As someone old enough (just!) to remember when Wales had a football team worthy of the name, I admit Tuesday night's 4-0 win over mighty Liechtenstein did little to enthral me.

OK, Jason Koumas's two first half rockets were admittedly spectacular, but who was he playing against, for God's sake? And don’t say the biggest name in European football, or I’ll revert to my pet subject and spit! (Yes, I know Liechtenstein has 13 letters - is there a bigger name?)

What I do know is that they are seventh smallest nation of earth and therefore presumably the country with the seventh-fewest players. Only one of them, so the Sky TV commentator told us, plays in a 'serious' league - Italy’s Serie A - and many are semi-pros. Certainly their resident plumber’s night went down the drain as he given the runaround by the effervescent, all-action Craig Bellamy.

But how low have Wales sunk when we settle for playing a meaningless friendly against insignificant opposition in front of a paltry Wrexham crowd of 8,752? Was the game to test ourselves out for the equally-unchallenging European Championship qualifier against San Marino next spring?

ITo be honest, we are probably not much lower than we have been for most of the last 48 years. OK, there have been a few high points since we reached the World Cup quarter-finals for the only time in 1958, like thrashing England 4-1 at Wrexham in 1981, Mark Hughes’s marvels tonking mighty Italy 2-1 in the 2004 Euro qualifiers and beating the formidable Germans a couple of times. But all the other home nations - plus the Republic of Ireland - can point to far more international success during the past four and half decades than we can. Mind you, that’s not difficult; Sweden ’58 was the last time we reached the finals of any meaningful tournament.

I have to be honest. Although football always was my first love, where the international game is concerned I have far more passion for our rugby boys. I lived through the glory days of the ’70s when, with respect to the All Blacks, we were arguably the best team in the world. In that period, we went 14 years unbeaten at home in the Five Nations and expected to win every game, not hoped for the right result.

I know there were plenty of lean rugby years, too, after the Welsh Rugby Union wasted their trump card by not utilising the experience of the ’70s legends to bring on a new era of greats. But at least we can still compete on a world stage in the oval-ball game, which I am not so sure is the case with John Toshack’s current bunch of footy lads.

Wales have had some fabulous players over the years. But even at our peak, we always seemed to have only half of a quality team, which is understandable in view of our population. We still have world-class stars in the likes of Ryan Giggs (when he plays) and Bellamy - but how many of our other players would come within a mile of international football if they were English? Try picking a combined England-Wales team and you’ll see what I mean.

The last time I looked, FIFA had us ranked 77 in the world - below all the other home nations, behind the likes of Kuwait, Cuba and Berkina Faso (Berkina who?) - and just ahead of the Cape Verde Islands.

I know we are a small country but we’re already as good as out of Euro 2008 and are certainly not kicking our weight on the world stage. In fact, we haven’t done so since Pele first made his name by putting the boot into us in that oh-so-distant quarter-final in Sweden.