Go And Make History Chris

It has been 57 years since Wales were last invited to the party that is a major international finals and in my lifetime I can think of four near misses where Wales came so close but could not cross the line when it mattered.

Failures against Scotland (twice), once against Romania and the most recent being Russia in 2003 could all be extinguished from the memory bank if this current crop of Wales players can go the final step and finish the job that they have started so brilliantly.

We go into the game in Cyprus tonight three points clear at the top of the group knowing that a win this evening followed up by a win over Israel on Sunday will be enough to secure that place in France next summer.

It has been an incredible turnaround for Wales who slumped after the premature death of Gary Speed in 2011 but under Chris Coleman they have built on the work that Speed was doing and now stand in an incredible 9th place in the world rankings and were seeded in amongst the top seeds for the next qualification groups for the World Cup.

But that is for another time, this is about France next summer and under the managerial control of Chris Coleman, the exceptional captaincy of Ashley Williams and the class of the likes of Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey we can now go and create the history we all want to see.

Coleman said: “I can understand the excitement building among fans because so many have not had a lot to shout about for so long.

“And I said at the start we were good enough to do something special and I’ve not seen anything to change my mind.

“We know what we have to do and we have not looked past this game – we are walking our own path, not anybody else’s.

“As of yet, we’ve not proved that we are different to the other teams in the past; we’re on the road to doing that but there are too many points to go yet.

“We know now the heat is on, the pressure is on and this is where you find things out about yourself. We’re good enough and strong enough to handle it and we’ve got to do that.”

As someone once said as a rallying cry “this is our day…”

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