Wales defender Chris Gunter stands his ground against Azerbaijan
Defender Chris Gunter says Saturday's 1-0 win in the World Cup qualifier away to Azerbaijan in Baku was priceless in the development of a young Wales team.
Injuries to senior players forced Wales boss John Toshack to pick a side that had an average age of just 21.7 years.
The end result was a first away win for Wales in their Group Four campaign.
"You can't buy that experience... people talk about experience all the time in football and the only way you can get it is by playing," said Gunter.
"So to look back and say we played in Azerbaijan and got a 1-0 win - it was a clean sheet, it can't do anyone any harm and to get the win as well is even better.
"We've just come here and not feared it, we knew it was going to be difficult.
"Their players are a little bit older and tried some tricks and whatever, but to be fair we didn't rise to it too much.
"We got the goal, we defended when we had to, Wayne's [goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey] made a few good saves.
"We needed to get a result, I think if we'd have come away from Azerbaijan and not won then people probably would have asked questions.
"The fans, the players, the whole atmosphere of Welsh football was quite down.
"Hopefully the performance in Azerbaijan will lift it a little bit, it won't put the Finland result right but we just want to move on now."
Simon Church, the 20-year-old Reading midfielder, made his full Wales debut, having won his first cap last Friday as a late substitute in the 1-0 friendly with Estonia.
The winner came from Wolves midfielder Dave Edwards, the 23-year-old timing his run into the box to perfection just before half-time as home goalkeeper Farhad Veliyev spilled Rob Earnshaw's low cross.
Wales have a friendly in Montenegro in August and return to competitive action on 9 September at home to Russia.
Back-to-back home defeats to Finland and Germany in March-April effectively ended Wales' faint qualification hopes.
But Wales can still target third place in the group to boost their seeding for future qualification campaigns.
Toshack will hope to have available the 10 players who missed the Baku win through injury - including regular captain Craig Bellamy - although Gunter says the manager will have some nice selection dilemmas.
"The people who've come in have done well and that gives the manager something to think about," said the Tottenham full-back, who has been on loan at Nottingham Forest this season.
"People like Churchy [Simon Church] who's come in for his first competitive game, Aaron Ramsey... Joe's [Ledley] our captain and he's 22 says it all.
"He [Ledley] leads by example on the pitch in the way he performs, he probably covers as many miles on the pitch as anyone and he proved that in Azerbaijan.
"He's a fantastic captain for us and any young player coming through for Wales looks up to Joe because he's got into the squad, stayed there, is a permanent fixture in the team and has gone on to captain the team."
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