Northern Ireland boss Michael O'Neill wants improvement in the final third

Michael O'Neill wants to see his Northern Ireland side take another step forward in their attacking play when they face Belarus on Friday.

There was a party atmosphere at Windsor Park last month as Isaac Price bagged a hat-trick and Northern Ireland ran riot in a 5-0 win over Bulgaria that sent them to the top of their Nations League group with two games left.

But, though encouraging, O'Neill recognises that was very much the exception for a side who had scored nine goals in their previous 10 games, including a frustrating 0-0 draw with Belarus in Hungary last month.

Northern Ireland dominated the opening 45 minutes of that game, hitting a post and having two goals ruled out, but, having failed to score, they struggled to break down a more stubborn Belarus in the second half.

"I still think the biggest area of the pitch we need to improve is in the final third," O'Neill told reporters.

"We demonstrated against Bulgaria what we are capable of, but you face different challenges in international football and prior to that we struggled to break down Belarus in the second half in Hungary and we might face that from the start of the game in Belfast.

"Those are all areas where I'd like to see the team improve. A lot of that is down to individual players - you look at the best teams and the attacking players they have that can make the difference at international level. We have to do it more as a collective.

"I've been pleased with Dion (Charles') performances and Jamie Reid's performances, because it's a big step from League One to come into international football and they've handled it well, but we have to continue to improve.

"We've got a number of younger players in those positions - Callum Marshall, Ross McCausland, Isaac Price -