Trai Hume believes in Northern Ireland's Euro 2024 dream ahead of double header against Slovenia and Kazakhstan

Michael O'Neill's men have travelled to Ljubljana to face Slovenia on Thursday in the first of an away doubleheader still with only three points from their opening four qualifiers in Group H, with those earned away to minnows San Marino in their opening fixture.

Since then Northern Ireland have suffered three consecutive 1-0 defeats, losing at home to Finland and Sunday's opponents Kazakhstan either side of a narrow loss to Denmark in Copenhagen.

But with strikers Josh Magennis and Conor Washington back from injury - even as Shayne Lavery and Dale Taylor have joined the likes of Stuart Dallas, Steven Davies and Corry Evans on the sidelines - Hume believes Northern Ireland can add some firepower to a robust defence.

"We had a meeting yesterday where we talked about us and Finland having conceded the fewest goals in the group," Hume said.

"Defensively we've been alright, it's in the attacking sense we haven't done our best, maybe we've not taken our chance or in the build-up created enough chances for the strikers.

"Obviously we can improve in both areas but if we get more goals, we can get more wins."

Finland and Kazakhstan both have nine points from their opening four fixtures, with Denmark and Slovenia on seven.

Hume feels nobody is out of reach at the mid-point of the campaign.

"The mood is still very high," he said.

"Results haven't gone our way but we still feel as a team we can get something out of the group because it's wide open. There's no one really ahead, it's all very even.

"We feel if we got two results here, two wins puts us right back where we want to be."

Hume started both of Northern Ireland's qualifiers in June and looks certain to be selected again with his main rival on the right side of defence, Conor Bradley, part of that lengthy injury list.

Although his season started with a red card in Sunderland’s loss to Ipswich, Hume has become a key figure at the Stadium of Light despite still only being 21, and he wants to carry that into his international career.

“We have a young group at Sunderland, I feel like playing a lot last season, I have a lot of experience within the group and as I keep playing, I gain more experience.

“At the start of the season, the first two games we lost both and I got sent off in the first one which wasn’t ideal but we’ve brought ourselves back, got ourselves higher up the table and hopefully it’s a sign of things to come.

“Whenever we first got promoted from League One to the Championship, I didn’t know if I was going to be ready to play or not.

“Around Christmas time I got put in, started playing games and I felt good so I’ve tried to establish myself at that level and it’s been good.”