Ward leads Clarets past and present to international success

Last updated : 15 October 2014 By Tony Scholes
Stephen Ward enjoyed a win and a draw with Ireland

We have to start with Stephen Ward. He was the only current Burnley player to win caps over the international break. He was in the Republic of Ireland side that had the easiest of 7-0 wins against newcomers Gibraltar on Saturday but it will be last night's draw he'll be celebrating.

It looked as if he might not see the end of the game after suffering a late ankle injury but he was still out there when John O'Shea, making his 100th appearance, equalised late into stoppage time to earn Ireland a point in a 1-1 draw against world champions Germany in Gelsenkirchen.

Northern Ireland have also had a fantastic few days. Danny Lafferty isn't currently in Michael O'Neill's squad but former Burnley players Chris Baird and Kyle Lafferty are. Both played in their two games which resulted in a similarly easy 2-0 home win against Andorra which was followed by last night's 2-0 win against Greece in Piraeus.

Kyle Lafferty hasn't featured much for his country in the last  twelve months but has been brought back into the squad as Northern Ireland have won their first three qualifiers for the first time in their history. These two wins are on the back of a victory against Hungary in September.

He's scored in all three of those games, taking his total of international goals to 11 in 40 appearances.

Steven Fletcher, now with Sunderland, has been in the Scotland team for their two games. Having beaten Georgia 1-0 at Ibrox on Saturday they came back from Warsaw last night with a point from a 2-2 draw against Poland in which their goals were scored by and Steven Naismith.

Gilks was called late into the squad but was third choice goalkeeper. David Marshall played in both games with Craig Gordon occupying the number two position.

With Sam Vokes out injured we had no players, past or present, in the Wales squad but they too were unbeaten, drawing 0-0 against Bosnia and Herzegovina and beating Cyprus with the Burnley striker part of the television team.

That leaves England who enjoyed two wins against San Marino and Estonia with Gary Cahill playing in both games.

Two other former Burnley players made Euro appearances whilst two more have played in international friendlies.

Gabor Kiraly was in the Hungary team for their 1-1 draw against Romania in Bucharest on Saturday, it was his 91st cap for his country, and Alex Kačaniklić was introduced as a late substitute in Sweden's 1-1 home draw against Russia last Thursday.

There wasn't the same success for those playing in friendly internationals. Dane Richards returned to the Jamaica team for a friendly in Japan. It's his first cap since leaving the Clarets and his team were beaten 1-0.

That was the same result suffered by David Edgar in the early hours of this morning. Canada lost 1-0 against Columbia in a game played in Harrison, New Jersey.

Away from the full internationals, a summer in the Czech Republic could be on the horizon for Danny Ings and our two current loan players Nathaniel Chalobah and Michael Keane after England qualified for the finals of the UEFA European Under-21 Championships with a 4-2 aggregate win against Croatia.

The trio weren't as involved as they might have wished. Ings and Chalobah both missed out on a call up because of injury and Keane was substituted at half time in the first leg at Wolves with a hamstring injury and was missing from the squad for last night's second leg in Croatia.

All the full international appearances have now been added to the Internationals section of Clarets Mad which can be found in the Players drop down menu.