Wales arrived in Slovakia still smarting from their loss to Germany but with skipper Craig Bellamy back in the squad and in high spirits.
Bellamy trained with the squad ahead of the afternoon flight from Cardiff having been absent for four days at the bedside of his sick one-week-old daughter.
But the West Ham man was raring to go as the squad arrived here, saying only: ‘I'm fine, I want to play.’
Bellamy's new daughter was discharged from hospital last night and the 27-year-old felt able to leave her in the care of her mother and several family members.
He has been needed at home for much of last week, and that ruled him out of the disappointing 2-0 home defeat by Germany which virtually ends Wales' chances of qualifying for Euro 2008 ahead of Wednesday’s clash with Slovakia, 40 miles outside Bratislava in Trnava.
Now Wales need him too after what was a confidence-shattering defeat at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday for boss John Toshack's young side.
Jason Koumas failed to make the trip following an ankle knock, Mark Jones was sent back to Wrexham with a stomach upset, while Jermaine Easter, David Edwards and Neal Eardley were added to the party, with Real Sociedad midfielder David Vaughan flying from Barcelona to Vienna, where a hire car transported him to Bratislava.
Wales need a good result here, but the feeling is that their squad of youngsters received far too much criticism for being beaten by the third-best team in the world.
Certainly defender Danny Gabbidon agreed with that theory. The West Ham man will be at the heart of Wales' defence tomorrow in this Group D match, winning his 36th cap.
All around him will be youngsters learning how to play at this level, and still smarting from being outclassed by Germany in Cardiff.
Toshack admitted to damage limitation in the second half to avoid a humiliation.
Gabbidon said: ‘If we can cut out the errors, hopefully we can get a better result here in Slovakia.
‘Maybe expectations were a bit high at the weekend, considering who we were playing and when you look at the make-up of our team. They had world-class players throughout and we had a lot of youngsters, most of whom are not Premier League players.
‘It's going to take some time to get the best from them and they can learn as much from defeats like that as from the wins we've had. But we have to set our ambitions high and try to reach them.
‘We had done pretty well in recent games. Now we must try to put in a good performance every time we play.
‘We want to get some more points but it's just as important for the younger players to gain the experience of international football.
‘So we won't give up, we will give 100% in every game and see how many points we can get from the remaining games. But we have to look forward now as well to the next qualifying campaign and believe these games will stand us in good stead for that next competition.’
