THE four Saints on international duty last night all avoided adding their name to the St Mary's injury crisis.

Both Mikael Nilsson and Anders Svensson played the full 90 minutes as Sweden jumped to the top of their World Cup qualifying group by winning 4-1 in Iceland.

Svensson was returning to the country where he won his first cap four years ago, and was solid if unspectacular in midfield.

Nilsson was again deployed out of position at left-back due to injuries, but impressed with intelligent defensive play.

The summer signing from Halmstads cleared off Icelandic effort off his line and also started the move which led to the third goal.

All Sweden's goals came in the first half - from Henrik Larsson (2), Christian Wilhelmsson and Marcus Allback.

Antti Niemi was beaten twice by Ruud van Nistelrooy as Finland lost pole position in their group after losing 3-1 in Holland.

But there was better news for Claus Lundekvam, who played the full 90 minutes as his Norway side jumped above Slovenia into second place in their group by beating them 3-0 in Oslo.

Another Saints defender, Chris Baird, missed Northern Ireland's 3-3 home draw with Austria due to an ankle injury sustained against Azerbaijan last weekend.

Meanwhile, Scotland fans chanted ex-Saints boss Gordon Strachan's name after their country's 1-1 draw in Moldova piled more pressure on under-fire coach Berti Vogts.