Victory a matter of honour for upbeat Toshack

WALES are aiming to win three consecutive away games for the first time in 26 years today, and boss John Toshack has joked he wants an OBE for the achievement.

With skipper Craig Bellamy expected to lead the side against Cyprus just 10 days after a groin operation, and West Ham club-mate James Collins also expected to feature after major dental surgery this week, Toshack is buoyant about Wales maintaining their current form.

His crack about the OBE brought the house down at his media conference yesterday, and was another dig at former Wales boss Mark Hughes, who received the award in a recent honours list after he had left the job as international manager.

Hughes mentioned the honour recently while defending his own record as Wales chief, constantly criticised by Toshack, by saying in a BBC radio interview that he could not have done too much wrong “because they gave me an OBE for it”.

And Toshack just could not resist a jibe back, saying: “We have won two away on the trot and now want another. I believe it will be the first time Wales have done that in 26 years. Maybe I will get an OBE for it if we can pull that off!”

Toshack now seemingly feels confident enough about his squad of youngsters to become involved in such banter ahead of their European Championship Group D qualifier at the GSP Stadium.

If Wales can achieve a victory against Cyprus, they will head for San Marino next Wednesday intent on six points from two away games in five days.

Toshack said: “If we could pick up six points over the next few days, that can influence the seedings for the World Cup. But I’d rather not think too far ahead.

“We have been trying to win away against a team seeded higher than us for a long time. And in Bulgaria and Slovakia recently, we have done just that.

“That has given the players a big boost. It is nice to see, as the months go by, the younger lads maturing and the more experienced players looking around and seeing that these kids are not too bad.

“That means people have to start taking on more responsibility. Things do take time, but we are quite pleased with the way it is going.

“There is still a lot to play for. We can’t finish first or second, realistically, but third is possible.

“We have to put pressure on ourselves to go for that third spot – it will help us so much in the future.

“I feel we are going along the right way and believe we can continue to pick up positive results.

‘‘We are pleased with the way things are going.”

The recovery of Bellamy has been a major boost, and Toshack said: “Bellamy is fine. He has trained for three days and done everything the rest of the lads have done. We have one or two decisions to make, but he is likely to start the game now.

“Originally, we didn’t expect him to be ready until Wednesday in San Marino, but this is a pleasant surprise. He wants to play – it has got to be something pretty drastic to keep him out of the action.’'