Club News

INTERNATIONALS: Five senior players in action

McAuley, Evans, Fletcher, Chester & Rondon feature

ALBION defensive trio James Chester, Jonny Evans and Gareth McAuley will return to the Club as equals after Wales and Northern Ireland shared a 1-1 draw in Cardiff on Thursday night.

Chester completed 90 minutes for the hosts in the rain at the Cardiff City Stadium, while McAuley also finished the game for Northern Ireland, with Evans being replaced in the 74th minute by Daniel Lafferty.

Craig Cathcart gave Northern Ireland the lead on the hour-mark but a late Simon Church penalty rescued a share of the spoils for Chris Coleman’s side.

Chester and Wales now head to Kiev for a friendly with Ukraine on Monday night.

McAuley and Evans will turn their attentions to Slovenia, who visit Windsor Park on Monday night for a friendly.

Baggies skipper Darren Fletcher captained Scotland to an impressive 1-0 victory over the Czech Republic in Prague.

The midfielder completed the whole game, which was settled by Ikechi Anya’s confident finish after just 10 minutes.

Salomon Rondon played 90 minutes of Venezuela’s disappointing 2-2 draw against Peru in South American World Cup qualifying.

Venezuela, without a point in their first four matches, were leading 2-0 in Lima thanks to goals from Romulo Otero and Mikel Villanueva.

However Rondon’s side were unable to hold on to the three points as late Paolo Guerrero and Raul Ruidiaz goals rescued a draw for Peru.

Venezuela sit bottom of South American qualifying with just one point from five games, with a home clash against Chile next up on Tuesday.

Two Albion youngsters were on the scoreesheet for England youth sides on Thursday night.

Striker Jonathan Leko set up the first goal for the Under-17 team and then scored the second in their 3-1 win over Turkey at Chesterfield, while defender Kane Wilson was on target for the Under-16 group as they drew 2-2 with USA in the Montaigu Tournament.