NEW Wales manager John Toshack enjoyed a winning start last night in his second coming as national coach - and was quick to praise his unfamiliar line-up.

Toshack saw his injury ravaged side overcome a lacklustre Hungary 2-0 after a double from Craig Bellamy and took the opportunity to blood three debutants in a potentially difficult match played on a dreadful surface.

Swansea's Sam Ricketts and Motherwell's David Partridge both made first starts after late injuries to Jason Koumas and John Hartson led to Toshack changing his planned 4-2-3-1 formation to a more solid 5-3-2 and he felt his side had played encouragingly.

"The result was not the most important thing but it will help with confidence to have started off with a win," Toshack said.

"Six players pulled out and Koumas and Hartson picked up injuries 24 hours before the game which was a big setback, so we had to change everything round, we didn't plan or intend to play the formation we did but we were very light in midfield.

"We played as we did to protect the newcomers and it shielded them, because defensively we were a lot closer to one another.

"But I'm pleased with the youngsters, certainly more positives than negatives came out in our performance and they can feel satisfied with themselves.

"We knew if we wanted to win we would have to grind out a result and that is exactly what we did."

Toshack was also quick to praise Craig Bellamy, who made the headlines for the right reasons today after scoring two goals.

Toshack said: "Craig hadn't played for some time and I think he was really looking forward to playing and he enjoyed the 90 minutes."

Ebbw Vale midfielder Carl Fletcher, who was afforded a rare start in the heart of the midfield, was pleased with his performance.

He said: "You have got to go out and give your best in training and matches because it is so competitive and everyone wants to play and I am no different, so I was happy."

Lothar Matthaus, the Hungarian coach, said: "I expected more effort from my side, to get results you must put in good effort and Wales had a better attitude tonight."