Vokes spares Wales' blushes

11:49pm Saturday 6th September 2008

Teenage substitute Sam Vokes scored his first international goal to give Wales a 1-0 victory over Azerbaijan and allow manager John Toshack to breathe a huge sigh of relief.

Vokes, signed in the summer by Wolves from Bournemouth, came off the bench to give a youthful Wales side a deserved victory in their opening World Cup qualifier.

Before the 18-year-old's close-range winner, Wales had toiled to break down an ultra-defensive Azerbaijan side who had Brazilian-born forward Fabio Luis Ramim sent off after Jason Koumas had missed a penalty.

The one thing Wales could not have afforded was to lose this match ahead of Wednesday's much tougher trip to Russia.

But when Koumas saw a penalty, and his follow-up volley, saved in the second half, it looked like Wales were going to be denied a victory their industry and confidence merited.

Wales were on the front foot for much of the game. Goalkeeper Kamran Agayev made a stunning flying save to touch away a 30-yard strike from Koumas, then Ramim was booked for using his elbow on Gareth Bale after 48 minutes, which other referees may have considered a red-card offence.

The home side then had an excellent opportunity to break the deadlock after 66 minutes when Chris Gunter was brought down in the box by Rashad Sadikhov and Koumas stepped up for the penalty. He saw his first effort blocked by Agayev, who then did well to catch the follow-up.

Azerbaijan were reduced to 10 men a minute later when Ramim was booked for pulling back Koumas. The referee at first looked to not realise it was the forward's second booking, but eventually the red card was produced.

Wales pressed forward with growing desperation, and Vokes saw a fine header from Bale's cross saved brilliantly by Agayev. But from the resulting corner Wales finally got their goal. Bale's corner curled into the box and Vokes and Ashley Williams both went for it.

The ball broke in the six-yard box for Gunter to lunge in and Vokes to finally crack the ball home from a couple of yards out.

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