CHRIS Mepham maintained his starting spot in the Wales team last night, playing the full 90 minutes as the Welsh somehow conspired to lose late on against the Dutch for the second time in a week.

Whilst the Cherries central defender did not play in the biggest fixture of the window – Wales’ win over Ukraine to secure a spot in this winter’s World Cup – he has now played every minute of his side’s Nations League campaign.

Despite going two goals behind after 23 minutes courtesy of goals from Noa Lang and Cody Gakpo, Wales battled back. Three minutes after the Netherlands made it two, Nottingham Forest’s Brennan Johnson produce a fine finish for his second goal, but the away side had to wait until the 92nd minute for an equaliser.

A soft penalty was awarded, allowing Welsh talisman Gareth Bale to step up and tie scores late on. However, just like the reverse fixture that saw an injury time equaliser instantly cancelled out by the Dutch, Wales again switched off after the restart.

Just as Barcelona star Frenkie De Jong waltzed through the Welsh defence in Cardiff, Mepham and co. were near statuesque as a long-ball over the top was quickly flicked on for Memphis Depay to fire home in Rotterdam.

Despite four decent performances, especially considering the heavily rotated sides used by Wales manager Rob Page, the Red Dragons currently prop up Group A4, with just the one point from their opening fixtures.

They visit Belgium and host Poland in the next international window in September, with victory over Poland required for the Welsh to avoid relegation.

In the CONCACAF version of the Nations League, it was a night to forget for youngster Nathan Moriah-Welsh.

The winger played the full 90 minutes as Guyana were thumped 6-0 in Haiti. It is the second time in four days the Haitians have managed to put six past Guyana, with Moriah-Welsh scoring in Saturday’s 6-2 defeat to Haiti.

Haiti now lead Group B2 with 10 points, whilst Guyana are in second with six points from four games.

Gavin Kilkenny and Ireland’s under-21s missed out on an automatic qualification spot for next summer’s European Championships.

It was always unlikely that the Irish youngsters would inflict defeat on unbeaten group leaders Italy away from home, and that proved true, with Ireland going down to a 4-1 defeat.

The game was effectively over when Italy took a 2-0 lead into the break.

Kilkenny played 60 minutes, coming off immediately after Conor Coventry had scored Ireland’s sole goal from the penalty spot.

It is not all bad news for the Irish, as they have secured a play-off spot.