Setbacks as Portsmouth trio answer calls from country in first round of international action

Joe Morrell, Terry Devlin and Paddy Lane answered calls from their countries - leading to this weekend’s scheduled trip to Barnsley being postponed.

It was far from plain sailing, however, following their first round of fixtures last night.

Morrell did get some minutes for Wales, as they played out a 0-0 draw with South Korea at the Cardiff City Stadium.

The Blues midfielder was introduced at the break in place and produced a typically composed display against Son Heung-Min & Co.

Morrell is suspended, however, for his country’s crucial Euro 2024 qualifier in Latvia - with victory needed to keep their hopes of qualification alive.

Elsewhere, however, there was frustration for the other pair of members from John Mousinho’s squad away.

Paddy Lane was called up to Michael O’Neill’s Northern Ireland squad, after an injury to his Pompey team-mate Gavin Whyte forced his withdrawal from qualifiers against Slovenia and Kazakhstan.

Their hopes of making it Germany next summer were all but extinguished, however, after a 4-2 reverse against Slovenia in Ljubljana.

To compound his woe Lane wasn’t part of the squad, with the trek to Kazakhstan to follow on Sunday.

And there was similar angst for Terry Devlin as Northern Ireland’s under-21 side were turned over 1-0 at home by minnows Luxembourg.

And Devlin was forced to look on from the bench as James Rodriguez’s 13th-minute goal decided it in Lurgan, before a 13-minute cameo in a nightmare Euro under-21 qualifying opener for Tommy Wright’s side.

They now travel to Euro under-21 semi-finalists Ukraine in a testing assignment after their opening disappointment.