When Romania
broke Welsh hearts
The inside story of a defeat - and a night of real tragedy - which still haunts Welsh football, told by the people who were there
17 November 1993.
Even now, in this gilded age of Welsh football, it is a date that casts a shadow.
And 30 years on, it is a game that remains painfully etched into the minds of many.
It was meant to be a night of celebration.
Wales, who had not played at a major tournament for 36 years, were one win away from qualifying for the 1994 World Cup.
With a sense of anticipation gripping the nation, the old National Stadium in Cardiff was sold out for the visit of a Romania side that boasted some of Europe’s finest players - including Gheorghe Hagi and Gheorghe Popescu.
Wales, with stars of their own such as Ryan Giggs and Ian Rush, believed this was their time.
But the game was to end in heartbreak, from a sporting perspective as Wales lost 2-1, but more profoundly after the final whistle when John Hill, a 67-year-old retired postman watching the match with his son, was killed by a flare let off by supporters at the other end of the stadium.
This is the story of a devastating night in Cardiff, told by the people who were there.
'The whole country was in a frenzy'
Neville Southall, goalkeeper: “Individually we were one of the best teams Wales have ever had.”
Mark Evans, Football Association of Wales: “The whole country was in a frenzy. People were willing to sell their kids to get a ticket.”
Elis James, fan: “My dad is a patriotic Welshman, a real rugby man, so I sort of discovered football on my own. I don't think I realised we had a team probably until about 1990, and so, in terms of international football, my awakening was watching England at Italia '90. Paul Gascoigne's tears and all that.
“Then, when I realised that we had a team - and a team full of my favourite players - I thought: ‘Oh my God, how are we not winning the World Cup?’ Because Ian Rush was world class, Neville Southall was world class, Mark Hughes was world class.”
Dean Saunders, striker: “We had the momentum. We had a bit of everything in the team. We had pace. We had goalscorers.
“We lost Mark Hughes, which was a massive blow, but we were solid. You wouldn’t want to play against Mark Aizlewood or Eric Young.
“Eric would snap his grandmother, and so would 'Aize'. So would Barry Horne. So would Mark. We had four animals on the team. You’d get out of the way of that four.
“We had the best goalkeeper in the world at the time, Neville Southall, and we had world-class players. We just… we should have done better.”
Elis James: “I was 13, and when you're 13, whatever you're into, it is the most important thing. There is nothing else, really.
“I thought about nothing else. People might forget that in 1993 Ryan Giggs was the most exciting teenager in European football. He was an extraordinary talent.
“So you just look at the team on paper, and you think how has it not happened?”
Barry Horne, midfielder and captain: “We started [the qualifying campaign] away in Romania and it was just 45 minutes that you wouldn’t believe. Romania were shooting from everywhere and we had the best goalkeeper in the world and they were all going in. We were 5-0 down at half-time and it ended up 5-1.”
David Phillips, right-back: “We were lucky to get one.”
Dean Saunders: “Barry Horne was told to mark Hagi, who I would say is in the top three best players I've ever played against.
“We played a different system out there. We never played four at the back. It was always a back five.”
Terry Yorath, manager: “I thought if we did that against one striker it would be a waste of a man, so we played with a flat back four. And I paid for it.
“I knew the players were blaming me for the tactics we adopted and rightly so. I should have kept it where we were comfortable.
“I always remember my assistant Peter Shreeves was stood just behind me, and I said: ‘Pete, what shall I say to them?’ He said: ‘You’re the manager, I don’t know!’
David Phillips: “The run that we had from then on was excellent from the players, the squad, the management, and also the backing of the fans as well.
“I always remember very early on when Terry took over, the first couple of results weren’t really great so he went and had a word with some of the senior pros, asking what he could do.
“So we said ‘Let’s go out for a drink’ a couple of nights but when we get to Sunday morning there's no drinking whatsoever. We took it seriously. So we’d go out in Cardiff or wherever but then come Sunday that was that – bang – and all of a sudden tackles got let loose, we relaxed more, we’d become more together.”
