Northern Ireland avoided the threat of relegation, with only one win in six they will still drop down the rankings and face the prospect of a more daunting qualifying draw.

After the match in Athens, Baraclough heard boos when he went to applaud the travelling fans, with isolated chants of 'We want Bara out', but although the match was far from how Evans wanted to mark his 100th cap he believes the team are still moving in the right direction.

"Definitely," the Leicester defender said when asked if the players support the manager. "I think he is progressing every time, I think you could see how we defended.

"We wanted to try and hit them on the counter-attack away from home and it was working well apart from two mistakes that led to their first two goals.

"I think it has been a difficult six games.

"We have spoken before about the players who were missing for the summer games and I think these games, it was a great evening against Kosovo to win (2-1 in Belfast on Saturday), with everyone back in the squad I think you could see a difference."

Evans has seen plenty of highs and lows since making his debut 16 years ago, and said Baraclough had steered Northern Ireland through a difficult rebuilding phase.

"We have had a big turnaround in players," he said. "The summer month was difficult, losing key players at that time, having Stuart Dallas out of the squad.

"You can see Ian is bringing in a lot of young players, putting his trust in them a lot. We have got a lot of