12/10/2010 - Switzerland v Wales Fans

Wales Supporters Team, had a prior engagement before facing Switzerland in Basle. After meeting at 10am outside Basle Train Station, it was off to a 11am lecture at Basle University on the Sonnets of William Shakespeare. Don't ask who agreed all this, but it was all part of Wales plan to integrate into Swiss society in the hope they would go easy with a group of hungover Welsh players who, on paper, had the best squad assembled for a while, although Luke James was back in goal after being banned between the sticks for letting too many in and looking too good as a striker. Back to School, it was the first time for years some of the Wales players had been in a classroom environment as they considered the merits of Shakespeare with the Swiss students. After the lecture it was a pre-match lunch before two trams to the training pitch 4 next to the St. Jacob Stadium where the full Welsh side would play in the evening.

Wales kicked off with Dave O'Gorman wearing the arm band for the first time and Robbie Makaruk the only new cap in a five man midfield. Iwan Williams, fresh from several marathons was left as the lone striker, with Rhys Lewis slotting in an unfamiliar role at left back. It was soon obvious that the Swiss meant business and if it wasn't for Luke James, Wales would have been several down approaching the interval. As it happens it was only two, after a reshuffle of formation, Rhys Lewis was substituted to do an interview for Sgorio and he was also being outclassed by a girl. Wales were then given a lifeline as Rob Davies persevered to rob the show boating Swiss keeper to haul Wales back in it, but it wasn't long before the Swiss scored a third right on the half time whistle blown by referee Zelimir Mitrovic.

The second half saw the Swiss dominate again and with an English referee, Ian Swann now in the middle, he was giving Wales nothing as Rob Davies was lucky to be only booked for dissent. Switzerland scored three more goals, but it could have been a few more, as Luke James redeemed his earlier performances between the sticks, the worst conceding 16 goals against Slovakia in 2007, to produce a man of the match performance. Others to shine were Robbie Makaruk, the well worked central defensive partnership of Andrew Dowling and Owen Williams, who had taken one for the team to play in defence rather than his accustomed forward role. Liam Davies and Iwan Williams worked tirelessly for little substance, while Rhys Horan came through 60 minutes of his comeback game after over 3 years away due to a serious knee injury. Full credit to him, when many journalists thought he had played his last game for Wales on that hazy Autumn afternoon against the Germans in Cardiff, when he produced possibly the best ever display at this level. Rob Davies did what he does best, find the net, while another new cap, Damien Kinder looked solid in defence along with the evergreen Tim Hartley. Phil Williams, Scott Probert and Dave O'Gorman also worked hard, with Rhys Lewis looking much more comfortable in a midfield role in the second half. Kevin Davies coming to the end of his short Wales career would have provided the biggest roar of the day had he scored near the end but he was flagged offside by assistant referee, Battal Atici.

A spirited performance then against a technically and much fitter Switzerland side, but at least Wales were the last team standing as usual at the end of match BBQ. Thanks to the support the Wales team received from the fans with over 20 present and also a big thank you to Bianca Jasmund of the North West Swiss FA and for the donation of Swiss Flags and Chocolate Bars to all the Wales players. Despite the scoreline a fantastic day of representing Wales to the Swiss. They couldn't do enough for us at the end apart from score four times against the senior side.