Saints midfielder and Northern Ireland captain Steven Davis hopes his side can inject some momentum into their World Cup qualifying campaign against Luxembourg.

Tonight's night's fixture represents the most winnable of their first three matches in Group F, coming either side of Friday's 2-0 defeat in Russia and another tricky away day in Portugal next month.

As such the pressure is on for victory at Windsor Park and Davis is optimistic.

"Tonight represents an opportunity to get three points and the boys are looking forward to it," he said.

"We're just looking forward to the game and hopefully we get a positive result and kickstart the campaign.

"International football is getting harder and harder, the gaps are closing, but it's one we're looking to get three points from.

"Home games will have a big say in how the campaign goes for us.

"We're hoping we can have a lot of possession and then it's what we can do with it to create chances. It's up to us to dictate the tempo of the play."

Davis is focused exclusively on the match and declined to assess his side's potential finishing position in the table after seeing all six sides in action last week.

"We just take it one step at a time and see where that takes us," he said.

"We're not looking too far ahead, but we know how difficult a task it would be for us to gain qualification and gain the consistency we would need."