Hartson takes delight from Wales' great expectations

It was deep in the night in Baku Airport, there was a six-hour flight ahead and he had given an immense performance in a match Wales had to win, but John Hartson still appeared utterly fresh, his mind alive as he leaned back on a plastic chair.

It helped that Wales had won and that he had scored, glancing home what he called a "perfect" free-kick from Simon Davies. It helped, too, that his manager, Mark Hughes, had kept his team on British time, so that what was 11 o'clock at night appeared more like seven in the evening. But it was the future which really excited a Swansea boy, who was barely a year old when Wales last created international headlines by reaching the quarter-finals of the 1976 European Championship.

"We are looking to win every game. The fans want it, the manager wants it – even in Italy the fans will go over there and expect us to get a result. Four or five years ago, Wales going to Italy would not have been given a cat in hell's chance."

Hartson said that Wednesday's 2-0 victory in Azerbaijan, which put Wales five points clear at the head of their European Championship qualifying group, would not properly sink in until he saw it in the morning papers back home. But he acknowledged that the swelling expectations in the Principality, where schools stopped lessons early to watch a broadcast of the match, created their own dangers.

When they were drawn in the same group as Italy and Yugoslavia, Hughes' team would have been quite happy to have finished second and take their chances of going to Portugal via a play-off. However, having raced into an early lead, Hartson acknowledged that anything less than automatic qualification would be regarded as failure. Should they have to settle for the play-offs, it might have an unsettling and demoralising impact.

"Schools in Wales being given time off to watch the match – that got a mention in the changing-room," he said. "Little things like that help. I was down in Swansea on Saturday and people were coming up, winding down car windows, and saying: 'Good luck'. People talk about the Irish fans and the Tartan Army but if Wales got to Portugal it would be something. It would be really great for the fans who've watched Wales for years – not the bandwagon jumpers who've only come aboard because we're winning.

"If we come through the next game with 12 points, then we really would be in a strong position. It would be a tragedy if we don't get there now, especially after the spell we've had. We have to keep the momentum going. We have always had a little bit of belief but, having won in Finland, beaten Italy and now won in Azerbaijan, the belief is there, for sure.

"If we don't qualify now, the boys will be gutted. We're not thinking of second place now. At the start, second would not have been a disaster but it would now. We expect to go through, we really do."

To do so, they will need a clear head. There were nerves aplenty in the first 10 minutes of each half in Baku, but they were soothed by towering performances from Hartson and especially from his captain, Gary Speed, who scored the first goal and still had the presence of mind to make one vital tackle in his own penalty area to prevent what would have been an equaliser.

"Gary led from the front, but that is what Gary Speed is all about," Hughes said. "He is a big, big influence in the dressing-room and on the pitch. He realises he has a great squad of players around him and he is there to guide them, and he certainly did that in this match."

Should Wales avoid defeat in Belgrade in April, they would be very strong favourites to qualify for only their second major finals but first they must overcome Azerbaijan in the Millennium Stadium. "It is going to be a very dangerous game," Hartson said. "It will be a full house with everyone expecting us to win four or five-nil. I expect us to win but not by that."