Barry Horne: “At that point we developed a wonderful group mentality, so we picked ourselves back up, plodded away and picked up results we were expected to, but through that we gained confidence and we really started to believe as the campaign went on.”
Rob Phillips, South Wales Echo reporter: “Wales recovered with a 6-0 win at home to the Faroe Islands followed by a 1-0 win in Cyprus. And although they lost 2-0 away against group favourites Belgium, Wales turned their campaign around with a memorable 2-0 victory over the Belgians thanks in part to a brilliant free-kick by a teenage Ryan Giggs.”
Terry Yorath: “That win against Belgium turned the group around for us. Everybody knew what Ryan could do. He was a special talent, really special.”
Dean Saunders: “We played RCS [the Representation of Czechs and Slovaks] and I had a chance to make it 3-2, and if I had scored we'd have only needed a draw against Romania.
“I was through on my right foot exactly where I'd wanted it. I tried to hit it across the keeper - and he saved it. I should've scored.”
Terry Yorath: “Then we beat Cyprus. If we hadn’t beaten them I think I would have lost my job that night, never mind anything else, but it all set it up perfectly for the Romania game.”
Rob Phillips: “And to think Yorath led Wales through this campaign despite having to cope with the most devastating family tragedy.”
Terry Yorath: “Five days after the first game in Romania, my son Daniel died.
“I was there. We were playing football in the garden. It was a red-hot day and he was pestering the life out of me to play golf or do this or do that, and in the end I had to give in. We went and played football in the garden and he just keeled over. He was 15.
“I can honestly say you don't cope. In my case it was turning to a bottle of scotch and having a drink of whiskey and just going to bed.
“I slept on his bed for ages. I went up the cemetery so many times, late at night, but football comes back to you and you have to do it. It’s your job and you get on with it.”
'This was our moment'
Mark Evans: “It was an incredible period. People were camping out on Westgate Street. Our offices were an old port office and not really fit for purpose. We had people pushing money through the letterbox in an envelope with a note saying ‘Can I get three tickets?’ and half of them didn’t put a return address. That was the frenzy because people just wanted to see the games.
“It was just an incredible time to live through. At times it was surreal.”
Barry Horne: “We had recently started to play at the old National Stadium and the impact of that shouldn’t be overlooked or underestimated because to run out there as footballers, this hallowed turf, in front of massive crowds really did give us a massive, massive lift.
“That was a big deal for us throughout the campaign and we really looked forward to those games and the last game of course was a mouthwatering event to look forward to.”
Elis James: “I think the switch to the National Stadium in 1989 played a big part in football becoming a bit more mainstream in Wales.”
Malcolm Allen, substitute striker: “There's no question something special was building. We could have sold the stadium 10 times over that night.
“My mum and my Auntie Jean had bought passports ready, and they’d never been out of Deiniolen [a village in north Wales] before. They both had their passports ready to go to America. That’s how much everyone was looking forward to the game.”
John Morgan, BBC Wales head of presentation and promos: “We realised at BBC Wales this was the biggest game we’d had in decades and my view was we needed a song people could catch on to and really invest their souls into and that’s what we came up with.
“I was inundated with people suggesting music and songs of an American basis, but I’d always remembered watching a film called the Deer Hunter. In that film, the song Can’t Take My Eyes Off You features in a bar in Pittsburgh as soldiers are preparing to go to the Vietnam War, and for some reason it had stuck in my mind and I thought it could work.
“We wanted to really give a sense there was a suggestion that fans embrace this, so we thought creating a karaoke-type promo where a bouncing football goes alongside the lyrics would be an indicator we wanted people to take this on board.”
Mark Evans: “Now with the Red Wall, they’ve got unique Wales football songs, but in the late '80s-early '90s, we didn’t really have that. It was the usual, to be honest, anti-English stuff. We didn’t have our own song really and then Can’t Take My Eyes Off You came and everyone was singing it."
