Bailey Peacock-Farrell has warned Northern Ireland they can’t afford to be playing catch-up in a Euro 2020 group alongside big-hitters Germany and Holland.
Michael O’Neill’s men are planning to build on March’s home wins over Estonia and Belarus when they face the same opposition in Tallinn and Borosov in the next five days.
But fail and Peacock-Farrell fears the Green and White Army will be scavenging for favours in the second half of the campaign.
The Leeds keeper said: “We really need to take maximum points, otherwise it’ll come down to helping hands from other teams and ideally we’d want to have things in our control.
“Obviously, we started off really well and got the two wins which is what we needed. But we’ve got really hard games to come in September, October and November against really tough opposition and we need to go into those games in the best possible position.”
Despite warming the bench for Leeds in the second half of last season - 28 of his 29 games came before February - Peacock-Farrell, 22, is likely to start in stifling hot Estonia tomorrow ahead of Michael McGovern.
The Doncaster-born ace, who made his debut in Panama last summer, admitted: “Looking at the forecast it’s looking like mid to high 20s. It kind of zaps your energy and it’s quite intense on the body and mind. But I’ve played in heat like this before in Panama so it’s not too new.”
Keep up-to-date with all the very latest news, what's on, sport and everything else in Belfast and beyond with the Belfast Live app.
Only select news that interests you by picking the topics you want to display on the app's homepage. Plus, our enhanced user experience includes live blogs, video, interactive maps and slick picture galleries. Download it now and get involved.
Click here to get it from the App Store or here for Google Play .
