Town trio Gareth McAuley, Ronan Murray and Ian McLoughlin could all add to their international cap collection later today. McAuley is with the full Northern Ireland squad, while youngsters Murray and McLoughlin are away in Ukraine with the Republic of Ireland U19s.

McAuley will be looking to pick up his 21st cap when his side face Turkey in a friendly at the Veterans Stadium in New Britain, Connecticut this evening. Northern Ireland subsequently take on Chile at the Estadio Municipal de Chillán in another friendly on Sunday.

Striker Murray and keeper McLoughlin will hope to be in the Republic of Ireland side which takes on England in Kiev this morning in their first European U19 Championships elite qualifying phase group game.

Murray has previously won 11 caps at U19 level, while McLoughlin made his debut in the first of two recent friendlies with Poland. Both players have been offered new one-year contracts by the Blues, in Murray's case his first professional deal.

The Irish youngsters take on hosts Ukraine on Friday in Borodinka and finally Bosnia-Herzegovina, also in Kiev, on Sunday.

Keeper Brian Murphy was an unused sub last night as the Republic of Ireland senior side beat Paraguay 2-1 in a friendly in Dublin. Murphy will hope to win his first cap when his side take on Algeria in another friendly on Friday.

Meanwhile, David Sheepshanks may be in with a chance of becoming the FA's full-time chairman after all with the FA reportedly keen to drop their only recently instituted policy of appointing an independent chair, a move which is likely to bring them into conflict with the government.

Sheepshanks, who was named acting-joint chairman after Lord Triesman's exit, is currently ineligible for the job on a permanent basis because of his continued involvement with Town. The former chairman is still on the club board, is chairman of the PLC which owns 12.5% of the club and also chairs the Community Trust.

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