Club News

Gera's an Albion record breaker

And Mulumbu makes successful international return

ZOLTAN Gera has become Albion’s all-time record international caps holder.

The Baggies midfielder made 31 appearances for Hungary during his first spell at The Hawthorns between 2004 and 2008.

He has now surpassed the 33 caps Stuart Williams earned for Wales as an Albion player between 1950 and 1962.

Gera made his 34th appearance for the Magyars while a Baggie on Saturday as he captained them to a 5-0 win over Andorra in their opening World Cup qualifier.

He now has 74 international caps and 22 goals to his name in total - but unfortunately he was forced off at half-time due to an Achilles problem.

Elsewhere, Youssouf Mulumbu yesterday came out of international retirement after a 12-month absence to help DR Congo beat Equatorial Guinea 4-0 in the first leg of their African Nations Cup qualification play-off.

On Saturday James Morrison played 81 minutes and Graham Dorrans was an unused substitute as Scotland fought out a goalless draw with Serbia at Hampden Park.

New Baggies signing Goran Popov played 90 minutes of Macedonia’s 1-0 defeat in Croatia on Friday.

One the same night Chris Brunt and Gareth McAuley both played all of Northern Ireland’s 2-0 defeat in Russia.

Shane Long came on as a 70th-minute substitute in the Republic of Ireland’s last-gasp 2-1 win in Kazakhstan.

Loan star Romelu Lukaku played the second half of Belgium’s 2-0 victory over Wales, for whom Boaz Myhill played the full 90.

Chris Wood’s first-half strike helped New Zealand start the final stage of Oceania World Cup qualifying on a winning note by beating New Caledonia 2-0.

Jonas Olsson played all of Sweden’s 1-0 friendly win over China.

Craig Dawson helped England Under-21s take a step closer to European Championship play-off qualification on Thursday as he played 90 minutes in their 2-0 win over Azerbaijan.

And Scott Allan also got a full game under his belt for Scotland Under-21s as they beat Luxembourg to keep their hopes of European Championship play-off qualification alive.