As Gary Speed led out the Welsh team in the Red Star Belgrade stadium before the match with Serbia & Montenegro in August, the endeavours of the Welsh football supporters' appeal, Gôl!, meant that 35 children from the city's Dom Za Decu Bez Rodutelja orphanage were able to witness the all important game in Group 9.

As well as buying tickets to allow the children to watch experience the match in the flesh, Gôl! had arranged to visit the orphanage to deliver goods which had been collected months previously.

Amongst the gifts were pyjamas kindly donated by Aykroyds of Bala, T-shirts and toothbrushes given by the S4C childrens' programme Uned 5, football kits donated by Merthyr Tydfil, Cardiff Ladies FC and Everton, childrens' videos donated by BBC Wales, sof toys given by the Bow Street Grwp Help Llaw near Aberystwyth and toothpaste given by B.K. Humphries dental surgery in Caernarfon.

A hardy band of Gôl! members had visited the orphanage in April even though the scheduled match between Wales and Serbia & Montenegro had been postponed following the assasination of the country's Prime Minister. Such was the welcome received that it was decided to revisit the orphanage to deliver the rest of the gifts as well as making a cash donation and presenting the match tickets.

Once the gifts were presented, the boys were eager to show off their footballing skills, and to be honest, they didn't think much of our chances in a 'friendly' 5-a-side match.
"You are all too fat," said one young boy. "We will thrash you."
And true to their word, thrash us they did!

With the vast majority of the boys from Bala deciding that they were suffering too much from the previous night's activities to play, our squad was a small one, having to rely on the silky skills of Tommie Collins and hoping that our goalkeeper, Keith Humphries from Bala, was willing to dive on the concrete pitch!

And from the second that Gary Pritchard was called up from the sub's bench it was obvious that the Welsh were in deep trouble!