IT WAS a evening of mixed emotions for James Collins at the Millennium Stadium last night.

The Newport-born centre-back was a standout for Wales and picked up the Sky television man-of-the-match award but eventually Wales crashed to a 3-2 defeat that all but ends any chance of qualifying for the World Cup.

"It is a sore one, really disappointing, Collins said. "To be fair, we had a good hour then their goal has gone in. Obviously the second goal just killed us off, then they just rounded us off with the third, which was a kick in the guts."

Collins echoed the same feeling as the rest of the squad, giving his backing to Gary Speed to take over as manager.

He said: "All the lads want Speed. It is the same as when Sparky took over. He is still playing and he has the respect of all the players."

For Collins, the arrival of a new boss and the possibility of more players following Speed into retirement, could leave the door open for the Cardiff City star to become a regular in the national side.

He said: "It would be nice to be a regular. Whoever comes in I will just try to do my best on the pitch and in training and hopefully the new manager will see something in me that he likes."

Another player now looking to the future is Monmouth's Paul Parry, who was thrown on last night as substitute in Mark Hughes' last throw of the dice.

Parry said: "It would have been nice to give the manager a good send off but it wasn't the case.

"I thought we were in control for an hour but after we got they goal, we stopped playing. We allowed them back into the game and they scored three good goals.

"The second and third were crackers, I don't know how they squeezed them in."

He added: "Hopefully I can do well for my club and get a chance to shine in the next couple of games."

Despite having his eyes on a permanent place in the Wales side, Parry urged the experienced players who may be on the verge of quitting to see out the campaign.

He said: "It is still early days for some of the lads to move on. It is a long shot to make the World Cup now but they should stay on until the end of the campaign because it would help build the younger lads confidence."