John Morgan: “I didn’t have any idea this had been taken on board until I started walking to the game that night. I turned to my wife and said 'They’re singing my song', and it wasn’t just pockets, it was everywhere. That was quite an amazing feeling.
“That atmosphere before the game, in that period between 6 and 7.45, was electric and, with this song going on and on in a joyous way, I felt we’d achieved what we wanted.”
Neville Southall: “It’s different on the outside and on the inside, where you're doing the same job every single day, albeit this was a bigger job. So I had to try and get rid of all the emotion because all I wanted to do was focus on what I was supposed to be doing.
“We're like boxers. Controlled aggression, walking into a place with a really good atmosphere but you need to keep your head and you need to think, not just react to what’s going on around you. You’ve got to be controlled.”
Dean Saunders: “On the bus to games, we used to put Tom Jones on and we used to sing along all the way to the ground.
“By the time we were getting off the bus we felt like we could beat anyone in Cardiff.”
Elis James: “The thing that really took my breath away was the atmosphere. There was a frenzied quality to that game that I haven't heard before or since.
“I remember reading in the paper in the build-up to the game, Terry Yorath saying: 'We're too nice, and I don't want it to be a friendly place for Romania to visit, and I'm not asking for hooliganism, but I want there to be passion. I want there to be ‘Hwyl’.'
“For the first five minutes every single Romania touch was booed, but not a kind of half-hearted boo like you might boo someone who used to play for your club's rivals, I'm talking full-on!”
Mark Evans: “It was feral. I was pitchside and the noise was incredible. Terry ramped it up in the press but it was crazy.
“Mark Pembridge was standing in the line for the anthem and a firework bounced off his chest.
“The Romanians were affected by it. I can remember the Romanians looking around and thinking: ‘What is going on here?’
“The noise, the hysteria… people were just thinking: ’This is it, we’re going to America.’”
David Phillips: “We didn't start off particularly well.”
Ilie Dumitrescu, Romania forward: “To play against players like Giggs, we knew it would be a very difficult match. We knew it was very important to start the match well, not to give the chance to the supporters to support the team.
“We had a few chances, I had a few chances, from the beginning we created problems, and had a little bit of luck.”
Dean Saunders: “Romania had some great players, probably the best team they've ever had so you know you’re going to have to have things go your way – and they didn’t.
“Hagi cuts inside, 35 yards, beats Nev.”
Terry Yorath: “I made a mistake, really. Before the game I meant to tell the players that once Hagi drifts across the right-hand side he likes to come in on his left foot.
“And he did that. He came in from the right, on his left foot and hit his shot. It was a timid shot. Nev should have done better. It went underneath his body and into the back of the net.”
Neville Southall: “It was my fault for the goal.”
Barry Horne: “Nev’s a really honest bloke. I played with him for Wales and roomed with him for Everton for my entire time there.
“Like most goalkeepers, most players actually, he’s a harsh critic of himself, and we all know when we’ve made a mistake.”
Malcolm Allen: “I was sitting next to Mark Bowen on the bench and after we went 1-0 down, I turned to him and said: ‘Listen to how quiet it is.’
“Hagi was the best midfielder around at the time, and people didn't realise how good he was. His left foot was out of this world. Giggsy’s was good but you're talking another level here. He was the star of the show.”
Barry Horne: “Each team we played internationally there was invariably a standout character, be it Lothar Matthaus or Enzo Scifo, and – without giving myself too much of a big-up – I managed to do a good job on all of them.
“But Hagi was the one that, I just don’t know, there was something about the man. That first goal he drifted off me, literally it seemed in slow motion.
“I was expecting somebody to be inside me but that support did not come and before I knew it he was at the back four and it was too late. Kit Symons eventually came to approach him too late and Neville made such a rare mistake for such a great man.
