Wales - Up and Running

So after an absolute barren opening few rounds of fixtures for the boys in Red, up next was a classic British derby. Wales V Scotland was on the menu, The return of the Fletchers for Scotland against the one man machine Gareth Bale. Plenty of appetisers for all to enjoy despite the weather prediction for heavy rain. I spoke to a few Scots prior to the game and they were in confident mood despite the fact they drew both of their games essentially against minnows of the group in Luxembourg and Macedonia.

The problem with the Welsh squad is that it lacks severe quality not only in defensive positions but up front as well, I mean if you take out Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey there seems to be a lack of movement particularly in attacking areas. Let's face the facts as good as they are for their clubs there seems to be a lack of passion and precision when it comes to representing our country. Steve Morrison, Joe Ledley, David Vaughn and Andy King are decent club players but well below international quality.

So Scottish fans almost outnumbered their Welsh counterparts when they arrived in Cardiff, some even buying tickets in the home section which disgusted the home contingent to say the least. The anthems were bellowed out by both sections of the crowd although it's worth noting that the Scots made their voices well known.

The game itself was a spectacle for exciting football almost end to end at times. Gareth Bale was having the run at Danny Fox and even Shaun Maloney was having to curb his attacking instincts to stop the relentless Bale on the right hand side who was in the mood tonight, they really should have been 1-0 up after Bale's surging run down the right resulted in Morrison heading acutely wide from a simple angle and as soon as that was missed a long punt up field by Mcgregor was flicked on by Fletcher and simply smashed in my James Morrison, Route one?.

Scotland had plenty of chances to put their side safe and more importantly their manager none more than when Steven Fletcher headed home from a Maloney cross only for the Referee to claim it had gone out of play, that was incorrect although Maloney in the buildup appeared offside so perhaps luck and fortune on the home side who were about to profit from some more luck. Gareth Bale picked up the ball deep in the midfield and drove hard at the left hand side again of Scotland where the recovering Maloney had clipped his heels.

An arguable decision to say the least but they do often say what goes around comes around. Bale was simply faultless although Aaron Ramsey got himself a yellow card which meant he missed out in Croatia on Tuesday it seemed he was playing his heart out as well. Bale then went on to score a first winner for his country in a move that once again saw him pick the ball up deep from a freekick drive past Charlie Adam and send a scorcher in the top corner which sent the home crowd into raptures and left manager Chris Coleman finally an elated man.