SUNDERLAND defender Trai Hume is determined to put the pain of defeat to good use after being part of a Northern Ireland side that suffered a fifth straight loss on Sunday.

A 1-0 defeat to Kazakhstan in Astana was the fourth time in the last five Northern Ireland have failed to score, with the losing run having ended any hope of reaching Euro 2024 even with four qualifiers still left to play.

Northern Ireland have been robbed of key players through injury throughout the campaign, thrusting young players like Hume into roles earlier than might have been planned.

O’Neill called it a “painful” process but it is one Sunderland defender Hume hopes will pay off in the end.

“It’s good getting the experience,” he said. “Even the losses, it will be good going into the future because I don’t like losing.

“It’s tough to take, especially when it’s in tight games, so hopefully we can keep improving.”

Sunday’s loss was yet another match where Northern Ireland had more of the ball and more shots at goal, but lacked the clinical finishing needed as Maksim Samorodov’s 27th-minute goal won it.

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Hume was named Northern Ireland’s man of the match after a strong performance in Astana, defending robustly and also offering a threat going forward down the left.

“I thought I did okay myself but obviously we didn’t win the game, so we need to improve,” said the Black Cats full-back. “I thought we had a lot of the ball, especially in the first half.

“I thought we controlled the game to our tempo and we seem to just keep on getting punished in the key moments of the game and we can’t seem to punish them. It’s very disappointing.

“I thought they might have only had two or three shots in the game, and they’ve scored one of them. It’s a good strike from their lad but maybe we can do better with it. The chances we seem to be getting, we just can’t seem to take at key moments.”

After Ciaron Brown and Craig Cathcart were both ruled out with injuries suffered in Thursday’s 4-2 loss to Slovenia, there was at least some good news with the return of Dan Ballard following an ankle injury.

Still only 23, it was already a 19th cap for the Sunderland defender.

“I think we are learning with every game,” said Ballard. “You can see some of the players starting to shine and we’ve got to find the positives at this minute, because results haven’t been going our way.

“Hopefully we are building something for the future and the results will start turning.

“I’m happy with my performances at club level, I’m working extremely hard, and the reward to that is getting more minutes, more game time away with Northern Ireland.

“I feel confident going on the pitch, I feel like one of the leaders and I want to do everything I can to help this team.”