“It was almost like a perfect storm and great players do that – they capitalise on moments of weakness. You switch off for a second, they sense it and they’re on to it. He was the one, to my eternal regret, I never quite got on top of.”
Kit Symons, centre-back: “The goal felt a little bit out of the blue even though Romania were playing some good football and had the lion’s share of possession.
“But we were certainly very much in the game and the goal was against the run of play a little bit.”
Barry Horne: “We had a setback with the goal but got back in the game and finished the half strongly and the Romanians had a reputation for being a bit flaky.
“It’s a stereotype, and nobody likes stereotypes, but sometimes it serves you well to have that in your mind.”
Neville Southall: “If I could’ve come off at that time, I probably would’ve. I was gutted. You don’t want to make a mistake in a game.
“I made mistakes in big games before and it does set you up for the next big game. You think 'right I’m not going to do that again' but it is earth-shattering.”
Barry Horne: “I remember coming out for the second half, turning around... I don’t know who it was to, nobody in particular, but I remember looking at their eyes, turning around and saying: ‘Lads, these have gone, these have gone, we’ve got them, they’re going to chuck the towel in.'"
Malcolm Allen: “One of the most difficult parts of football is to turn momentum, and the only way to turn momentum is to score a goal.
“We got a little bit of luck with Dean's goal, but he still finished it and it was 1-1. Then you could feel it.
“We could sense it on the bench. We felt the momentum turning, the change in the atmosphere and the crowd all getting up again.”
Rob Phillips: "Ryan Giggs launched a free-kick into the Romanian penalty area and, after winning the initial flick-on, Saunders got on the end of a Gary Speed header to volley in from close range."
Dean Saunders: “I bundled one in from the set-piece. I used to stand in the six-yard box for corners and free-kicks, just sniffing around, and all I remember is just bundling it over the line.”
Kit Symons: “This was my first season with Wales. It was all new to me, just into international football and in my first full season of first-team football for Portsmouth as well.
“So I don't think at that stage I grasped the magnitude of the fact that it came down to this last game against Romania, and us having a real chance of qualifying for the World Cup.
“In the second half I came off and Jeremy Goss came on. I was sitting on the bench disappointed to have come off but suddenly we got a penalty and I remember thinking: ‘Oh, this is it now.’
“There was that change in momentum and we felt this was our time. This was our moment.”
'That penalty defined my career'
Paul Bodin, left-back: “When you're a young player, you dream that one day you could play for your country.
“I had been in the game as a professional, and then dropped out for a couple of years playing for Bath City. Then I came back in with Newport and it was only when I went to Swindon that my career really took off, playing under managers such as Lou Macari, Ossie Ardiles and Glenn Hoddle. Working with those types of people gave me more inspiration to play for Wales. I made my debut in 1990 against Costa Rica, the same afternoon Gary Speed did.”
Rob Phillips: “Just two minutes after Dean Saunders had made it 1-1, Gary Speed got on the end of a cross from Jeremy Goss inside the Romania penalty area and was brought down by Dan Petrescu. Swiss referee Kurt Rothlisberger pointed to the spot.
“Paul Bodin was Wales’ designated penalty taker, as he was for Swindon Town. He had a good record, and a reputation for absolutely smashing the ball.”
Paul Bodin: “You still remember all kinds of key moments. When somebody just brushes your memory a little bit, it does come flooding back.
“It was not too long into the second half, and the opportunity arose. The penalty’s awarded. There was a little bit of dispute, certainly, on their behalf. They were protesting, and it seemed a bit of a while before I ended up putting the ball down."
Neville Southall: “One of my standout memories is the amount of people who went missing when there was a penalty.”
Barry Horne: “I may or may not have had the ball in my hands, I can’t remember. But I do remember turning and watching Paul walking up the pitch from his left-back position and thinking he was white and didn’t look confident.”
