Coleman: Wales were not ready

Chris Coleman admitted the ’emotional atmosphere’ made it difficult for the Wales players to cope in their Gary Speed memorial match against Costa Rica.

Joel Campbell netted the only goal of the game as Wales were unable to mark their tribute to their former boss with a victory on Wednesday.

“We’ve got two games left before we play Belgium, but the main reason for tonight was for Speeds, Gary Speed, and that’s why we are all here,” Coleman told Sky Sports.

“You saw for the first 20 minutes of the game we weren’t really in our places and we lost a sloppy goal.”

“We warmed up after that, we had some good chances maybe we should have got a couple of goals back.”

Coleman admitted he was not looking forward to the fixture but praised his players for their commitment during the match.

“None of us did (knew how to prepare) to be honest, we showed a video of Gary as a player and a manager on Monday, we needed to do it we all got in a room together and had a chat about the situation,” he said.

“It’s just a funny strange atmosphere and I know the players have been looking to me to say what do we do, but in all honesty I didn’t know what to do myself.”

“We all knew this game was coming but I don’t think anyone was looking forward to it. I wasn’t looking forward to it but we had to do it because it needed to be done, for a top fellow.”

“But I wasn’t looking forward to it to be honest and I think the players took the feeling off of me, but I was subdued for two or three days because I wasn’t looking forward to this occasion.”

“I commend the players, they did their best. I knew we were going to start slow because I could feel it in the dressing room for the obvious reasons.”

“I was impressed with them, they’ve been a terrific bunch the last two or three days and they’ve been trying to hold it together because we all miss Speeds, and now they have a new face to listen too.”

Coleman also paid tribute to the supporters in what he admitted was a difficult match to prepare for.

“No (it didn’t work out for us), it was always going to be a difficult one for us tonight I think under the circumstances, even the build up wasn’t the normal build up and it wasn’t the normal preparation that we would normally go through,” he said.

“When we arrived at the ground everything is different, but like I said last week this game this occasion was for one guy and we were all he for him to show our support of his life and celebrate the person he was.”

“I thought it was a fantastic turn out by our supporters, I think the supporters were brilliant.”

“Speed’s family and friends were there, his two boys Tom and Ed came into the dressing room and out on the pitch and I can see why he was so proud of them, they are fantastic young boys.”