John Toshack praised Craig Bellamy's two-goal show as the Wales boss began his tenure with a 2-0 win over Hungary. "He (Bellamy) enjoyed himself and in the last 15 minutes he had even more joy, got a second goal and could even have had a third," Toshack said.
"He hadn't played a full game for three or four weeks so he'll be happy, he ran them round a little bit.
"We said before that the result wasn't the most important thing, it was an introduction to some new faces."
Toshack admitted that he was pleasantly surprised by how what was left of his inexperienced squad responded to the injury withdrawals of players such as Ryan Giggs, John Hartson and Robbie Savage.
 | The new lads played very well and they can be pleased |
The former Real Madrid boss opted to start with a 3-5-2 formation that employed attacking full-backs and used Danny Gabbidon as a 'spare' in a central back three.
"We've had a rocky few days and to be fair to the players we hadn't worked on that system of play at all," Toshack added.
"Injuries to John Hartson and Jason Koumas caught us on the hop and we just changed things around this (Wednesday) morning.
"The way we played against the Hungarian system wasn't the most intelligent tactically, but we didn't have too many alternatives - in midfield going forward we were very, very thin.
"But the new lads played very well and they can be pleased with themselves.
"Danny Gabbidon as a spare centre back was a new position to him but he did very well, and Sam Ricketts made the step up and looked as though he'd been playing at that level for some time.
"The other lads at the back, Robert Page and David Partridge also did very well."