Wales stand-in captain Simon Davies accepts there will be no excuses this time around if the Welsh fail to make serious challenge to qualify for the World Cup in South Africa.
Davies will captain an experimental side in a friendly tomorrow against Norway in Wrexham knowing that the coming qualifying campaign is the one manager John Toshack and the players have been preparing for over three years.
Toshack took over midway through a failed World Cup campaign, and has spent the Euro 2008 qualifiers pushing plenty of youngsters into his senior squad.
When he took over he said "judge me on South Africa", and Davies accepts that judgement will also be made of the senior players as well if they fail to qualify for the 2010 finals.
Davies said: "It all really starts here, we have gone through two campaigns preparing for this.
"The manager said he should be judged on this next one and the players know that applies to them too."
Wales will have teenager Chris Gunter making his fourth senior appearance, while Wolves youngster David Edwards could win only his third cap.
Davies added: "The manager has said clearly that he has been planning for this next qualifying campaign since he took over, the last two have all been preparation to bring younger players in.
"We are all aware of that. Nobody said we would qualify from the last one, but this time around the target is clear.
"Now we must stay together, keep top players fit and maintain a regular squad. It's exciting and a great challenge.
"We have to be realistic, it will be difficult. But if we can get a point in Germany it shows what we can do. We have to do it again.
"The last campaigns were all about getting experience. There have been so many young players coming into the squad, and hopefully they have benefited from that experience."
Davies, who will win his 49th cap, said: "Now we have to believe we are ready and in the best shape we can be going into the World Cup campaign.
"We need a winning momentum and we hope we will be at that stage when the first qualifiers come around in September.
"The manager has always said that he should be judged on this coming campaign. And that applies to the players, too.
"It has all been about building and now this campaign is almost upon us we know that we will be judged too.
"Many of us are coming to the peak time in our careers so we have all got to produce. There should be no excuses now, we all accept we have been preparing for this and now the time has come.
"We have got to be ready for it and believe we were can do it. Realistically second place will be our target, Germany will be favourites.
"But we will have massive games with Russia and also Finland, two good sides but we must be aiming to take points from them.
"We will need a good start, momentum is crucial. We found that when we almost qualified in 2004, but we tailed off at the end.
"If we start well we will have the country behind us and that can carry us through."
Norway will have as many as six Barclays Premier League players in their side, including two of Davies' new Fulham colleagues, Erik Nevland and Brede Hangeland, while Aston Villa's John Carew and Liverpool's John Arne Riise will also play.
Davies continued: "I have had the captain's job twice before, both draws with the Republic of Ireland and Germany - and both good results. Let's hope that continues.
"Norway will be physical and organised. A couple of them are now at Fulham, and we faced John Carew at the weekend so we are under no illusions about how difficult it will be.
"But we have some bright youngsters, Chris Gunter and David Edwards, they are doing well and have both got good moves recently so there is an incentive for all the young players in our squad.
"There are so many young players coming into the squad, from a very good Under-21 side, the pressure is on all of us to perform. Competition for places has increased."
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