Jack Collison 17 caps
I was born in England but qualified for Wales through my grandfather. It’s a great honour to play international football but there’s an added incentive when you’re playing against the country where you grew up and, in my case, the nation that all my family and friends supported.
I made my competitive debut for Wales against England at Wembley in September 2011. Gary Speed was the manager and there was a real buzz around the squad at the time because he had given us the belief that we could go on and do something special. Gary did little things that made a big difference, like printing out the national anthem and making sure that everyone knew the words. He also got us all together early on for a game of golf and a few drinks, rather than for a friendly, to help create the sort of spirt that you see now.
Gary knew that we had a good group of youngsters coming through. We finished top of our Under-21 qualifying group, ahead of France, and had two fantastic games against England in 2008 in a play-off for the 2009 Under-21 European Championship finals. We took them right to the wire, losing 5-4 on aggregate.
A lot of the lads from that team are playing for Wales now, people like Joe Allen, Aaron Ramsey, who scored a worldy at Villa Park in the second leg of that play-off, Andy King and Simon Church. Quite a few of us got the chance to do the same at senior level three years later, when Wales and England were drawn in the same group for Euro 2012 qualification. I missed the 2-0 home defeat through injury but I started at Wembley, where there was an incredible atmosphere. We actually played really well on the night and Rob Earnshaw missed a bit of a sitter near the end which could have nicked us a draw.
Danny Gabbidon 49 caps
Looking at the record books, we owe England a result. I played against England twice, and I was also on the bench once, and we lost all three. The build-up to those matches was really intense, especially the first – a World Cup qualifier in October 2004 – because we hadn’t played each other for 20 years. At the time England had a fantastic team, including Beckham, Owen, Rooney, Ferdinand, Campbell and Ashley Cole. But we were really up for it. Unfortunately, things went wrong just before the game when Andy Melville dropped out in the warm-up, which meant Mark Delaney came across from right-back to partner me at centre-half. England, to be fair, played very well on the day and we lost 2-0. They also beat us 1-0 at home in the return game in September 2005.
Six years later I was on the bench at the Millennium Stadium, where we lost 2-0 to England in a Euro 2012 qualifier. At that point Wales had a lot of youngsters coming through. Aaron Ramsey was given the captaincy – probably a little bit too early for him – and it was a difficult day for Wales because we were well off the pace.
The team is much stronger now and I think one of the reasons that everything has come together for Wales is that the relationship between the fans and the players is the best it has ever been. What I see with England, in contrast, is so much negativity, and I think that sometimes transmits through the players and means it’s hard for them to play freely. For example, England win all their friendlies and there are still people moaning. With Wales it’s not really like that. Don’t get me wrong, when we’re not playing well some sections of the fans aren’t happy, but they always try to get behind the players.
John Hartson 51 caps
I’ve always felt that the Welsh have plenty of passion, but passion means nothing sometimes. There are players that don’t show emotion in the same way as others yet they can be absolutely magnificent. Paul Scholes never used to sing the national anthem, which some people criticised him for, but he would be the best player on the pitch by a country mile.
When we pulled England in the draw for the 2006 World Cup qualifiers, I thought: ‘Great games’. But lost both. We took 10,000 Welsh fans to Old Trafford in October 2004 and it was a wonderful occasion but we didn’t really offer much. We had Giggs on the left, I played through the middle and Bellamy was on the right, Speedo and Mark Pembridge also played – we had a good team. But England well and truly beat us that day.
In the second match, in Cardiff, Giggsy went down the left in the first 10 minutes, I got above Jamie Carragher and I powered a header towards the bottom corner and thought: ‘It’s a goal’. If that had gone in the roof would have come off at the Millennium Stadium. There were 55,000 Welsh fans in there and that was just the start we needed. But Paul Robinson tipped it around the post and we ended up losing 1-0. Many years later I remember listening to Robinson say: ‘The greatest save of my career was from John Hartson’s header.’
Mickey Thomas (below left) 51 caps
Back in my era we played England in the Home International Championship and that competition meant a lot to the players and the fans, who would love to have it back. They were great games and very competitive because you always wanted to try to finish as the top home nation. We all looked forward to the matches because – and no disrespect to England here – you wanted to win more than they did. We showed a bit more passion, that’s not being overcritical of the England players. We are the smaller nation and so we are going to lift our performance.
As well as playing against England half a dozen times, I scored my first goal for Wales in the famous 4-1 win over them at Wrexham in May 1980 – the first time we’d beaten them at home since 1955 –so that was even more rewarding for me. It was Mike England’s first game in charge of Wales and I still get a lot of people coming up to me saying what a great match that was and how much they enjoyed it. Welsh people love talking about it, they tell me how they’ve watched it back on YouTube, and I’ve done the same.
It was a very hot day, a packed crowd at the Racecourse Ground, perfect conditions for football. England scored a bit of a lucky goal to take the lead through Paul Mariner, I got the equaliser, then Ian Walsh and Leighton James scored and Phil Thompson put through his own net. We deserved the 4-1 really. I remember Larry Lloyd played for England that day, and he was a big fella – you needed sat nav to get around Larry!
Joey Jones 72 caps
Apparently I’m the only living Welshman who has beaten England three times. I found that out because one day there was a quiz on the radio and they asked that question. I was shouting out different names, like Leighton James and Terry Yorath, then they said: ‘It’s Joey Jones!’
I played when we won at Wembley in 1977, when Leighton scored a penalty, when we beat them 4-1 three years later, and in 1984, when we won 1-0 and Mark Hughes scored on his debut. And, to be honest, that 1984 game could have been eight – it wasn’t a 1-0 lucky win, it was a 1-0 hiding. Don’t get me wrong, I also played in matches against England where we got beaten.
I used to love the Home International games and I think one of the reasons why we wanted to win so badly against England was that during those weeks it was always England who were rammed down your throat. Everyone thought England or Scotland would win the competition, Northern Ireland were the minnows and we were just going to be the also-rans. I’m not saying we deserved the headlines, but we deserved to have a bit more respect at that time.
The feeling of beating England in those matches was special for different reasons. Looking back, 1977 was probably my best year in football. I was at Liverpool and won the European Cup, and there weren’t many nations that went to Wembley and won, so that’s probably my favourite Wales victory. The 4-1 game at Wrexham was live on TV. I think there was a famous Brian Clough quote afterwards about Larry Lloyd, where Clough said Larry, who didn’t have the best of games, won his fourth and his last cap on the same day!