Terry Yorath: “I remember looking 10 minutes before it happened and thinking: ‘Paul's not playing very well, I’ll bring him off, put Gary Speed to left-back and bring another attacker on.’ But I didn't.”
Barry Horne: “I thought: 'Should I as captain decide to take it?' I wasn’t a penalty taker by any means but he did look absolutely white.
“We can all look back at different points and think: ‘Should I have taken the ball?’ But he was our penalty taker. He’d taken three in the campaign and there was never any doubt really.
“The memory I have now has probably been embellished over the years in my subconscious, but I remember he seemed to take an age to walk up the pitch and finally get hold of the ball.”
Dean Saunders: “The number of people over the years who’ve come up to me and said: ‘Why didn't you take it? Why didn't Giggsy take it? Ian Rush was on the pitch, why have you left Paul to take it?’ He was the designated penalty taker.”
Paul Bodin had scored all his previous penalties for Wales
Paul Bodin had scored all his previous penalties for Wales
Elis James: “People say: ‘Why didn't Ian Rush take it? Why didn't Mark Hughes take it?’ Well, Mark Hughes wasn't on the field.
“Why didn't Ryan Giggs take it? Well, he wasn't a penalty taker for Man Utd. Ian Rush is the greatest goalscorer we've ever produced. Of the 346 goals he scored for Liverpool, four of them are penalties. He wasn't a penalty taker, and never had been.
“Paul Bodin had taken over the penalty taking duties from Dean Saunders, who had missed a couple for Wales. Paul had scored the three penalties he'd had to take for Wales.
“When he was given the ball, I thought ‘this is a goal’ because he scored penalties.”
Paul Bodin: “I think he [Florin Prunea, Romania goalkeeper] picked the ball up for a while and there were other players around the referee. He held on to it for a while and then he kissed it.
“I remember picking it up and wiping the ball, wiping his kisses off. But maybe I should have left them on, I don't know.
“I remember stepping back and then trying to just get a really good contact on the ball… but unfortunately it just went a little bit high."
Dean Saunders: “I was on the edge of the box and I said to Speedy, who was standing next to me: ‘If he misses, it's going to come off the bar so follow in off the bar.’ Both of us sprinted and the ball bounced over us. It hit the bar and bounced over us.”
Paul Bodin: “The crossbars were actually oval-shaped. They weren't round, circular, so if it had been probably just an inch lower, it would have hit the underside and gone in. But those are the fine lines of football.”
Dean Saunders: “If it had come back a bit flatter or straighter we would have got a tap-in off the rebound. Ifs and buts.”
Terry Yorath: “All hopes and aspirations about going to America and the World Cup flew out the window when he missed that.”
Elis James: “An inch lower, and we'd have been in the World Cup, probably. He's got to live with that. But certainly I don't think you can blame Paul Bodin for it at all.”
Malcolm Allen: “I came on for Paul minutes after he missed. I remember him walking off that pitch. That must have been the longest walk in history.
“I felt so sorry for him. I really felt for him, and all the players did because the players respected Paul as a person.
“I tend to think that if we’d made that change earlier, maybe I would have taken the penalty and Paul wouldn't so maybe it would be my name in the history books. Maybe I'm missing a penalty or scoring a penalty. I don't know. We don't know.
“But on that night, when Paul missed that penalty, I wish it was me.”
Ilie Dumitrescu: “I thought our chance had gone. It’s a moment you will never forget. Bodin will never forget it. For me this was the moment that was crucial.”
Neville Southall: “Paul Bodin stepped up and showed a lot of courage and has paid for it ever since. I cost the team a goal and I don't get the same abuse. I find that strange. That was one of the lowest points of my career.”
Barry Horne: “That is the nature of life. There is nothing you can do but get over it.
“We started well. We had that spell where we got the goal and the penalty and it was all going just brilliantly and, in that second, that was it.
“Not only did it knock us back, you also sensed Romania straightening up and all of a sudden they were three or four inches taller. They knew it was going to be their night.”
