Bad night for Lafferty and Vokes

Last updated : 11 September 2013 By Tony Scholes
Sixth cap for Danny Lafferty on a bad night for NI

Lafferty had missed Northern Ireland's home defeat against Portugal last Friday, serving a one match ban having received another yellow card in their previous game, the 1-0 win against Russia at Windsor Park in August.

He might have wished he hadn't returned for this one as they fell to a shock 3-2 defeat against Luxembourg and this after former Claret Martin Paterson had given them an early lead.

Luxembourg equalised just before  half time and then went in front in the second half. Northern Ireland did equalise eight minutes from time through a Gareth McAuley goal but by then Lafferty's night was over. He'd been replaced by Brentford's Will Grigg just a minute earlier.

Even so they couldn't prevent Luxembourg from winning it with a goal three minutes from time. They now sit level on points with Luxembourg, six from eight games and will now be hoping for better fortune when the European qualifiers start next season.

It's the same for Wales and Vokes. All the news was about Gareth Bale, who didn't feature, but Chris Coleman gave our striker a 28th cap and just his seventh start in their home game against Serbia. They've been in a tough group which Belgium look certain to win with Croatia coming second.

For Wales though it is currently bottom place after they lost 3-0 with Vokes playing the entire game.

Besides Paterson there were two other ex-Clarets on duty on the pitch last night. Gary Cahill was at the heart of the England defence in their 0-0 draw against Ukraine in Kiev and Alex Kačaniklić was in the Sweden team that won 1-0 in Kazakhstan with a first minute Zlatan Ibrahimovic goal.

David Edgar was also in international action last night. He's been with the Canadians at a training camp in Spain where they played two games, on Sunday and last night, against Mauritania. Edgar didn't play in the first of them which was drawn 0-0 but played the full game yesterday with the Canadians losing 1-0.

As was the case on Friday, both Gabor Kiraly and Diego Penny were unused substitute goalkeepers in World Cup qualifiers. Hungary beat Estonia 5-1 at the Ferenc Puskas Stadium in Budapest while Peru were beaten 3-2 by Venezuela.

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