Potters on international duty

Stoke City players – Carl Hoefkens, Josip Skoko and Adam Rooney have all been hitting the back of the net for their respective countries.

Carl Hoefkens scored in a 3-3 draw with Turkey. His goal came in the 90th minute to earn a draw for Belgium.

Josip Skoko, who spent the last half of the season with the Potters whilst on loan from Wigan, boosted his chances of a place in the Aussie World Cup team with the only goal of the game to beat Greece in Melbourne.

Adam Rooney scored for the second game in succession for the Republic of Ireland in their U19 championship game against Georgia, but it wasn’t enough as the youngsters lost 3-1 and finished bottom of their group.

Meanwhile, former Stoke defender Sergei Shtaniuk captained a 10 man Belarus team to a 2-1 win over an England B team in Reading tonight. Sergei seems to have lost none of his dominance in defence that made him such a favourite at the Brit, making 95 appearances between August 2001 and May 2003.