David Phillips: “There was more pressure from then on to get the second goal and, on the transition, [Florin] Raducioiu goes and scores.”
Ilie Dumitrescu: “We were very fast breaking forward when we recovered the ball. I received the ball from Gheorghe Popescu in midfield and passed two or three players. One of them tried to foul me, tactically, but I did not stop.
"I saw Florin Raducioiu was in a very good position and, when he beat Southall, I thought, 'We are going to the World Cup.’”
Terry Yorath: “Unfortunately for Paul Bodin, he will always be remembered for that penalty miss. There are times when some things happen that define your career. And that penalty defined my career.”
'When we heard someone had died, I didn't care about the result'
John Hardy, BBC commentator: “I remember the match and the importance of it but what sends a chill through my bones is the sound of the flare.
“It’s the one thing that I remember most. It actually came from behind our commentary point and you could actually see it crossing the stadium.
“We talk about tragedies in sport and how it affects people's careers and what have you but that’s the view that I’ve got. Every time I hear that commentary, I still hear the ‘whoosh’ as it goes over our heads.”
Paul Bodin: “I was sitting on the bench and, as the referee blew the final whistle, we all stood up to go onto the pitch, and literally the flare flew across our heads at an incredible speed. And it wasn't just a normal rocket that you see in your back garden, it was a huge flare.”
Dean Saunders: “I remember what I thought was a firework going across the top of us. I watched it and hoped that it wouldn’t hit anyone, that no-one would get hurt. We never heard anything until after the game.”
John Hill Jr, who was sitting next to his father John Hill, said in 2013: “I can only describe what I thought was a huge airplane about to hit the stadium. I could hear this huge rushing noise and I remember looking round and I couldn’t see anything.
“The next thing I was aware of was my dad fell forwards. I didn’t put the two events together – the noise and my dad falling forwards – and I thought my dad had had a heart attack or fallen.
“So I leaned forward to try to pick my dad up and when I stepped back I realised I couldn’t lift him on my own. Both my hands were just covered in blood and my jeans and my shoes – I can remember they were covered in blood.
“That just stopped me for a moment and then I remember shouting: ‘Can somebody help me please? Something’s happened to my dad.’”
Mark Evans: “I was in the dressing room afterwards. At that point everyone’s absolutely devastated coming off, the Romanians are celebrating.
“I’ve got a radio contact and the usual post-match radio contact is going on - getting the kit van to come round, all this kind of stuff - then all of a sudden it comes on: ‘Emergency in one of the stands’. People are still chattering. In the end, Alun Evans [FAW general secretary] comes on and says: ‘Clear this channel, something’s happened.’
“It took a while for it to come round the stadium - no social media in those days, no mobile phones - but pretty quickly then word got down to us what had happened and… the police had advised us someone had been killed.
“We didn’t know how they had been killed. Was it crowd trouble? Again, '80s, early '90s, it was still part of the environment. Then very slowly we got the full picture and there was a sort of dumbfoundedness.
“I just wanted to go home then because there’s no point worrying about this football match now. And where I’m from, it happened John Hill was also from - Merthyr. It was just an absolute tragedy.”
David Phillips: “I'm not sure exactly about the time we found out but my relatives were about six to eight rows away from where the incident happened, and they just said it was just horrific. It was an awful time.
“To lose a life meant more than qualifying for the World Cup."
Neville Southall: “When we heard someone had died, I didn't care about the result and I didn't care about whether we’d qualified or not.
“Someone had gone to that game and lost their life. We might get another chance to qualify, we might not, but for that family things are never going to be the same for them.”
Malcolm Allen: “In the changing room afterwards, we were in there for a long time.
“There are greater, better things than football. There's life. It was a tragic night.”
Kit Symons: “Obviously our changing room after the game was a pretty sombre place anyway but then we got that news. Having felt sorry for ourselves for not qualifying for a football tournament, that felt irrelevant at that time. It was just a terrible thing to happen.”
