Results like this are the ones that make you glad you bothered and glad you care. A disorientating but joyful first 149 seconds brought goals from Kieffer Moore and Harry Wilson, leaving Montenegro dumbfounded and the Wales support delirious. A goal was the only thing missing from a very positive Wales performance against Turkey on Friday, but with that assignment ticked off twice within three minutes, Craig Bellamy was given his first victory as manager despite farcical conditions more suited to a medieval reenactment than an international football match.
The Wales fans in attendance were enthusiastic devotees of Project Bellamy, with a packed away end singing his name throughout. After the match, as gleeful supporters going back to the buses braved rain that felt straight from the Book of Revelation, we tried to remember Bellamy’s promise that his tenure was “going to be fun”.
Welsh football has felt revitalised over the past five days. There was an urgency to match-goers as they walked to the Cardiff City Stadium for the opening fixture of this Nations League campaign. A new manager in charge for a game in early September gave the match a back-to-school feel, albeit with an inkling that this new teacher was going to sit with his legs crossed on the desk, performatively throw last year’s textbook out of the window, and say: “Hi, I’m Craig. We do things differently in my class.”
Bellamy had been hugely persuasive in his pre-match interviews, with an enthusiasm that is infectious, talking about playing in shapes rather than formations, the value of intensity, work rate and being on the front foot, and eagerly praising the playing talent at his disposal.
The phrase “we’re in transition” was conspicuously absent and unlike other managers who have been new to the Wales job, there was no talk of using entire campaigns “to build for the future”.
Bellamy aims to hit the ground running, with qualification for the 2026 World Cup his ultimate aim. But this is Bellamy’s first role as permanent head coach, and that knowledge combined with memories of his career as a fine but combustible Wales international meant our more circumspect supporters viewed his appointment with curious expectation, rather than outright enthusiasm. After a stirring first-half performance spoiled only by Sorba Thomas’s goal being disallowed for offside, some of the more excitable fans in the Canton Stand were making wry jokes about the potential Football Association of Wales allocation for a World Cup final.
And so on to Montenegro. True believers study canonical texts, and we only had a decent point against the Euro 2024 quarter-finalists Turkey to scrutinise as driving rain hammered Niksic, travel plans were disrupted because of the weather and the game seemed in doubt. My friend Matthew sullied the good name of Welsh chess after being destroyed in a game by a man who claimed to be the Montenegrin national champion, and we undertook some important ambassadorial work by introducing the locals to the music of the Welsh language folk legend Meic Stevens and were played their national equivalent in return. I met a local ultra who assured us we’d be treated with respect as long as we didn’t march to the stadium. I looked at the rain that showed no sign of abating and said my plan revolved around running to the ground in a cagoule with my hood up and he seemed fine with that.
Within a few minutes of kick-off, and the bewildering situation of Wales already being two goals ahead, the pitch was cutting up badly and the game became absurd as players slipped, the ball skidded into touch, and shirts became mud-sodden in scenes more reminiscent of a 1970s Five Nations game. Seventeen years after the Wally with the Brolly, Bellamy invoked the McClaren Principle and eschewed an umbrella, his summer bomber jacket becoming sacrificed only two games into his managerial career, as Wales fans sang: “He’s getting soaked …”
Wales failed to control the game, the captain Ben Davies prompting memories of Slovakia at Euro 2016 with a superb goalline clearance, and Montenegro’s captain Stevan Jovetic hit the crossbar with a shot from the halfway line, before missing a sitter that was well saved by the debutant Karl Darlow. Sustained pressure led to Driton Camaj scoring a deserved goal for Montenegro and a nervy final 20 minutes for Wales.
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This is a significant result. It is the first time Wales have won in a country that made up the former Yugoslavia and for decades the Balkans more generally have been an elephant’s graveyard for Welsh qualification hopes. Even those with the strongest stomachs shudder at the memory of Chris Coleman team’s losing 6-1 to Serbia in 2012 and on the night we qualified for Euro 2016 Wales still lost 2-0 to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
But there is much work to be done. Bellamy is the first Wales manager to not have Gareth Bale as part of his plans since Mark Hughes. The freshness of his new ideas is as exciting as his inexperience and volatile past is a cause for concern. With this in mind he has amassed an impressive backroom staff, bringing Martyn Margetson back from his time with England and turning to Andrew Crofts, highly rated for his work with Brighton.
There were defensive lapses against Montenegro, and Wales failed to find the net against 10-man Turkey in a match they dominated. But we have had a glimpse of what is to come. Bellamy expressed sadness that this international break was over on Monday and the players were going back to their clubs. I know how he feels.
