Wales restored some pride in the wake of Saturday's humiliating defeat to Slovakia with a comfortable 3-1 win over Cyprus to register their first points of the Group D campaign.

First-half goals from Jason Koumas and Robert Earnshaw and a second half-strike from Craig Bellamy helped the hosts to solid win over a side who stunned Ireland 5-2 at the weekend and gave the fans something to cheer after the pain of Saturday's 5-1 loss to Slovakia, their worst home defeat in almost a century.

Having also lost their opener in the Czech Republic, hopes of qualifying from a tough group were already looking slim before kick-off but Wales set out in determined mood.

Coach John Toshack resisted making wholesale changes to his inexperienced team although goalkeeper Paul Jones and defender Rob Edwards made way for Lewis Price and debutant Craig Morgan.

Early chances for captain Bellamy and Earnshaw were indicative of Wales's dominance.

They got the opener after 33 minutes through Koumas, who has a Cypriot mother, when he headed a Simon Davies cross through the fingers of Michael Morphis, before Bellamy squared for an easy chance for Earnshaw six minutes later to leave Wales 2-0 up at the break.

The visitors improved after the interval and were denied a goal of their own when Lewis Price saved well from Ioannis Okkas. But Wales made it safe ahead when Bellamy grabbed his first goal for his country in 20 months after he finished another Davies pass from inside the box on 72 minutes.

Okkas lobbed Price with eight minutes remaining for a clever late score, the result was already beyond Cyprus with the 20,456 fans inside the 72,000-capacity Millennium Stadium able to cheer a home win.