DIMITRI Papadopoulos staked a claim for a place in the starting line-up for both club and country with another goal for the Greek U-21s.

And his Burnley boss Stan Ternent admitted: "It is great to see he scored again and the reports say he played well."

The young Clarets star captained his country's under-21 side in their 1-1 draw with Norway on a rain soaked pitch in Crete, all that wet weather training at Gawthorpe evidently standing him in good stead.

He was involved in most of Greece's bright moments and had a couple of chances before the break.

But with Norway leading 1-0 he popped up with the equaliser 12 minutes from time, going close to netting the winner a couple of minutes later.

Papadopoulos has been a regular contributor to the Clarets cause from the bench in recent weeks but yesterday he was one of only a few Greeks to play the full 90 minutes.

That will undoubtedly have benefited him and he will now be desperate to be involved in the big FA Cup clash with Fulham on Sunday.

One man certain to figure at Loftus Road is fellow striker Gareth Taylor and he won his 11th international cap for Wales on a record breaking night for the Principality at the Millennium Stadium.

He came on for John Hartson for the last eight minutes, shortly after the Celtic striker had netted the equaliser that guaranteed that Mark Hughes's side would be unbeaten for the ninth successive game.

The two strikers will be reunited with their Burnley team mates when they return to training at Gawthorpe tomorrow morning as the Clarets fly back from their mini-break in Portugal today.