NEWPORT'S James Collins is poised to start for Wales against Austria in Vienna tonight as boss John Toshack attempts to make amends for Saturday's 2-0 defeat.

The 21-year-old Cardiff City defender has yet to start under the new regime despite some outstanding recent performances for his club but he is now set to given his chance to impress the boss.

"I feel now that I want to try something different which in the long term will prove to be positive,' Toshack said. "We have to get something results-wise but I want to have a look at some things which will somewhere down the line prove useful for us.

"I want to see what certain players can do. If one or two are left out from Saturday it is not an indictment on how they played. I'd just like to see something different."

Collins could be part of a five man defence that is also likely to include Motherwell's David Partridge.

But Toshack will be without hitman John Hartson as he has failed to recover from a swollen ankle and it will be Ryan Giggs and Craig Bellamy up front in a changed 5-3-2 formation.

Meanwhile Toshack admitted that he personally has to work harder to get his message across to the players after the weekend's disappointing result.

He said: "I always knew that in the early part of this job I would be at my most vulnerable," he said.

I knew where we may have had problems against the Austrians and there were maybe aspects of our game where the tactics were not quite right.

"You look at your own performance during the week beforehand and if you could have done anything different and I just have to work a bit harder to try and get my ideas over in a different fashion or a bit better than Saturday because I accept a fair portion of the blame for what happened.

"The last ten minutes was disappointing because you got the feeling that if it had gone on another ten minutes we could have lost four goals.

"It was like a boxer who goes into the last 30 seconds of a fight looking to score to impress the judges.

"A lot of people have gone away from the Millennium Stadium thinking about just that ten minutes."

Toshack also had a sly pop at ex- coach Mark Bowen, who has been critical of the boss over his handling of the Robbie Savage affair.

When asked about Bowen's comments Toshack said: "It does not concern me and I am not going to talk about it."

But he added: "We might have to explain to the Austrians who Mark Bowen is. He is a former coach who left after about four games."

Probable line-up: (5-3-2), Coyne, Delaney, Partridge, Gabbidon, Collins, Ricketts, Fletcher, Robinson, Davies, Giggs, Bellamy.