Falkirk stars among the goals on the international stage

Falkirk players of the present and past were in international action over the last week.
Falkirk's Deimantas Petravicius in action for  Lithuania (Pic: Jure Makovec/AFP/Getty Images)Falkirk's Deimantas Petravicius in action for  Lithuania (Pic: Jure Makovec/AFP/Getty Images)
Falkirk's Deimantas Petravicius in action for Lithuania (Pic: Jure Makovec/AFP/Getty Images)

Grabbing the headlines were strikers Shayne Lavery and Zak Rudden who both hit the back of the net for their countries.

Lavery scored three minutes from time as Northern Ireland U21s defeated Mexico U22s 2-1 in a friendly in Spain on Monday.

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Three days earlier on Friday, the on-loan Everton striker had also scored the winner in a 1-0 win over Bulgaria in another friendly.

Zak Rudden. Picture: Michael Gillen.Zak Rudden. Picture: Michael Gillen.
Zak Rudden. Picture: Michael Gillen.

Also hitting the net was Rangers loanee Zak Rudden who scored in the Scotland U19s 3-1 Euro qualifier win over Turkey last Wednesday.

He followed it with a hat trick on Saturday in a 4-0 victory in the same competition against Cyprus.

And Rudden was again involved this afternoon as Scotland went down 4-0 to Portugal in the final match of their Elite League campaign, finishing second in the section.Lithuanian Deimantas Petravicius started twice for his national side; on Friday in a 2-1 Group B Euro qualifying defeat away to Luxembourg, then again on Monday in a no-scoring friendly against Azerbaijan at the Bekell Arena in Baku.

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Will Vaulks, who spent three years as a Bairn and now plays for Rotherham, made two appearances for Wales as they beat Trinidad and Tobago 1-0 on Wednesday at Wrexham’s Racecourse Ground and won by the same scoreline in their Group E Euro qualifier against Slovenia at the Cardiff City Stadium on Sunday, where he came on as a late sub.

Hibs’ Oli Shaw, a former Stenhousemuir loanee, came off the bench for Scotland U21s as they lost 2-1 to Sweden, whilst David Bates, who played 17 times for East Stirlingshire in 2015, played for the full national side in both the defeat to Kazakhstan and the win over San Marino.