Gareth Bale was present but not risked for a match in which Wales snatched a late winner through Ben Woodburn, a deserved outcome after their constant second-half pressure that improved Ryan Giggs’s still underwhelming record.
Having taken over a year on Friday, Giggs’s 10th match in charge ended as a fourth victory to go with five defeats and a draw. Before Sunday’s opening Euro 2020 qualifier against Slovakia the manager protected all his A-listers. This meant no Bale, Aaron Ramsey, Joe Allen, Ben Davies or first-choice goalkeeper, Wayne Hennessey.
Instead there was a chance for the fringe members to push a claim with Newcastle United’s Paul Dummett the sole, regular Premier League performer – the Leicester goalkeeper Danny Ward is a reserve along with Liverpool’s Woodburn.
Dennis Lawrence’s Trinidad & Tobago came into the contest having lost their last two games – by 1-0 score-lines to Iran and Thailand – and in Sheldon Bateau of Norway’s Sarpsborg had a solitary Europe-based player.
Lawrence, a former Wrexham player of five years, watched as Wales started brightly. Woodburn, the striker in Giggs’s 4-2-3-1, slipped a ball into Ryan Hedges and his dink was reached by Tyler Roberts though the Trinidad goalkeeper, Marvin Phillip, was not troubled.
The visitors operated a 4-4-1-1 and the captain, Khaleem Hyland, offered a first threat, taking aim from distance at Ward’s goal. When Chris Gunter crossed from the right Hedges’s shot was gathered by Phillip and this presaged a passage of Wales pressure along the other flank. The left-back, Neil Taylor, pinged in a couple of crosses and Will Vaulks’s ball was headed weakly by Woodburn.
Then came a burst of quality as the Trinidad No 9, Will Plaza, found Hyland and he recycled the ball to Nathan Lewis at speed; Wales were grateful nothing came of it. So, too, were the visitors when George Thomas sprayed wide as the interval neared. Just before the whistle Woodburn was the object of a painful challenge from Kevan George but was able to resume.
For the second half Giggs brought off Ward for Adam Davies, the Barnsley keeper making his international debut. Lawrence’s switch was to replace Plaza with Cordell Cato of Oklahoma City.
Giggs named Ashley Williams as captain despite the on-loan Everton centre-back’s struggle to play regularly for Stoke City and the manager will not have been happy to see him cede the ball carelessly.
Yet given the low-key nature of the friendly this could maybe be excused. After a rousing pre-game rendition of Land of My Fathers from the sell-out 12,000 ground the crowd had also become becalmed.
But when Woodburn slipped in Thomas the No 11’s fierce shot warmed Phillip’s fingers – and the crowd – as he saved to his right. Suddenly the game flared. Levi Garcia rounded Davies at the other end and found Aubrey David and his effort was cleared off the Wales line by Gunter.
From here Wales pressed and finally got the breakthrough, Woodburn’s chest home coming from a Vaulks’s ball to the back post. His goal gave Wales the perfect boost before the serious stuff, this weekend’s start to their qualification campaign for the European Championship.