Elis James: “I remember Mamgu, my grandmother, phoning the house frantically upset, worrying that I was the person who'd been injured, because there was no way of knowing. On the bus we didn't know that someone had been killed.”
Barry Horne: “Myself and Terry attended the funeral. I’m asked how I felt after that game, and professionally you can have the things you can talk about - the huge disappointment, from a personal point of view, from a Welsh point of view. But you never use the word tragedy in the context of football.
“The whole story really has been bookended by two genuine tragedies and something that does put football into perspective; Daniel Yorath right at the start of the campaign and ending with John Hill.
“It doesn’t make you feel better. It makes you feel worse. But certainly it does put it into perspective, two genuinely tragic, tragic stories to bookend the whole story.”
Malcolm Allen: “It did cast a shadow. Footballers can go home and forget about a game. Families can't do that if the person dies.”
Two Wrexham men later admitted the manslaughter of John Hill and were jailed at Cardiff Crown Court for three years.
'It was the worst night of our lives'
Dean Saunders: “I remember sitting in the players’ lounge after the game. I've never been so gutted. I couldn't speak. None of us could.
“For us to turn the group around after losing and getting to the point where we just needed to win our last home game to go through with the players we had... if I've got any regrets in my football career - which I haven't got - it’s that game. How we never won that game.”
Barry Horne: “To be honest with you, it was the lowest point I would guess in all of our careers.
“My way of dealing with it was to put it in a box immediately and never, ever think about it, which of course you do, but I’ve always tried to stop thinking about it too much because it’s so heartbreaking.
“It’s still sickening, it’s still devastating and still really, really upsetting to be honest with you.”
Mark Evans: “It was the worst night of our lives, when we were expecting it to be the best.”
Elis James: “The players I feel most sorry for are Paul for missing a penalty, Nev for making the mistake - because he was such a wonderful goalkeeper - and the other one is Ian Rush.
“Rush was past his prime by this point, but there was a sort of fervour to Rush in that campaign, quite similar to Gareth Bale in the campaign to reach the 2022 World Cup. Rush scored eight goals in that campaign. He was past his mid-'80s prime, but he was still banging them in because he knew that it was his last chance.
“I was at the ground. I remember Mam watching at home saying that at the end of the match he's screaming at players who've walked off the pitch to come back out to thank the supporters for turning up. It was a night of high emotion.”
Ian Rush was a legendary goalscorer for Liverpool but never played at a major international tournament with Wales
Ian Rush was a legendary goalscorer for Liverpool but never played at a major international tournament with Wales
Paul Bodin: “I had a bit of stick over the years, more banter than anything too aggressive, but that's part of it when you go to football grounds. You get a little bit of stick, and sometimes it’s a mark of respect. But it is on your mind. It was a penalty I missed disappointingly, but you have to move on.
“As you get older and wiser you learn from all your experiences. I was brought up in Llanrumney in Cardiff - my mum was a single parent - so you know you have your ups and downs in life.
“I missed on the Wednesday night for Wales, but on the Saturday I scored a penalty against Ipswich late in the game and they are the fine lines. The disappointment of missing one for Wales is etched in history, and unfortunately I never got another chance to take one for my country.”
Kit Symons: “I've never watched the game back. I've never been able to watch it back, and I never will.
“I’d just lost in the FA Cup semi-final with Portsmouth but, being young, I just thought I’d get to the final the next year. With this, I just thought: ‘It’s OK, we’ve got the Euros coming up. We’ll get to that or the World Cup after.’ You’re young, you’re naive, full of hopes and dreams.
“As I was coming to the end of my international career, that’s when it hit me: what an opportunity that was, and just how close we were.”
Dean Saunders: “Terry was a brilliant manager and I think he was badly treated. He asked for a pay rise and, without quoting figures, you’d laugh at his salary. Instead of giving him the rise they sacked him because we never qualified. And then we slipped down the world rankings a long, long way after he left.”
