Wales boss John Toshack hailed the influence of midfielder Jason Koumas who claimed a double in the 3-0 friendly win over Norway at Wrexham.Koumas has now scored four goals in his last two internationals - nine in 26 appearances for his country - and Toshack made it clear how important the Wigan man now is to Wales' future plans.

Retired skipper Ryan Giggs dropped in to see Wales' emerging youngsters in the Racecourse Ground dressing room before the game and it is Koumas who Toshack wants to take on the mantle previously held by the Manchester United ace.

Toshack said: "When Jason is in the mood, you can see what he is capable of. He has such ability on the ball and he has got to understand how important he now is to my squad.

"The problem is getting him out on the pitch, he misses so many games including all of our away Euro 2008 qualifiers. But we will keep plugging away, we need him playing like that."

Carl Fletcher scored his first goal for his country while winning his 26th cap and Toshack continued: "He is not known for his speed, but he got away to score a good goal. Maybe a few of their lads were held up on the very heavy pitch!"

Toshack's team have now lost just two of their last 11 games, and he said: "I have to be very pleased with the young players and the way they are improving.

"It was good that we maintained the momentum after drawing in Germany in our last match in November.

"It is pleasing to see the way we are progressing, but there is still a long way to go before we play our World Cup qualifiers, starting in September.

"It has been a good couple of days with the under-21s winning 4-0 in Malta. We had eight players involved against Norway who could have been in that squad, so there are plenty of good young prospects starting to make a name for themselves."

Norway boss Age Hareide, the former Manchester City and Norwich player, accepted that Wales deserved their victory.

He said: "At this time of year we do not have too many players who are involved in matches, our season ended before Christmas and does not start again until April.

"We started well but in the end we did not look too good. Wales hit us on the counter-attack and fully deserved their win.

"I will not blame the conditions, you have to get on with it regardless of the pitch. You cannot stop the rain.

"We did not play up to our usual standard, and when you do that at this level you get smacked."

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