Owen Garvan and Chris Casement were both on the losing side last night with their international U21 squads. Garvan's Republic of Ireland lost 2-0 in Bulgaria, while Casement's Northern Ireland fell to a 3-0 loss in Germany.

Garvan played the full 90 minutes and impressed, having missed out on action recently due to a stomach bug. The midfielder was winning his fifth U21 cap.

Casement, who is currently on loan at Hamilton Academical, was making his ninth U21 appearance. Neither the Republic of Ireland nor Northern Ireland have qualified for the European Championships.

Town could have three players appearing for their full national sides later today. Alex Bruce is away with the full Irish squad and will hope to win his second cap when they take on Georgia in their first World Cup qualfier in Mainz, Germany, the game having moved due to the current instability in the former Soviet Republic (Five, 4.45pm).

Veliche Shumulikoski will be in action for Macedonia as his side look to get their World Cup qualification campaign off to a winning start against George Burley's Scotland (Setanta Sports One, 1pm).

The midfielder will receive an award marking his 50th full cap in the recent friendly against Luxembourg prior to the game, although there is some confusion regarding his total number of appearances and Saturday's match may actually see him reach that milestone.

Town skipper Gareth McAuley is tipped to drop out of the Northern Ireland side which faces Slovakia this afternoon (Setanta Sports One, 4.30pm). McAuley, who has 11 senior caps, has been playing at right-back for Nigel Worthington's team but may make way for Manchester United's Jonny Evans to return.

Meanwhile, Town chief executive Derek Bowden says the Blues have employed an agent over the summer to help reduce the large squad: "It is sometimes the case where you would ask an agent to relocate some players. Clearly at the beginning of the season we knew we would have a large squad and there were one or two players we wanted to move on and others we wanted to put out on loan.

"It is common and straightforward and we use an FA approved contract, so it is all entirely above board.”

Photo: Action Images

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