Northern Ireland captain Trai Hume reveals the Premier League fixture he can't wait to play in

Belfast Telegraph

a day ago

In August, the former Linfield ace will feature in the top flight of English football for the first time in his career, and then in September he will be an important figure when Michael O'Neill's side travel to Luxembourg and Germany for their opening group games.
As always, the 23-year-old will be giving everything for club and country.
'I'm really excited by it all,' said the defender.
'I'm probably not looking forward to pre-season as much because it's going to be that wee bit tougher but that's part and parcel of it.
'I'll have to work harder than I have before because I'm stepping up a level and playing in the best league in the world.
'It will be tough but I'm excited. It is a challenge I know me and my team-mates at Sunderland are looking forward to and hopefully we can get going.'
As for the match in the Premier League he is savouring most, Hume replies: 'I'd be lying if I didn't say the derby (against Newcastle). For me, I was a Chelsea fan (growing up) so I'm looking forward to playing them twice, but obviously the main game is the derby.'
Sunderland are going to have to defend exceptionally well in many games in the upcoming campaign just as Northern Ireland did on Tuesday to earn a clean sheet and a 1-0 friendly victory over Iceland at Windsor Park, playing with 10 men from the 57 minute mark when Brodie Spencer was sent off.
It was a result that kept the team's impressive record of late in Belfast intact and was a boost ahead of the World Cup group matches versus Luxembourg and Germany.
'I thought in the end it was a good result and we kept our home record, but in the first half hour we were a bit slow and a bit loose on the ball,' said Hume.
'At the end of the first half we were good pressing them and on top of them, then the red card changed the game in the second half and we had to sit off and defend and I thought we did that excellently.
'It's (the red card) one of those things you can't control but it's good to have that experience as a team. We stuck together and thankfully got the win.'
Expanding on why digging out a positive result on Tuesday with a numerical disadvantage could be beneficial long term, Hume stated: 'It's tough no matter what level playing with 10 men. You have to run that wee bit extra and put in extra hard work.
'As a young group it is good to have that experience because you never know if it will happen when it matters in competitive games. We showed great maturity and great togetherness.
'Down to 10 men you are more compact and more disciplined. You don't want to break your shape because that's when they have more chances because they have more players than us.
'We created a couple of chances when we were down to 10 men and probably could have scored a couple, but they had their fair share of chances too, so it's good to be defensively resilient.'
With Northern Ireland holding on to their slender lead, courtesy of Isaac Price's superb first half strike, there were some flashpoints with the Iceland players.
Captain Hume didn't shy away from getting involved after one of his crunching tackles irked the opposition and then he made his feelings known to the visitors following a cynical foul on Conor Bradley.
'I think it is always going to be that way. We are a group that is together,' said the Sunderland ace.
'We all love coming away together and playing together. When you have those flashpoints where it is a bad tackle we are going to stick by each other no matter what.'
O'Neill's youthful squad will need that attitude when they face Luxembourg and Germany to kick off the 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign.
'They are the games that matter,' says Hume.
'We are starting the campaign off with two away games so it is going to be tough. We want to have a good start and hopefully get a win in the first game.'