GUTTED Carl Fletcher feels he let himself down in Saturday's depressing 2-0 World Cup qualifier defeat by Austria at the Millennium Stadium.

The midfielder, who has family in Ebbw Vale, was asked to protect the back four and build a platform for the front players to attack from, but too often possession was surrendered and the system totally broke down as Wales failed to win yet another competitive match.

It is now two years and 11 matches since Wales emerged victorious from a competitive football match and manager John Toshack has got off to the worst possible start.

"There were pros and cons to take from the match and I think it takes time to get used to things," Fletcher said.

"Obviously the system didn't work that well because we didn't win. Maybe as a team we can do better on Wednesday (in the return match in Vienna).

"I was disappointed with my performance. I gave too many balls away. We need to improve individually and as a team, then we will be on the right road."

Wales missed a couple of gilt-edged chances in the game but allowed the Austrians a barrel-load.

"It could have been a different story if we had gone one up," said Fletcher.

On his own role in the team, he said: "It can be difficult, but it is something the manager has asked me to do and I am happy to do it. There are always new things to learn and on Saturday I learned a lot.

"There are a lot of new faces in the squad and it will take time. We would have liked to have started better on Saturday but that hasn't happened so hopefully we can do it on Wednesday."

Fletcher dismissed suggestions that it would be hard to get motivated for the trip to Austria as World Cup qualification is now completely buried.

He said: "It is never difficult to get up for playing for your country. If you have that problem then you have to look at yourself. We will go there and look to build for the future, try a few experiments and hopefully things will get better."