MIDDLESBROUGH midfielder George Saville is desperate for Northern Ireland to make a rapid return to winning ways when they host Israel in a friendly this evening.

Michael O’Neill’s side suffered a 2-1 home defeat to Bosnia in their opening game of the Nations League on Saturday afternoon, and now face a difficult task to progress from the group stage of the competition.

They will almost certainly have to claim maximum points from next month’s away double-header with Austria and Bosnia to have any chance of making the Nations League play-offs, and Saville is hoping a win tonight will help restore confidence.

“We showed we are a really good side (against Bosnia), but we need to take that quality into the away games and get results,” said Saville, who joined Middlesbrough from Millwall at the end of last month. “We need to pick up wins.

“This (the Nations League) isn’t the be all and end all, we still have the Euro 2020 qualifiers coming, but it would be nice to get a good footing in this Nations League and control the group. That’s why we will look to pick up wins in the away games.

“We want to get a positive result (against Israel) to set us up for the October games. I thought we were brilliant for most of the game against Bosnia, we just got punished for making two mistakes.”

Saville will hope to make his Middlesbrough debut when the Championship campaign resumes this weekend, with Tony Pulis’ side making the long trip to East Anglia to take on Norwich City.

Martin Braithwaite will also hope to be involved at Carrow Road after sitting out the goalless draw at Leeds United that preceded the international break in the wake of his unsuccessful attempt to force through a move to Leganes.

Braithwaite was part of the Denmark team that claimed a 2-0 win over Wales on Sunday night, with the Danish FA having resolved the contractual dispute that resulted in them fielding a shadow side against Slovakia last week. Spurs midfielder Christian Eriksen scored both of Denmark’s goals.

Britt Assombalonga was also in international action on Sunday, coming off the substitutes’ bench as the Democratic Republic of Congo claimed a 1-1 draw with Liberia in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifying game.