When Switzerland equalised in the 11th minute of their eventual 2-1 win over Slovakia on Saturday, there was just one team left in the 2026-27 Uefa Nations League yet to concede a goal – Northern Ireland.

Michael O’Neill’s side have kept three consecutive clean sheets upon their return to the second tier of the competition, beating Georgia and Ukraine to nil with a scoreless stalemate against Hungary in between during this window.

Indeed, across this campaign and the 2024-25 edition when Northern Ireland played in League C, they have kept seven clean sheets in their past nine Nations League games, conceding just three goals in the process.

Should they manage to keep Georgia out again in Belfast on Monday night, it will be the side’s longest run of clean sheets in nine years.

They did live somewhat dangerously in the reverse fixture in Tbilisi, with goalkeeper Pierce Charles saving a penalty from Paris St-Germain forward Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in a player of the match performance.

Despite the absence of Daniel Ballard and Conor Bradley through injury, the Queens Park Rangers loanee has had precious little to do in the two games since, however.

Hungary had their only shot on target in injury time at Windsor Park last week, while the side’s record goalscorer David Healy described the stopper’s two saves in the 3-0 victory against Ukraine as “ones for the camera”.

“I think the clean sheets are a real plus for us and we want to maintain that because history tells us that Northern Ireland are never the highest scoring team,” said O’Neill.

“If you look at the xG [Expected Goals] in the games, people have different opinions on that, but the xG for the opposition has been low and that means we’ve got a good defensive structure.

“It means our young defenders are coping with the game at this level, but it also means that we defend well as a team and the best teams do that.”

With Jos Buttler and Adil Rashid injured, Joe Root was the only player in England’s XI for the third ODI against Sri Lanka with more than 50 caps.

England, who have struggled recently in 50-over cricket but have won three series in a row this year, have a minimum of 20 official ODIs before next year’s World Cup in southern Africa.

“Aside from Jos, Joe and Adil Rashid, there’s not a lot of experience in that side,” McCullum said.

“We’re going to try and put on a smattering of warm-up games to try and get guys up to speed as quickly as we can.”

England are also due to play warm-ups before their Test tours of South Africa and Bangladesh this winter, and before the one-off 150th anniversary Test against Australia in Melbourne in March.

Those fixtures were in place before McCullum was replaced by Stephen Fleming as Test coach this summer.

Since the Ashes, the ECB and Cricket Australia have held discussions about a reciprocal arrangement that would mean touring teams are provided with better preparation before Ashes series.

England lost the first Ashes Test in Perth inside two days last year and were well beaten in the next two Tests to concede the series at the earliest opportunity.

England play three ODIs and five T20s in Australia this winter from 13 November to 2 December.

They also play a 50-over tri-series in Pakistan against the hosts and Sri Lanka later this month.