John Hartson set Hughes' side on the way in the 30th minute before Simon Davies sealed a perfect start to the qualifying campaign 18 minutes before the end.

Hughes was full of praise for his players, although he admitted that there was still room for improvement.

"I can sense that the players believe that this is the start of something special," Hughes said.

"It has been a long process over the last two years to get to this stage, but the players have come out the other side with great belief and desire.

"When I took over they were weak mentally, but not now. They can withstand pressure and look a stronger side.

"It is a great dressing room to work with. It is full of strong characters, strong men who have suffered bitter disappointments and experiences in the past.

"Now we hope that we can give them something better. Maybe prior to this game people felt we were an easy team, but now we have surprised a lot of people.

"However, we can play better. The lads know that, but we pat them all on the back."

Although Hughes praised the team performance, understandably there was special recognition for the two goalscorers who helped Wales get their Group Nine campaign off to a winning start.

"Both played really well, and produced performances that played a major part in the victory," Hughes added.

"John has the physical presence to play a demanding role up front on his own to perfection and Simon is becoming a wonderful player with a great future ahead of him in the game."

Hughes can now look ahead to the next match against Group Nine favourites Italy, who arrive in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on 16 October.

"It sets up the Italy game perfectly. There are going to be some big nights for us at the Millennium Stadium now and we fear no-one.

"We played to a system that is a counter-attacking one, and I feel that is the best for the players we have. We didn't do it too well in the first half but in the second we were very good at it.

"We can then be very difficult to play against because of the pace we have in the team.

"The Finns are a good team but we always had the players with the right mentality and skills to cope."