Nations League: Northern Ireland must find new ways to score, says former midfielder Chris Brunt

Josh Magennis scored his eighth international goal during Sunday's defeat by Austria

Former midfielder Chris Brunt says Northern Ireland must find ways to score despite the absence of a regular goalscorer in their squad.

Post-Euro 2016, Northern Ireland have struggled to find a regular source of goals, with no striker laying claim to the starting position up front.

Ian Baraclough's side have scored just three times in the current Nations League campaign, with Josh Magennis netting his eighth goal for his country in Sunday's defeat by Austria.

Bristol City's Brunt, who retired from international football in 2018 having won 65 international caps, says the team must find ways in which to pose a threat in front of goal.

"That's always been a difficult one for us as a country, as far as I can remember you can only really look at David Healy that's been a regular goalscorer," Brunt told Sportsound Extra Time.

"Obviously Kyle Lafferty had that spell in the qualifying for Euro 2016 when everything he hit went into the net.

"You've got to find other ways of winning the game. Everybody keeps going back to when Michael (O'Neill) was manager but we were pretty effective from set plays and we managed to get quite a lot of goals from stuff like that.

"I think that's just what you've got to do, you've got to find a way of winning it's just at the minute it's proving quite difficult."

Brunt made 65 appearance for Northern Ireland between 2004 and 2018

Brunt hung up his international boots at 33, citing a desire to spend more time with his children as one of the main driving forces behind the decision.

Having failed to qualify for next year's European Championships some have questioned whether captain Steven Davis, 35, is considering a decision on his international future.

"With Davo he's got the opportunity to rack up a few more caps as well, I know he's set all sorts of records but I suppose he'll want to go out on a high if he does choose to do that," said Brunt.

"He might be playing until his legs tell him he can't anymore, some people are like that.

"You just don't know what his decision's going to be but I suppose in the back of his mind that will be something."