Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency. ByDafydd Pritchard. BBC Sport Wales. 8 hours ago. 121 Comments. Craig Bellamy showed a new side to his personality as Wales head coach on Tuesday night. Or was it a flashback to his old self?. Wales were losing at home to Northern Ireland in a friendly, and Bellamy was not happy with his team’s first-half performance.. For the first time since taking charge in 2024, he let rip. Slamming tables, raising his voice, Bellamy erupted in front of his players.. “It was the first half-time I had to go in and really go,” he said. “My hand’s still hurting from hitting the table.. “We cannot be that. I can accept a poor performance with the ball and mistakes are never a problem. But winning duels, winning second balls, coming back together, that to me means the most.. “Did I get them ready enough? Because I thought I did before and the messaging of ‘We can’t waste games’ and ‘Average teams have excuses’. I don’t believe we’re an average team, but our behaviour was. We wasted a half.”. Wales held to flat friendly draw by Northern Ireland. Wales boss Bellamy to keep ‘best job in the world’. 1 day ago. Centre-back Joe Rodon said it was the first time this Wales team had seen Bellamy in such a rage.. For anyone who followed the 46-year-old as a player, it would come as no surprise. The former Liverpool and Manchester City forward courted controversy on and off the field over the course of a career packed with notable achievements but several flashpoints too.. As much as Bellamy might have mellowed as a coach, his half-time tirade demonstrated that his fiery temper is still in there somewhere.. And frankly, the game was so insipid that it needed something – or someone – to liven it up.. This, after all, was not how Wales had imagined Tuesday would play out.. This was meant to be another of those famous nights under the Cardiff City Stadium lights, with a place at the World Cup on the line.. Instead, what Wales got was a friendly against Northern Ireland. At home, yes, but not the game they wanted. In fact, it was a match nobody wanted.. Having lost their World Cup play-off semi-finals against Bosnia-Herzegovina and Italy respectively five days earlier, given the choice, Wales and Northern Ireland would probably have had the night off to wallow.. Or at least that was the option a large number of fans appeared to have opted for, judging by the empty seats.. The match had been a sell-out in terms of tickets sold, with Wales fans encouraged to buy in advance to guarantee their place in the event of a play-off final against Italy.. Given the gut-wrenching nature of their penalty shootout defeat against Bosnia, it was understandable that many of them couldn’t stomach this fixture.. Northern Ireland supporters, meanwhile, had been offered refunds by their association, who sensed the lack of appetite, even if their defeat in Italy had been less of a sickener.. Still, it could have been worse. When these sides met in the short-
