San Marino fright for Tosh

Toshack: Tense times

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Wales boss John Toshack admitted the Euro 2008 clash with San Marino was a real test of his nerves.

Toshack's side were 2-0 up at the interval but lost their way after the break with Andy Selva's superb free-kick making for a tense finish.

The Wales boss had launched a stinging attack on the attitude of his players after their 3-1 defeat by Cyprus on Saturday and the performance in San Marino was hardly the response he was looking for.

Attitude

He said: "I still feel we have a lot of work and talking to do if we are going to change some players' attitude.

"I still want to push younger players in. Some of these lads have had a rollicking, but these days you don't seem to be able to do that to young players. They think that they know it all."

And Toshack admitted he was left praying for the final whistle after San Marino scored only their second goal in 11 qualifying matches.

Sloppy

He said: "Games against teams like this frighten the life out of me. San Marino almost beat the Republic of Ireland here and you know things like that can happen.

"I hope the next 10 days we are together will be better than this one was. Okay, so this was a win, but that's all.

"We set about the first half in the right way, scored two and could have had more. We were good value for that lead at the break.

"But in the second period we had to make a change because David Vaughan was struggling with a groin injury and we didn't really get started after that.

"We were not as good as we were in the first half and we gave away a needless free-kick for them to score. From then on, we were biting our nails and calling for the whistle.

"That was a pity because it should not have been that close. But it was difficult against a defence that did not come out.

"But to concede from a free-kick like that, with us not marking up properly and generally being sloppy disappointed me."