Fast starts and a licence to thrill: Wales warming to Project Bellamy

The manager’s front-foot style of play has excited fans despite a tendency to fade in the second half of matches

When Craig Bellamy talks, you ­listen. He can command a ­touchline, a ­dressing room, the deepest of ­auditoriums, a gaggle of ­journalists in a ­bunker of Laugardalsvöllur ­stadium. Presumably one of the reasons Wales’s players so quickly bought into his ideas is that he is such a ­compelling orator and, ­consequently, he is easy to believe.

So when he was at pains to amplify the pluses of throwing away a two-goal lead in Reykjavík on Friday, it was hard not to take him at face value. In fairness, the positives were there: Bellamy is the first Wales ­manager to avoid defeat in his first three ­competitive matches and unbeaten at the halfway stage of the Nations League.

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