MICHAEL Duff is heaping the pressure on England ahead of tonight's World Cup qualifier at Windsor Park.

The Burnley defender has seen confidence coursing through the Northern Ireland squad after they beat Azerbaijan 2-0 on Saturday to record their first win in group Six.

But with the Irish well out of the qualifying picture, they will be treating the England visit as a one-off cup tie in the hope of pulling off a famous shook.

Duff said: "There was more pressure on us with the game on Saturday than there is tonight.

"Azerbaijan are one of the teams we have to beat because they are one of the teams around us.

"We want to finish as high as we can in the group and pick up ranking points so it was a pressure game and we weren't expected to win.

"But England are seventh in the world and are nowhere near us in the table so it's like an FA Cup game for us - and silly things can happen in cup ties.

"We know we have to play out of our skins. All the players in our squad play in England but we only have five from the Premier League so it really is David v Goliath..

"But gone are the days of easy games in international football. France beat the Faroe Islands 3-0, when a few years ago that would have been nine or 10.

"So we have to approach it like that. We've got nothing to lose."

It's almost nine years since Northern Ireland last fielded the same starting 11 in consecutive games but manager Lawrie Sanchez is set to do that tonight.

That means there will be no place for Duff, who didn't make the bench on Saturday.

But the 27-year-old isn't worrying about not being able to add to his four caps, as he's delighted just to be in the set-up.

"It's been enjoyable just to be involved in such a big game," Duff said. "When you have 15 different sets of TV cameras just watching you training you get an idea of how big the game is.

"Windsor Park will only hold about 14,000 but you could have sold 100,000 tickets for this one.

"With regards to myself, I'd like to get on the bench and play but the lads did well on Saturday.

"All I can do is keep playing well and if things happen, they happen. But it's not something I'm going to kick and scream about, I was a late call-up anyway so I'm just happy to be here."