After seeing unfancied Luxembourg snatch an unlikely 1-1 draw at Windsor Park last night, Michael O'Neill admits he is worried Northern Ireland have forgotten how to win.
Nigel Worthington lost his last four games in charge of the national side and since O'Neill's appointment there have been three defeats and two draws.
Now, having seen his team somehow fail to take maximum points from a match where they had the overwhelming majority of meaningful chances, O'Neill is concerned that the lack of victories is becoming self-perpetuating.
"There may be an issue there or an element of that," he conceded after Dean Shiels' maiden international goal was cancelled out with just four minutes left by a heavily-deflected Daniel Da Mota effort.
"There was a bit of anxiety in our play, certainly in the second half, and that comes from results.
"We probably we let anxiety creep into our play too easily and our performance suffered as a result.
"We saw players do things that we wouldn't expect. The only way to change it is to win games and get results and that's going to take a bit of time.
"We were in a very strong position in the last friendly game against Finland too and we went from a 2-0 lead to a 3-2 deficit before we got the draw.
"This was a similar sort of feeling, although magnified because it's a competitive game."
O'Neill was particularly disappointed by his side's showing after half-time.
Although slightly wasteful, they were in obvious control in the first 45 minutes - a dominance that was visibly eroded as the game progressed, culminating in the fortunate leveller.
"The players know themselves they let their standards drop in the second half. It's pretty evident in the dressing room afterwards that they know that," he said.
"I'm extremely disappointed, it's a game we clearly should have won.
"We had numerous chances in the first half to add to the one goal we had and we played poorly in the second half, although we did have chances to add to the score.
"I don't think we deserved that on the night, even though the second half performance was way below the standard we'd expect.
"The biggest difference was we didn't pass the ball as well.
"Subsequently, we got a very disjointed performance and gave the ball away too easily, which gave them a bit of hope.
"While you couldn't see it coming as such, at the back of your mind you are thinking 'We're going to get caught with something here'."
Luxembourg manager Luc Holtz was understandably in significantly higher spirits.
"You have to look at the clubs where the Northern Irish players play and where the Luxembourg players play ... it is a big difference," he said.
"In my opinion this is a big result for our team. This is a good result for us and when we play at home we are stronger than when we are away."
