Wales. Half empty stadium.

[Finnegan]

What bunch of wankers invited me to an MSN convo earlier? You bastards.

Aye, aye, a pathetic drubbing, thank fock I didn't truck down t'ere in the end. I'm off to the Cyprus game on Wednesday and hopefully that'll be 5 - 1 us to counter balance.

I have to say though, given the standings of Slovakia, Wales, England and Macedonia - if I were you lot, I'd be feeling like a right bunch of silly tossers about now.

[act smiley]

That was, nightmarishly bad but the thing is, it was almost entirely the fault of Duffy not backtracking, Edwards being constantly out of position and Jones being stunningly pathetic. The rest offered a fairly mediocre performance that would have been bearable if those three didn't keep messing it up, other than the hoofing to a strikeforce of midgets and the insistance of just constantly running around the edge of the box rather than doing anything.

Of course, the reason one stand was mostly empty is they don't actually bother anything along the lines of marketing and the tickets were £22-£33. Which obviously, takes the piss.

[Finnegan]

Do I have a compatriot here!? Or are you just well informed?

Aye, when Sparky and the lads went off to a flier in the 04 campaign the stands were packed. Some of the best crowds I've ever been in back then, the Italy game (Forza Bellamy!) was one of the best experiences of my life and the anthem before Russia nearly brought me to tears (aww, bless.)

But when the whistle blew at the end of that game, 70'000 Welshmen, my self included, died a little inside - and international football just hasn't been the same since. That sort of anti-climax takes a lot out of a nation, and the total rehauling of our squad under Toshack since hasn't been helpful. Prices, ironically, have risen and it's just killing our attendances and atmosphere.

In regards to the actual team, aye. I'm worried that managers like Toshack use "rebuilding the team with youths" and "this is a project for the future" as an excuse to hide behind when performances are shocking, he's the Craig Levein of international football. The fact of the matter is that his attitude and relationship with / toward some of his players has had an ill effect on the side. Savage and Thatcher would be premiership quality additions to the side, but he'll not do anything to heal the wound and his tactical inpetitude (a 5 man, championship / league one defence playing a conservative game when your best players are attackers?) is further damaging our results.

All in all I'm gutted, yeah, but I've seen this all before. I really do mean it when I say you boys should be feeling a lot, lot sillier post-Macedonia than I do now. It's not nescersarily panic stations, if we beat Cyprus and establish a bit of nerve in the lads then we'll see, but failure to take three points from a Cypriot side coming roaring out of a Republic thrashing will be devastating.

[act smiley]

I'm a cardiff uni student (and partially welsh, but really from loughborough) and that was one of the worst uses of £20 I've found. The atmosphere was rather decent considering it was a little under half full, up to about 3-1, then it all went silent.

Tactically, though, I'm still not quite sure if it was meant to be a 3-5-2 or a 5-3-2 and it was fairly clear the players didn't either, although near the end it was basically 3-6-1, but whatever it was meant to be, the shape was rather dodgy and the pitiful thing is that four of the goals came off essentially the same thing. On the back of that, the Cyprus game doesn't inspire me with confidence, although England are pretty likely to bounce back from their lapses into svenesque mediocrity.

[Finnegan]

I dunno, I'm a firm believer (as I constantly harp on) in confidence doing wonders, and I think even a ruggedy, scrambled three points against Cyprus will do us a world of good. But unlike here with Rob Kelly, Toshack isn't inexperienced and Toshack is playing a fooking teribble system. 5 - 3 - 1 - 1 it was, officially. Up until yesterday Toshack could boast that, while we weren't scoring too many goals, he'd tightened up our defence. Now I appreciate there were injuries yesterday, but losing 1 - 5 on the international stage is embarassing to anyone.

Bellamy and Earnshaw last season were two of the most consistent British goalscorers and Earnshaw this year is back to deadly form. Koumas has been blinding over the last 18 months, Giggs is having the best time of his life for his country and Joe Ledley is looking like the best young player in the championship. So why not play to your strengths? We've always been a little shite at the back, we were shakey when we beat the Azurri, we were shakey when we beat the Germans, we were god-awful but we taught you boys a thing or two about smashing three past those Northern Irish tossers. Yet I have to watch us try and grind out boring defensive results? Pfeh.