Morison: We can start with a bang

STEVE Morison believes Wales are ready to start their World Cup qualifying campaign with a bang against Belgium after a "kick up the backside" from Chris Coleman.

Since Coleman took charge in January, Wales have lost three games without scoring a goal, sapping much of the optimism built up during the final stages of Gary Speed's time in charge.

Hopes had been high that Wales could launch a genuine bid to reach the 2014 finals, but their latest friendly, against Bosnia- Herzegovina, ended in a 2-0 defeat.

There are parallels with 12 months ago, when Wales were poor in a friendly defeat to Australia.

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After that they turned in a string of good results — and Morison believes they can do something similar now.

"We have beaten some good teams over the last year and we know we can do well if we focus on ourselves. Our form has dipped over the last few games but we are trying to put it together tomorrow night," said the Norwich frontman.

"If you look at recent results, it was very tough with the Costa Rica game and the Mexico game because there was a weird atmosphere around the place (after Speed's death) and no matter how often you say everything is fine, you can't get away from it.

"We wanted to use the Bosnia game as a chance to get back to it but we simply weren't at it, and there were a few words in the dressing room between the lads and from the manager, which we needed.

"Hopefully there won't need to be words from the manager tomorrow as we have had our kick up the backside."

The visit of a Belgium side containing the likes of Vincent Kompany, Eden Hazard, Marouane Fellaini and Mousa Dembele to Cardiff makes for a tough start for Wales, but Morison insists Wales will not be overawed by the task ahead.

He said: "They are fantastic players, they play for some of the best teams in England and it will be a massive test, and across the board it is a very good team on paper, but they did not do well in the last campaign and hopefully they will have a down night on Friday."

Swansea City's Jazz Richards has been added to the Wales squad as a replacement for Joel Lynch.