He may have gone 137 games for Rovers without finding the back of the net, but Ryan Nelsen scored twice last night to earn New Zealand a 2-2 draw away to Thailand 'A'.

The All Whites skipper smashed home a volley from 12 yards midway through the first half, before heading home from a free-kick in the 58th minute.

Ryan later had a strong penalty claim turned down and also put another header wide, as a potential first international hat-trick went begging.

Also captaining his country last night, was South African star Aaron Mokoena. Bafana Bafana went into the game looking to claim a second European scalp after lifting the Nelson Mandela Challenge cup at the weekend courtesy of a 2-1 win over Norway, but they failed to hit the same heights, losing 2-0 to Portugal in Switzerland.

At Under-21 level, loan duo Matt Derbyshire and Alan Judge both made their starting line-ups, but both ended up with defeats.

England striker Derbs came close to making a telling contribution on a couple of occasions in the first half, before being replaced on the hour mark, as Stuart Pearce's side suffered their first home defeat since October 2005 against France.

Judge meanwhile played 81 minutes, as the Republic of Ireland Under-21s kicked off their 2011 UEFA Championship qualifying campaign with a 3-0 defeat at home to Group 2 top seeds Turkey.

Elsewhere, Johnny Flynn was named amongst the substitutes as Northern Ireland Under-21s drew 1-1 with Ukraine, whilst Martin Olsson's Sweden drew 0-0 away to Spain.