Wales need to take advantage of Gareth Bale’s attacking prowess against Russia in order to nail down place in knockout stages

SO Roy Hodgson is an attack-minded tactical mastermind, is he?

Seems so by the reaction to England’s win over Wales.

You would not think it took a last-minute goal to win the game going by the way people are talking now.

Fact is, Daniel Sturridge and Jamie Vardy were only on the pitch because Joe Hart chucked one in.

But listen, here’s the thing: I hope to God that Hodgson has as much luck against Slovakia tonight.

I cannot remember wanting England to win as much as I do now.

It would be nice if they could do us a favour and beat Slovakia to help us through to the knockout stages.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Wales are more than capable of beating Russia. I watched them against England and they didn’t look too great. Plus Slovakia managed to beat them.

So I’m hoping Wales can get the job done without England’s help.

But I fancy Hodgson’s team to win comfortably given the hype and euphoria surrounding their squad right now.

From a Wales perspective I’m still just a bit disappointed with the way we played against them. We were unlucky to lose in the end considering England left it until the very last minute.

It looked like we were going to hold out for a draw, which would have been a fantastic result. But we weren’t good enough, we have to be honest enough to admit that.

Wales did not threaten the England goal enough, for me, and I found that hugely frustrating. We also did not get Gareth Bale into the kind of positions where he could hurt them.

I just think we lacked a lot going forward and I’d like Chris Coleman to do something about that ahead of the Russia game.

I would push Bale right up top. I’d get him as high up the pitch as possible and urge him to get at them where he can cause most damage.

We ran out of legs in the England game so I think a couple of alterations to the team would not be the worst thing in the world.

I’d take Joe Ledley out of the side and bring back David Edwards alongside Andy King in the middle. The Leicester man has a goal in him as well as being able to break up the play.

I just hope we are not too negative. Chances are we don’t need to win the game to go through, depending on other results but we cannot think that way.

That’s a very dangerous mindset to get into when you’re playing tournament football.

There are various permutations which could see Wales progress so I’d say we’re in pretty good shape.

Let’s not forget, we won our first game. We played brilliantly against Slovakia and that should be remembered.

OK, the England result was a major blow when we were in the game for such a long time.

But Wales have three points on the board and still have a cracking chance of making it through which would be an incredible achievement.

England will beat Slovakia, I’m sure of it. They’ll feel they’ve got the monkey off their back by winning their last game and will be looking to step up again.

And, like I say, I hope they do. But Wales have got to try and take care of their own fate by going out and winning their own match. Or at least make sure they don’t lose it.

But it’s time to seize the day, not sit back and hope.

Wales never play half-hearted anyway but I could not imagine anything worse than going out of the competition because other results didn’t go your way and you wasted an opportunity to seal your own fate.

We need to find the belief we had at the end of the Slovakia game and take that passion into the game with Russia.

They’re not turned up at this tournament yet.

Their supporters have brought shame on their country with their hooliganism. But my worry is their players will now be more determined than ever to restore some national pride.

What’s gone on in the streets of France with their thug fans has been disgusting. The sooner they’re out of the Euros the better for everyone.

But it’s up to Wales to give them the shove out the door by turning up in Toulouse tonight and showing what we’re all about.