Michael O’Neill may keep telling Jamie Donley not to worry too much about his scoring record but the Luton forward is determined to get amongst the goals for Northern Ireland.

Donley has emerged as O’Neill’s first choice to play in a lone striker role lately, starting Northern Ireland’s last nine games.

That is despite the fact that he plays in a more withdrawn role under Jack Wilshere at Luton, where he is on loan from Tottenham, and has said he considers his natural position to be at number 10.

In that run of nine starts, Donley has scored once – a close-range finish in the 1-1 friendly draw with Wales in March.

placeholder image — Northern Ireland's Jamie Donley in action against Georgia. (Photo by Liam McBurney/PA Wire)

O’Neill has instead emphasised Donley’s importance in linking up play but the 21-year-old – who has two goals in 13 international appearances – feels he should be doing more as a striker.

“I’d say it’s a bit of personal pride,” Donley said. “I’m at Luton now and I look to the striker to score the goals, not all the goals, but to be the one to lead the line and I guess that’s my job as a striker, to put the ball in the back of the net.

“I think Michael gives me that trust. I know he doesn’t necessarily put a lot of pressure on me to score. That gives me a lot of confidence to play my own game.

“I’m not going to go into these games telling myself that I have to score but obviously if I get the chance I’ll take it.”

Northern Ireland enjoyed an outstanding run in the last international window, unbeaten across their four matches to top Nations League Group B2 going into their final two fixtures – at home to Ukraine on Saturday before facing Hungary in Budapest on Tuesday.

But despite Northern Ireland’s strong results, Donley left Belfast disappointed in himself after failing to score and looking for ways to do something about it.

“There’s a load of different things (I can improve on),” he said. “My movement in the box, knowing each other’s roles, how we cross the ball, how we try to get more numbers in the box so it creates more space for me, maybe takes a defender away from me.

“Obviously if I’m the highest player I’m always going to have one or two defenders on me. Maybe it’s not about working on my instincts or finishing ability, it’s about trying to make sure I’m in the right spaces.”

Donley took those ideas back to Luton after the last window and scored in his very next match, a 4-1 win over Wycombe, before bagging two more in a 3-1 victory over Doncaster at the end of last month.

“The first game back was against Wycombe and when I scored, Michael O’Neill texted me, and I texted back and said ‘I can score!’” Donley said.

“I got two against Doncaster, two good finishes as well, so I’ve got self-confidence in front of goal and hopefully I can show it on the international stage.”