Stoke City have picked up 29 points in a frenetic 68 days and will face promotion rivals Birmingham City in front of a packed bet365 Stadium when they return to action

All at Stoke City who can are catching their breath after a brilliant two months has fired them to level on points at the top of the Championship. There is a mouth-watering home match against Birmingham City - who are on the summit thanks to goal difference - when they return to action on November 21.

But there is also a significant group who are flying around the world to represent their countries during the next two weeks. That includes in-form Jack McGlynn, who was called up for the United States on Saturday evening, and Luca Bombino, who has had a first summons to the US under-23s squad.

Junior Tchamadeu has Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers with Cameroon while Luke Graham is hoping to make his first start for Scotland. Justin Devenny and Ethan Galbraith are both with Northern Ireland and Robert Bozenik and Tomas Rigo fly out to join the Slovakia squad.

Bosun Lawal is hoping he can finally get some game time with Republic of Ireland, Viktor Johansson is the number one for Sweden and Tommy Simkin has a double header at Ashton Gate with England under-21s.

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Mark Robins said: "The learning for us is significant. I've got to say I'm really pleased, really, really pleased. We're going into an international break on the back of three points and we can have a few days' breather before we come back together and hopefully is everyone back together to build into the Birmingham game."

He added: "It's difficult for the internationals because they'll now go away and bang two games in next week. That's really tough. Really tough for players to keep going.

"Ethan needed [the Portsmouth] game because he missed mid-week. I think he needed this one to be able to go into the next two for Northern Ireland. Justin has played all the games and needed a bit of a breather. You could see when he came on that he's still not up to speed and you could see he was still frustrated with himself but hopefully he'll go away and have a really good international break.

"But Million Manhoef has been brilliant this week, absolutely fantastic, as has everybody. We're pleased but definitely not getting carried away."

Stoke players on international duty

Luca Bombino – United States under-23s: Training camp (November 9-17, Spain), Scotland (Pinatar, November 15, 2pm), Ukraine (Pinatar, November 17, 1pm)

Robert Bozenik – Slovakia: Faroe Islands (home, November 13, 7.45pm), Kazakhstan (November 16, 3pm)

Justin Devenny – Northern Ireland: Ukraine (home, November 14, 7.45pm), Hungary (away, November 17, 7.45pm)

Ethan Galbraith – Northern Ireland: Ukraine (home, November 14, 7.45pm), Hungary (away, November 17, 7.45pm)

Luke Graham – Scotland: North Macedonia (home, November 13, 7.45pm), Switzerland (home, November 16, 7.45pm)

Viktor Johansson – Sweden: Bosnia and Herzegovina (home, November 14, 7.45pm), Poland (away, November 17, 7.45pm)

Bosun Lawal – Republic of Ireland: Austria (away, November 14, 7.45pm), Kosovo (home, November 17, 7.45pm)

Jack McGlynn – United States: Haiti (away, November 14, 9.30pm), Haiti (home, November 18, 12am)

Tomas Rigo – Slovakia: Faroe Islands (home, November 13, 7.45pm), Kazakhstan (November 16, 3pm)

Tommy Simkin – England under-21s: Portugal (home, November 13, 7.30pm), France (November 16, home, 7.30pm)