Toshack relieved after close shave

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Toshack had seen his heavily-criticised side dominate the first half of Wednesday night's European Championship qualifier with goals from Robert Earnshaw and Joe Ledley, but the Group D minnows hit back with a second-half strike from Andy Selva, which gave the Welsh contingent a nerve-wracking final few minutes.

Toshack said: "(In the second half) 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."

He added: "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. They think that they know it all."

Toshack looked drained after a week of soul searching and recriminations in which he doubted his own position.

He said: "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.

"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.

"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."