Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill admitted his side were not good enough in the final third during their goalless draw against Malta and, had it not been for stand-in keeper Alan Mannus, who made two fine saves from former Coventry striker Michael Mifsud, they may well have lost.

“You want to win games, simple as that,” said O’Neill. “We’ve had eight games, we’ve had five draws and three defeats. We’ve had some very difficult games in there.

“Of course it’s a concern but at the end of the day the only people who can change that are myself and the players and I’m aware of that.”

O’Neill had hoped to secure his first win at the eighth time of asking but the visitors could not find a breakthrough, with Danny Lafferty seeing a first-half header ruled out for a foul in the penalty area.

O’Neill’s record currently reads five draws and three defeats from eight games, with the last four matches being draws against Luxembourg, Portugal, Azerbaijan and now Malta.

The Northern Ireland manager selected his team with next month’s qualifier against Russia in mind, when Kyle Lafferty and Chris Baird are suspended.

Both were left at home and O’Neill gave Alex Bruce a debut in the holding role in midfield, with Walsall’s Will Grigg winning his second cap as a lone striker.

Winger Niall McGinn hopes the goalless draw in Malta has pointed the side in the right direction for next month’s game in Belfast.

McGinn said: “The biggest positive here is if Michael has found a system that will work against Russia, just because he has had that many young and new players available.

“Things have been going on behind the scenes, everyone has been working hard to try and get progress.

“And against Azerbaijan and Portugal the defence has been very good. We are bonding well as a team, we need to keep building on clean sheets if possible and build on that with some wins.”