Conor Bradley: Northern Ireland frustrated ‘because we know how good we can be’

Conor Bradley believes a youthful Northern Ireland side have the potential to be “a really good team”.

The defender, at the age of 21, captained Northern Ireland for the first time in Saturday’s frustrating Nations League goalless draw with Belarus.

After dominating the game, which was played behind closed doors in Hungary due to Uefa restrictions, Northern Ireland failed to find the crucial opener despite creating a number of chances.

The players looked dejected at full-time and Bradley believes that is because “we know how good we are and how good we can be”.

He told BBC Sport NI: “We’re obviously still young and still learning, but there’s definitely potential there.

“If we all just get it clicking together then we can be a really good team. We’re really looking forward to the future but we just need to keep trying to get the wins.”

Liverpool full-back Bradley was delighted with the first-half performance but was left “really disappointed” that Northern Ireland could not claim the three points.

“I thought the performance was really good,” he said.

“It’s one of the best performances we’ve had for a while but the ball wouldn’t go in the back of the net.

“If we got one goal then we could have got three or four. It was just one of those nights.

“At least we didn’t lose the game, I thought we did really well to keep the clean sheet.”