THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD
Considering Cymru head coach Craig Bellamy is so patriotic that he lives in a house constructed entirely of Fragrant Spring daffodil bulbs, thinks the long-running BBC soap opera Pobol y Cwm is a documentary and has Dafydd Iwan’s stirring anthem Yma o Hyd as his ringtone, it was no surprise he was impressed by the journey undertaken by Wales fan John McAllister to get to his nation’s World Cup qualifier in Kazakhstan. Currently sitting second in Group J, a point behind North Macedonia but with Belgium three points further back with two games in hand, Wednesday afternoon’s match in Astana is a fairly must-win one for Wales. Anything less than three points would prove a crushing disappointment for McAllister, who set off for the Kazakh capital from Barry five weeks ago and has taken in 11 football matches, no end of foreign boozers, a heavy metal gig and some Irish stranger’s stag do as he travelled around 5,000 kilometres east across four time zones and 12 countries on a series of 17 trains, 11 buses and one plane (a flight he’d rather have not taken but was unable to avoid).
