OLIVER Norwood has called on his Reading FC teammates to follow the example of Northern Ireland and become more resilient.

The midfield lynchpin played the full 90 minutes as his country extended their unbeaten run to 10 matches during Monday’s 1-0 victory against Slovenia, having also completed all of their 1-1 draw in Wales four days previously.

And Norwood (pictured) believes the tenacity of their performances is something Royals can aspire to.

He confessed: “At Reading we’ve lost a lot of games on moments where we’ve been on top. Teams have broken on us and scored and it takes the wind out of your sails when that happens.

“It’s happened on quite a few occasions where we’ve conceded goals at bad times but we’ve got to look to be more resilient and more horrible really, not as nice to play against at times.”

With Royals winless in their past five matches, Norwood admitted there is a different atmosphere when he is on international duty.

He revealed: “There’s a difference because when you’re winning games it’s a lot more enjoyable. There’s a bit of a different atmosphere being away with the international team to the club stuff because we’re not together that much so we make the most of it.

“Here we just need to win games and get a feel-good factor around the club. It’s not that long ago we went six games unbeaten and everything was bright and everyone was enjoying it.

“Now we haven’t won for a few games and it seems doom and gloom but you’ve got to find a balance. The training ground has been great, the atmosphere’s been good. The work’s been good, the training’s been really good, we just need to find a way to transfer to the pitch and start winning games.”

Norwood admitted despite Reading’s campaign has been unacceptable, despite their run to the quarter finals of the FA Cup.

He said: “It’s been a disappointing season. We said last year it wasn’t acceptable to finish 18th and we’ve got to look to finish stronger this year. It’s not been good enough. We know that, and we’re looking to address that.

“It’s been a frustrating season. We should have picked up more points than we have done.

“But there’s still 27 points to play for and we’ve got to aim to take them all. There’s a lot of football to be played. We want to finish as strong as we can and get as far up the table as we can.

“Going into the summer we’ll look to start strong and see what happens next year.”

Before next season, Norwood – who has 29 caps for Northern Ireland – will have the small matter of a first major tournament in 30 years for his country when they head to Euro 2016 in France.

They have been drawn in a tough group alongside world champions Germany, Ukraine and Poland, but the Burnley-born star believes they can upset the odds.

He stated: “We’ve got to try and get out the group and we go into the tournament believing we can do that.

"To go 10 games unbeaten and six of those being qualifiers is a very good thing and something that we’re all extremely proud of.

“There’s no point us going if we just think we’re going for a holiday. We’re going there to put a marker down.”