Wales on way up despite Austria defeat, says Flynn

Brian Flynn insisted there were plenty of positives for his Wales Under-21 side to reflect on despite their unfortunate 2-0 defeat in Austria on Tuesday night.

Brian Flynn insisted there were plenty of positives for his Wales Under-21 side to reflect on despite their unfortunate 2-0 defeat in Austria on Tuesday night.

The Uefa Under-21 Championship qualifier at Neusiedl Am See was a torrid affair at times, poorly refereed by the Armenian Ararat Tchagharyan. He missed two blatant penalties for fouls on Craig Davies but showed a red card to Craig Morgan for a mid-air challenge that was mild in comparison.

Roman Kienast scored early on and Jurgen Samuel near the end when Wales were down to 10 men, but had it not been for a fine display by the Austrian goalkeeper Ramazan Ozcan, the Welsh may have forced a draw.

"There were lots of encouraging things, lots of ability and another small step for us," Flynn said. "But that is how it will be until the qualifiers for the 2008 European Championship start, then we will see how far we have climbed up the ladder.

"But I certainly feel that we have managed a couple of rungs in these last two games with Austria. There have been several plus points, but when Craig Morgan was sent off we had to change things. It was unfortunate we couldn't get the goal we needed to really spark us."

The Wrexham defender Morgan will now miss the group games against England, Poland and Germany. "I still don't know what I got the red card for," he said. "It's the first time I have been sent off for Wales and the referee didn't even speak a word of English."