Republic of Ireland midfielder Kevin Kilbane has admitted to a lack of self-belief following a barren 16-month run without a goal.
The last time Kilbane was on the scoresheet was in a 2-0 win over the Faroe Islands in a World Cup qualifying clash in Torshavn in June last year, with just five in 72 Ireland appearances overall.
More remarkably, you have to go back two years for the last time Kilbane found the net in club football, since when he has failed to score in his last 83 games for Everton and now Wigan.
Hard to believe it is the same Kilbane who was knocking in goals for fun at Wigan's St Christopher Park training ground on Friday.
Kilbane was relaxed and at ease then, but appreciating the stakes are raised when he crosses the white line on match days, which is when his belief starts to wane.
'I should score more goals, and I know I have the ability to do so, but it's never really happened for me,' Kilbane told PA Sport.
'I know I should be aiming higher, but when I've gone onto the pitch I've been thinking "is it going to happen?", rather than making it happen.
'That is possibly down to my mental approach. I need to believe I can get more goals.
'(Wigan manager) Paul Jewell has spoken to me about getting into the box more and to start believing I am going to get goals.
'If I can start thinking like that at club level then I can take it through to the international scene.
'If you get one or two then that belief starts to come and you go on a run. That's what I'm hoping for.
'But it's fair to say I've lost some of my belief. It has now been two years since I scored a goal at club level, and that is very disappointing.
'I have to get more goals, plain and simple.'
What Ireland manager Steve Staunton would give for Kilbane to find the net in the forthcoming Euro 2008 qualifiers against Cyprus in Nicosia on Saturday and the Czech Republic at Lansdowne Road next Wednesday.
Staunton's Ireland opened their campaign early last month with a 1-0 defeat to Germany in Stuttgart, a game of limited chances for the boys in green and a lucky deflected winner from Lukas Podolski.
Since then Germany have hammered San Marino 13-0, while the Czechs have also taken maximum points from their games after a 2-1 win over Wales and 3-0 victory in Slovakia.
It means Ireland are already playing catch-up, with the pressure on to take six points over the next few days.
'We have to be aiming for the six,' said Kilbane, who joined Wigan from Everton for £2million on transfer deadline day.
But recalling last October's narrow 1-0 World Cup qualifying win in Cyprus, Kilbane added: 'We had a lot of problems then, and if it had not been for Shay (Given) we wouldn't have won the game.
'But we're more than capable of winning this time. We have to make sure we're prepared right, that everybody's head is right, knowing that it is going to be tough, but we can get the right result.
'As for the Czechs, we know we can beat them at home, so the six points are something we are capable of getting, and we have to hit back.
'With Germany and the Czechs taking six points from their opening two games, we have to try and strike a blow.
'We can't let them get too far ahead of us, especially at this early stage, so we need the six points to get us back in the frame.'
