While Wayne Bridge may have had somewhat of a mixed evening as England managed only a draw against Macedonia, his Saints colleagues Paul Jones and Claus Lundekvam had a great night in the European Championship.

The latter claimed a place in the history books and a rare goal.

CLAUS LUNDEKVAM, who has not managed a single goal in his seven seasons with Saints, bundled the ball home with his stomach on seven minutes to net Norway's 1000th ever strike!

His fantastic night was topped off by a piledriver of a shot from Liverpool's John Arne Riise which ensured Norway beat Bosnia 2-0.

Meanwhile, there was success at the other end of the field for PAUL JONES who kept goal as Wales secured one of their most famous victories, beating Italy 2-1.

Jones, who is currently second choice at Saints to ANTTI NIEMI, had to be at his best to keep out the Italians and produced a superb 58th-minute save to play his part in the win.

Tottenham's Simon Davies opened the scoring but Alessandro Del Piero levelled with a free-kick which took a wicked deflection off Mark Delaney.

But Wales stormed back and Newcastle striker Craig Bellamy netted the goal which sent former Saint MARK HUGHES' side to the top of the Group 9 table.

Hughes said: "You have amazing highs and lows as a manager, but this was a wonderful feeling. But it is only the start for us. All the effort of winning in Helsinki and now this one will be lost if we don't get good results in our next two games.

"But you will not have seen a performance like that in this stadium before. We restricted a great team to very few chances, and we then put in as good an attacking display as I have seen.

"The players should be proud of their display. I'm not going to single anyone out, they were all magnificent.

"I went for the win, I felt we had the weapons that could really worry them, and that's how it proved.

"The emotions at the end were incredible, the stadium atmosphere was amazing."

But Hughes added: "I still don't believe we are favourites to qualify, we have only played two games and we must keep our cool and keep working. But I don't think many teams would have coped with us the way we played."

Italian boss Giovanni Trapattoni insisted he would not resign after this defeat, which follows a disappointing 1-1 draw with Yugoslavia at the weekend.

He said: "The thought of resigning has never crossed my mind.

"Wales were excellent. They got a win in Finland without playing that well, but they played out of their skin this time. They were better than us physically, they were superb physically and we looked in a different condition.

"Wales were well organised, they were foxy and we just couldn't match them. We did all we could; maybe our defenders are not what they were."

There was not such good news for the man currently in possession of the number jersey at St Mary's, Niemi, as his Finland side lost 2-0 to Yugoslavia.

Saints youngster CHRIS BAIRD, who played for the Northern Ireland under-21 team on Tuesday and scored, got his first taste of action with the senior team last night as he took a place on the bench in his nation's 0-0 draw with Ukraine - the Irish's fifth successive blank.

Mick McCarthy vowed to carry on fighting after his Republic of Ireland team crashed to the second successive defeat of their Euro 2004 qualifying campaign. The Irish boss admitted he felt worse than at any other time during his six-and-a-half-year reign following the 2-1 loss to Switzerland - the first competitive defeat at home during his time in charge.

"I have got a contract until 2004 and unless someone tells me differently I keep fighting on," said McCarthy. "Why should I walk away? Myself and the players have always given everything to this and I don't think I should change."