Wright’s Under-21s lost 3-0 to England when the sides met at Goodison Park in November and have since lost 3-0 to Czechia in a friendly and defeated Serbia 2-1 away in a Euro qualifier.
“We did really well [against England], it was 40 minutes before they broke us down,” reflected the former St Johnstone manager.
“Since then we’ve put in two good performances, even though we lost to Czechia, and an excellent performance against Serbia.
“That was a game we weren’t expected to win, we lost the friendly game a few days before it, but we changed the system, played a back three, and the players responded really well.”
Wright believes his Northern Ireland side has what it takes to cause their opponents problems in Friday’s meeting even though England have already earned 9-1 and 7-0 wins over Serbia and Luxembourg in Group F.
“We’ve got players who can play and hurt the opposition. We do understand that we are playing against the best team in Europe but we’re going to make sure we go out and give everything we can.
“Ballymena is a slightly smaller pitch, a slightly narrower pitch, so that is one of the reasons why we wanted to go there.”