Craig Cathcart endured a disappointing afternoon as Northern Ireland were found wanting in both boxes as their Nations League campaign got off to a poor start with a 2-1 defeat at home to Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The Watford centre-half has enjoyed a strong start to the campaign at club level and scored the winner in last weekend’s 2-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur, but he was part of the defensive unit that was caught napping when Haris Duljevic stole in to convert Edin Dzeko’s 37th-minute cross.

Worse was to follow in the 68th minute when the Northern Irish were the architects of their own downfall as a bad mix-up saw Cathcart's header fall short of Bailey Peacock-Farrell and Elvis Saric nipped in to poke the ball into the net.

The hosts had 68 per cent of the possession, 26 shots to Bosnia’s five and they finally capitalised on an opportunity in the third minute of injury time when Will Grigg stabbed in from close range after Ollie Norwood had cut the ball back.

Cathcart is the latest Hornet to have been involved at international level after Dodi Lukebakio had a much better time of it in Belgium Under-21’s 4-0 European Championship qualification victory in Malta yesterday.

The Fortuna Dusseldorf loanee scored the Belgian’s third goal, having set up the first two in an impressive individual display.

Adrian Mariappa was an unused substitute as Jamaica were beaten 2-0 by Ecuador in a friendly, while on Thursday Sebastian Prodl had come out on top against Ken Sema as Austria beat Sweden 2-0.

Prodl was replaced at the start of the second half, while his Hornets club-mate played 67 minutes, as a Filip Helander own goal and David Alaba strike sealed the friendly win for the Austrians.

Daryl Janmaat was a 72nd-minute substitute as Netherlands beat Peru 2-1 thanks to a Memphis Depay brace in what was Wesley Snejder’s final international outing for the Dutch.

Domingos Quina got another 77 minutes of international experience under his belt as Portugal Under-20s drew 0-0 with their Dutch counterparts.