“It was 26 games, but not all of them have been under [coach] Jimmy Shoulder. The bad luck we’ve had hasn’t helped, certainly in the two previous games against Finland and Italy.”But it was a brilliant feeling to score the goal that ended it. Seeing the fans so happy was something special.”Now we can move forward as a squad. If we get something from our next match against Yugoslavia and then win the return with Azerbaijan in Wales next March I honestly think we can get close to qualifying for the European Championship finals.”. “A good time for travel and learning,” read Mark Hughes’ horoscope in the Baku Times. His team returned to Cardiff in the small hours of this morning having travelled as far as any Welsh team for a competitive fixture and their manager will have learned much about the depth of resources available to him.

For a time before John Hartson’s header settled the night conclusively it seemed you were watching the old Wales before Hughes put his mark on the principality: pushed into their own half by footballers from a country they had barely heard of. Even 10 minutes from the end, Paul Jones was required to make a fearsomely good save from Farrukh Ismailov. Hughes’ assertion that there are no easy internationals ­ even against countries such as Azerbaijan who cannot organise their own domestic championship ­ rang true. “I told the players in the dressing-room that this was more important than beating Italy,” Hughes reflected afterwards “It was more important because of the lack of staff I had.

We could have been embarrassed and there was more worry going into this game than there ever was before we played Italy.”It was a victory earned and has put Wales five points clear at the top of Group Nine with five matches remaining. If they do not lose to Azerbaijan in Cardiff in March, they will have established the longest unbeaten run in the history of Welsh football, bettering even the sainted players of 1958.The thinness of his midfield, lacking Robbie Savage and Mark Pembridge, had forced Hughes to switch his captain, Gary Speed, from the left-back position he has recently made his own for Wales into the centre of what could best be described as a Christmas tree formation. The concept would be recognised in Azerbaijan, a free-wheeling Muslim country which has embraced the culture of the mosque and Kylie Minogue.Even in midfield, Speed is not a prolific goalscorer. Yesterday’s was his fifth in 71 internationals and his last came in another corner of the former Soviet Union, Minsk, more than two years ago. But, as they know in Newcastle, Speed is a fearsome header of a ball, although his task was made considerably easier by a complete absence of marking as he rose to meet a ninth-minute corner from Simon Davies, the supplier of both Welsh goals.It had been won by a combination the Azeri coach, Asker Abdullayev, would have feared, Ryan Giggs and John Hartson, even if he would not have anticipated the Celtic striker muscling down the left flank to centre for Giggs. A superb save from Djakhanghir Gasanzade gave the icon of Welsh football a second chance which was also blocked but crucially ran over the byline for the corner that settled Welsh nerves.Even though they were pitted against a team who had not played competitively for six months and stand on the verge of suspension by Uefa for wanton maladministration, Wales needed calming. Azerbaijan won the first corners and had the first shot while Darren Barnard, Speed’s replacement at left-back, struggled to cope with the guile of Samir Aliyev Twice he came close in the first half.

Once, before Speed struck, Aliyev had Jones at full stretch, tipping his shot past the post. Then, as Wales appeared to have wrested control of the game, Aliyev had only the goalkeeper to beat, although his drive clattered against Jones’s legs.It was appropriate in a stadium named after the man who ruled Geoff Hurst’s second goal had crossed the line in the 1966 World Cup final that a linesman should play a prominent part. The match featured a similar incident, as another Davies corner was greeted with another shrug of the shoulders by the Azeri back-four. Hartson’s header crashed down from the underside of the bar and may or may not have crossed the line. Tofik Bakhramov could not be asked for an opinion, as he is buried in a corner of a Baku cemetery reserved for artists and poets Hartson did not protest and had no need to. If Azerbaijan displayed considerable spirit going forward, they showed no semblance of organisation defending set-pieces.