Fletcher: Welsh skipper

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John Toshack is expected to experiment with his young squad when Wales travel to Iceland on Wednesday.

The Welsh have enjoyed a resurgence in fortunes of late, with the full side unbeaten in their last four and the Under 21s on the verge of qualification for the 2009 European Championship.

They will be keen to keep that momentum going in Reykjavik, and without the distraction of Euro 2008 this summer Toshack will use the trip as an opportunity to hand senior debuts to up to five of his promising prospects.

Full-back Joe Jacobson and midfielders Jack Collison and Aaron Ramsey could all play, and they should be joined in the starting XI by strikers Sam Vokes and Ched Evans.

Toshack is hoping that his rising stars will have matured in time to play a major role in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers and is confident that they will be able to transfer their impressive club form onto the international stage.

Experience

"Ched Evans has got himself a new contract at Manchester City and did well on loan at Norwich, while Sam Vokes has got a decent move to Wolves, which will only help him," said Toshack.

"But things have changed a lot for me, certainly from my first game when we were running around trying to find six substitutes against Hungary.

"It will be good experience for a few of the younger ones now and I can see young players getting better.

"But for us to ever qualify for a major tournament, a lot of things must come together at the same time.

"We have negatives like the injured senior men, but the positives are that we have a lot of new faces around and a few of the squad have improved themselves with play-off successes.

"We have Sam Ricketts and Boaz Myhill now looking forward to the Premier League, Brian Stock has gone up with Doncaster and Vokes and Ashley Williams have both been transferred to higher divisions."

Boosted

Toshack will be forced to once again cope without talismanic skipper Craig Bellamy, while Fulham's Simon Davies is also missing.

As a result, Crystal Palace midfielder Carl Fletcher will lead his country for the first time at the Laugardalsvollur Stadium.

Wales should be in confident mood heading into the fixture, but will have been boosted by the news that the hosts will be without former Chelsea striker Eidur Gudjohnsen.

The forward has been blocked from reporting for duty by his club Barcelona, a decision which has come as a major blow to the hosts.

Gudjohnsen provides Iceland's most potent attacking threat and had been set to captain his country in the friendly encounter.