Barry Horne: “It was one bad decision after another. If you had asked the players who they wanted to be manager after the Romania game, to a man they would have said Terry Yorath.
“On the one hand if you go to the USA, you climb up the world rankings, and I think we would have done well there. Then you get loads of money to invest in grassroots, fly up the rankings – we were 28th, the highest we’d been for a long time – and you stay there. Then you get a much easier draw the next time and you go about a cycle of success which the Republic of Ireland did.
“On the other hand, you lose, you sack your manager and then go into a series of catastrophic bad decisions.”
Elis James: “I hadn't foreseen Terry being sacked. I hadn't foreseen the Mike Smith era, and then the Bobby Gould era and the doldrums of the rest of the 1990s because players didn't tend to retire from international duty in those days. So you still looked at the squad on paper and thought: 'Oh, you know, Euro '96 is the next one. Fingers crossed.' But that team was never the same after that.”
Rob Phillips: “Terry’s departure was catastrophically handled and things unravelled after he left. They didn’t get close again for 10 years.
“John Toshack came in for one game and suffered for what had happened to Terry with the fans wanting Terry back. Mike Smith took over and within a year they were losing 5-0 to Georgia before Bobby Gould oversaw one of the most bizarre and chaotic eras in Welsh football history.
“There was some hope under Mark Hughes, only missing out on Euro 2004 in the play-offs, then Toshack ushered in a new generation of young players - including Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey - after him.
“But it wasn't until Gary Speed's tragically short spell in charge that things started to really improve. After Speed took his own life in 2011, he was succeeded by his great friend Chris Coleman, who took Wales to historic new heights.
“They qualified for Euro 2016 - their first major tournament since the 1958 World Cup - and went on to reach the semi-finals in France, freeing themselves of the shackles of their history.”
'The near misses made the good times that much sweeter'
Neville Southall: “I'm not one of these people who wondered if we would ever get to a major tournament. I expected us to get there – the law of averages says you must get there. I was never fearful we wouldn’t.”
Elis James: “I think the players involved in that game against Romania have probably absorbed the disappointment of not reaching the World Cup better than the fans.
“With qualification for 2016, I think now because we've qualified for another two tournaments, some people might forget that was an enormous albatross around supporters’ necks, probably more so than for the players.
“I just wanted to get there. I didn't really mind what we did once we got there, because I'd experienced Nuremberg in 1991 and I'd experienced Romania in 1993, and then I'd done the background reading around Scotland in 1985 and Scotland in 1977.
“I feel sorry for that generation of players because they were good enough, and they deserved to play at the highest stage.”
Kit Symons: “It’s all part of the history of Welsh football. It's appreciating the great times we’ve had – the two European Championships and a World Cup finals.
“I think people appreciate them even more because of what's happened in the past and those near misses, and especially Romania.
“It hurts, and it stays with you for a long time. But when the good times come, it makes them that much sweeter and that much better.
“My playing career for Wales is something I'm incredibly proud of. I would have loved to have gone to a tournament as a player but I've been to three tournaments now in coaching capacities for Wales, and I never thought I'd see that.
“Having finished playing and not qualified to now being able to have done what I've done on the coaching side, I'm still pinching myself about that.
“Certainly the Welsh fans I've spoken to and seen at the tournaments have enjoyed it so much, and I think largely because of a lot of this stuff that's gone on beforehand.”
Paul Bodin: “It’s the hit and miss of penalties which is such a shame and you’re remembered for it. Obviously it was a very, very disappointing night for us on that particular day.
“But it's 30 years on now and, since then, the boys have done fantastically well over the last few years, qualifying for the Euros, and then the World Cup. So that’s kind of eased my misery a little bit.”
Credits
Writers: Dafydd Pritchard and Chris Wathan
Production: Dafydd Pritchard
Sub-editor: Reece Killworth
Images: Getty Images and Huw Evans Picture Agency