The end of Welsh football’s 21st century Golden era or just a blip along the way?

One Response to The end of Welsh football’s 21st century Golden era or just a blip along the way?

1. Dai Woosnam says:

   March 27, 2026 at 12:48 pm

   Thanks Paul, as ever.
   And like you, I feel no sense of loss that we ain’t going Stateside. Not sure I can take much more repetition of Dafydd Iwan’s signature song… having loved it when I first came upon it on YouTube about 15 years ago… with that performance at the National Eisteddfod at Bala. It may not have chimed exactly with my view of history, but ‘parti pris’ or not, I had to admit it was mesmerisingly compellingly brilliant.

   But now I favour a sweeter side of our national character, one that captures the warmth of our nature… one of the songs of my childhood indeed.

   Of the myriad versions on YouTube, this is the one that never fails to bring tears to my eyes… a truncated version of the 1940 song, sung in a reciprocal concert on 5th of October 1957 across the newly installed Transatlantic cable from The Grand Pavilion in Porthcawl to the great Paul Robeson in NYC… a brave man shamefully deprived of his passport by his government.
   https://tinyurl.com/2wpvhxkb

   This song shows we are a welcoming rather than a bitter people… as evinced by our manager last night, who for all his faults in team selection and tactics, and occasional his dust-up with the opposition management during the 120 minutes, was impressively noble in the way he took the crushing disappointment, and warmly (yes warmly) embraced his rival manager at the end.

   Yes, we will keep our natural warmth, and extend it even in defeat to a quite cynical (but equally let us not forget, quite talented team… OMG… that dangerous slightly moustachioed 18 yr old chap they brought on at left wing is going to be some player…)

   As for last night’s game, we blew it tactically. Bellamy said his team would start all energy… and yes whilst in part we did and got them rattled, alas throughout the game his goalie Darlow slowed it up whenever he had the ball, leisurely walking around his penalty area tapping the ball hoping in vain to have a Bosnian mad dog jump out of position and thus provide some way for us to jump their press*… but the Bosnians were not that stupid.

   And then Lawlor, who was admittedly better than Rodon on the night, when he did get the ball, would almost invariably pass it square and then get it straight back. Yet we kept this nonsense up all 120 minutes.

   Re Lawlor: his trademark fine defence-cutting long pass forward was largely absent from his evening. And we could have done with Cabango’s stronger aerial prowess to defend the Bosnian headed equaliser.

   As for Ashley Williams slating the Romanian referee: shame on him. The ref booked his first Bosnian after just 4 minutes…!! What more does he want?

   I could not help but go back exactly half a century to the ‘Battle of Ninian Park’ in May 1976 where a police officer was speared in the neck by a corner flag thrown as an assagai by a Welsh fan.

   But thank heavens last night’s referee was no Herr Rudi Glöckner from East Germany… who was so one-sided in his decisions that many of us genuinely believe he took a bribe.

   The Bosnians even took the field in the all-white the Yugoslavs wore that day…and that Yugoslav team incidentally contained several key big cynical Bosnian players.

   As for Johnson who recently had his one really good game for Wales: Palace fans clearly think they have got his number and regard him as money wasted. How he can be selected before Sorba Thomas, is a mystery.

   As for Craig’s subs: how he can pick Harris over Broadhead is a puzzle, and the anonymous Cullen must so now regret that totally unnecessary corner he conceded. The keeper was as culpable as our centre backs for the result of that corner, but he deserves some credit in his bank for that brilliant save from that earlier header.

   I reckon that only Dasilva had an 8/10 game… Dan James was one of a handful of sevens. Great goal, for sure.

   To me, this was a chance missed. I reckon we’d have given the Italians a real run for their money next Tuesday. I now won’t be surprised if Bosnia go and beat the Italians as the game is in Zenica.

   *not unlike Son of Pep had his Kepa doing last Sunday at Wembley…

   TTFN,
   Dai.