Gabbidon Starts as Wales Blow It

Vadim Evseev grabbed the only goal of the game with a powerful header on the 22-minute mark, to break the Welsh hearts. From then on, it was backs to the wall time for the Russians who defended very well and overall deserve to go through.

After a thoroughly pleasing result away in Moscow, Wales failed to capitalize playing safe football. Mark Hughes' tactics for the game have come under huge criticism from supporters and the media, with his 4-5-1 formation failing to break down a solid Russian back line.

Wales' best chance of the night fell to Manchester United's Ryan Giggs. The left winger had the ball at his feet only yards in front of goal, but instead of powerfully blasting the ball home, Giggs tried to place his shot which clipped the bar and was cleared away. John Hartson and Andy Melville both had great chances to bring Wales back into the tie, but the Russians did enough defensively to hold out.

Daniel Gabbidon was the only City player who started the game, and he had a reasonable 90 minutes, although he did look a little inexperienced at times. Robert Earnshaw was brought on with 30 minutes to go, but the midfield road he was put into was not effective enough. I'm not Earnie's biggest fan, but I cannot understand how a player who is on such a run of confidence and has been scoring for run in recent weeks can be left out of a Welsh starting line-up that had to score!

The atmosphere for the game has to be questioned. This was undoubtedly the biggest game for the national side since Paul Bodin missed that infamous penalty 10 years ago, and yet the intimidating atmosphere that was created in Moscow by the home support could not be cloned by our support. When the Russians took the lead, the 70,000 Wales supporters were, at times, getting out sung by the travelling Russian support.

The question now is, what next for Welsh football? The future of many of the players is in doubt after failing to qualify, namely Gary Speed, John Hartson and Craig Bellamy, but perhaps the biggest question mark is on the future of Welsh boss Mark Hughes. Sparky is heavily linked with the assistant managers job at Old Trafford, a post he has admitted he would love to take up, and Tottenham Hotspur may offer him the hot seat at White Hart Lane.

Overall, although we have moved forward this campaign, it has once again ended in tears, and there will be no Wales in Portugal next year. Gutted. Next up for Wales, after the fun of some play-offs against other non-qualifiers will be the World Cup qualification groups. The draws for these will be in December, and who knows, maybe we'll be 3rd seeds?

Scotland's play-off misery in the Netherlands means, once again, England are the only British side to qualify for the finals. Personally, I will be supporting them, although this is not the attitude of every singly City fan, I know!

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