Bellamy set to play as history spurs Hartson

While everyone was examining the mental state of Craig Bellamy, his strike partner, John Hartson, was delving a little into the history of the Welsh game.

Although both men have explosive tempers, Hartson is very different from Bellamy in both his football and his background. One is the archetypal British centre-forward, the other relies on pace and guile. One comes from Swansea and speaks Welsh, the other is a Cardiff boy who does not. Hartson, you feel, is more in tune with what it would mean for Wales to qualify for next summer's European Championship.

"Look at the list of players who have represented Wales down the years," he said. "Rush, Nicholas, Hughes, Southall... it goes on and on. So many great players have pulled on a red jersey yet we have the opportunity to do something they never did, qualify for a major championship. We can do that and we are desperate for ourselves and the Welsh public."

Unlike Gary Speed, who does not dwell on the way time is sliding away for many of this squad, Hartson is keenly aware of the clock. "Two or three of us will be thinking it's the best chance we have of reaching a finals. By the time it comes round I'll be 29. After that, I would probably have one more shot at the World Cup but I don't know beyond that.

"The likes of Andy Melville, Gary Speed and Mark Pembridge are already 30-plus and Ryan Giggs soon will be. They will be thinking on similar lines. That's why we are so desperate not to mess up on these qualifiers; we realise we are on the verge of something great."

Their four-point lead in Group Nine looks formidable but such is the fragility of their confidence – which cannot be relied on to carry them through a play-off – Wales want to finish first. This means that, whatever he may privately feel about Bellamy, Mark Hughes will not drop him for disciplinary or mental reasons.

The Wales manager has dwelt long and hard over Bellamy's confidence following the nightclub incident in the small hours of Monday morning but will select him to play against an Azerbaijan side which pushed Wales hard before succumbing 2-0 in Baku and snatched a 2-2 draw against Serbia and Montenegro last month.

"I have checked on how Craig was feeling," said Hughes. "He has trained well and I would have no problem in selecting him. The players are in the public eye more than ever and there has to be an understanding of the situation. If they are remorseful and want to do something about it, I can accept that. But if they continue to do the same thing... you make other decisions."

Their national league may be about to reawaken from a year-long suspension following the resignation of leading clubs but in Gurban Gurbanov, who scored twice in Montenegro, and Zaur Tagizade, their player of 2002 who has been out for a year through injury, Azerbaijan have the talent to wound. Hughes is likely to select Aston Villa's Rob Edwards at right-back, instead of Cardiff's Rhys Weston. Bellamy aside, his only other dilemma is whether to play Nottingham Forest's Darren Ward in goal or Paul Jones, who cannot command a first-team place at Southampton.

WALES: (probable 4-3-3) Ward (Nottingham Forest); Edwards (Aston Villa), Melville (Fulham), Page (Sheffield Utd), Speed (Newcastle); Davies (Tottenham), Savage (Birmingham), Pembridge (Everton); Bellamy (Newcastle), Hartson (Celtic), Giggs (Manchester Utd).

AZERBAIJAN: (probable 4-4-2): Hasanzade (Volyn Lutsk), Yadullayev (Sanat-Naft), Guliyev (Volyn Lutsk), Akhmedov (Karabagh-Azersun Agdam), R Mamedov (Pecan), M Gurbanov (Fulad), Imamaliev (Shafa Baku), Tagizade (Shafa Baku), F Mamedov (Masinsazi), G Gurbanov (Volga-Gazprom Astrakhan), Aliyev (Volyn Lutsk).

Referee: P Leuba (Switzerland).