- Wales secured their first victory under Craig Bellamy despite heavy downpours
- Kieffer Moore and Harry Wilson found the net inside the opening three minutes
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Craig Bellamy celebrated his first win as a manager and described Wales’ win over Montenegro as the toughest game of his career.
In driving rain, early goals from Kieffer Moore – after just 37 seconds – and Harry Wilson put Wales in an ideal position, and they held on in deteriorating conditions even though Driton Camaj pulled one back for the home side in the second half.
This game was switched to Niksic due to the poor quality of the pitch at the City Stadium in Podgorica and the new venue looked more like a county-level athletics arena than a football stadium.
Bellamy said: ‘These are the toughest conditions I’ve been in. Nothing about coming here has been easy. You could have had a lot of excuses about this trip. The change of venue, the travel here, a bus driver who took his time, the conditions. But sometimes you learn from it.
‘There is a reason why this group have qualified for major tournaments. It wasn’t a football match. The conditions weren’t going to allow it.
Wales secured their first win under new boss Craig Bellamy after beating Montenegro
Kieffer Moore scored after just 37 seconds and Harry Wilson doubled the lead soon after
Wilson crashed in a superb effort from 25 yards to hand the visitors the perfect start
Wales’ bold approach looked a little reckless at times and Montenegro deserved a goal
‘We saw after five mins the pitch tore up and then it becomes about who can win the battle. It was close at times. It was a boxing match. There were two teams on their feet we came out on top. Sometimes you take more pride from these wins.’
This was Bellamy’s second game in charge after an encouraging 0-0 draw with Turkey last Friday and he has enjoyed the experience so much that he does not want it to finish.
Players return to their clubs for the weekend league matches and Wales are not in action again until next month’s fixtures – again in the Nations League – against Iceland and the return fixture against Montenegro in Cardiff.
He added: ‘Last night I was really excited about the game but also sad as it ends tomorrow. What happens on Tuesday? They’re all going to leave me and I don’t want them to go.
‘You want your first win of course and you want it quick. Longer-term I see us being able to affect games in a positive way.”
