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In one book chronicling some of Georgia’s history, there is an image taken at the same Boris Paichadze National Stadium Chris Coleman’s side will visit this week.

Struggling with the voltage as the country deals with the effects of war and it’s fight for stability following independence from the Soviet Union, the Tbilisi scoreboard barely lights up with the details.

It is 16 November 1994. As dusk fell, the suffering locals could look up and see a scoreline they could barely believe, just as it confused and crushed those back home rushing back from work and school to tune in to the fuzzy pictures being beamed back from a distant land, a country some had not heard of let alone realised had a football team.

The scoreboard read: Georgia 5 Wales 0, one of the lowest points in the history of the national side.

The lights fighting against the low power might have displayed the result, but it only told half the story.

Warning signs and an appointment that left no-one convinced

It wasn’t as if Wales hadn’t been warned.

Welsh football had already been reeling by the events of the past year, the game in Tbilisi coming just one day shy of the year anniversary of that game against Romania.

Terry Yorath’s departure had cast gloom so soon after anything had seemed possible when the World Cup was in touching distance, but the new man in charge of changing that was convincing no-one.

Mike Smith had been manager when Wales reached the final eight of the 1976 European Championships and, after John Toshack had walked out after 48 days claiming he had wanted nothing to do with the politics at play, Smith had been summoned.

Initially he arrived at an FAW meeting in Caersws in the March with the notion he was there to advise on the decision; he walked out with a two-year contract and with his first frontline job in British football since leaving Hull City in 1979.

Soon enough, Smith had realised he was now in a very different world. The bid for Euro 96 had opened with a straightforward win over Albania, but then had come Moldova – cockroaches, Kalashnikovs and all that went with it.

The outcry had been understandable, although it had been lost on Smith as he prepared for the game with Georgia one month later.

He called the reaction to the result “quite barmy” and claimed his side - admittedly hit by injuries, suspensions and difficult preparation - had played quite well.

He had talked of the boost provided of welcoming back Ian Rush, Dean Saunders and Mark Hughes for the game, the first time all three had been available in 13 months , but the fact Hughes had to deny rumours his absence had been because of Smith’s presence gave away the feeling that all was not right.

A former schoolteacher, his quiet style was in contrast to the fiery Yorath and had led to him being nicknamed ‘The Verger’ and claims of the side lacking passion as they went down to Moldova.

“He was a nice man,” says Dean Saunders. “But the problem he had is that we all knew that getting rid of Terry was a terrible decision and one made all for the sake of £5,000. If Paul Bodin scores the crossbar, Terry doesn’t go.”

But he had and, after the defeat to Georgia, pressure was already building and festering within the ranks.

“He was too nice a man,” admits Iwan Roberts, part of the side at the time. “Looking back, I don’t think any of the lads who were in that squad he should have got the job. I think there was a lack of respect towards him as a manager.”

Murder at the team hotel as a warzone is entered

It did not improve when Wales landed in Tbilisi.

Logistically, the trip had proven to be a second headache for the FAW in the space of a month. After being the first side welcomed in a competitive game by Moldova, this was only the second time Georgia had staged a meaningful match.

More concerning, though, was its status as an official United Nations war zone. It had separated from Russia less than three years earlier but was now dealing with civil conflicts as Abkhazia and South Ossetia fought secessionist battles across the region.

There had been assurances of safety, but the scare stories had been lapped up by the media. Ones such as the unconfirmed reports the hotel manager of the Metetchi Palace, the four star complex Wales were due to stay in, had been shot and killed in the foyer just weeks beforehand. It had clearly spooked players.

“If it’s as dangerous as we are led to believe, Uefa surely wouldn’t have sent us here,” said Ian Rush at the time. “It’s not the right preparation for such an important game. Maybe the less we know about it the better.”

But it was not something Wales stars could ignore.

“We had an escort from the airport to the hotel,” recalls Mark Evans, the long-serving head of the FAW’s international department. “I’d been on the bus with the Under-21s who were also playing out there when the engine died on us. We’d already been told that they had regular power cuts and there was no lighting at night so we were sat in darkness on this bus waiting for word to get to the first coach to turn around and pick us up. The last thing we had passed on the side of the road had been a burned-out UN armoured car.”

Smith had already been aware of the likely welcome having been asked to check in his gun at reception when he had travelled to Tbilisi for Georgia’s friendly with Malta earlier in the year.

This time airport-style security met the players at the hotel, metal detectors and signs signalling no guns allowed outside the hotel protected by armed guards, but lit by candles.

Not that players were given much time to get used to their new surroundings.

After the eight-hour flight – one arranged at the last minute when the original carriers tried to charge double the £46,000 cost, on top of hefty insurance premiums needed for the game in Georgia – Smith decided to ignore the four-hour time difference and stay on UK time. As Tbilsi turned midnight, Wales set off for training.

“It was a crazy idea,” admits Evans. “And then when we got to the stadium it was locked and we had to hang around until someone opened it for us.”

Things had not started well.

11 brave souls, the mafia casino and another man shot dead

All the horror stories had not put off all fans, though it’s safe to say there was no Red Wall in Tbilisi at that time.

Instead of the 2,000 set to descend this week, only a handful of Wales fans had been able to make the trip. One of them was Richard Grigg.

“I think there was 11 of us in all,” the Cardiff resident says. “I’d been travelling away with Wales for about six years at the time but whereas most of the regulars decided to go to Moldova, I hadn’t been able to make it so wanted to make sure I got to Tblisi.

“There had been a lot of concern about travelling so – and I can’t remember how it came about – we were offered the chance to fly with the team.

“It was a bit of adventure, a trip into the unknown, but when we got there we were told there was a curfew and at 7pm, all lights went off and we were to stay in our rooms.

“Of course, we hadn’t travelled all that way to be locked in so we managed to sneak out with a few of the Under-21 squad who had played earlier in the day. We soon found a place we could go and were driven to the only place that had electricity – a casino owned by the mafia with their own power supply.

“We’d been enjoying ourselves with a few drinks but we began to grow concerned when we heard a gun go off and we found out someone had been shot and killed outside. That soon sobers you up.”

Fortunately, the FAW had twigged the group had been missing and sent a coach to bring them back to safety.

But there was no hiding from the environment Wales were in.

“I was sat on my balcony because it was a lovely hotel – we had no problems like we’d had in Moldova – but then I could just hear this pop-pop-popping sound in the background,” reveals Evans. “I’d never heard gunfire before.”

Although there are smiles in the voices as the old stories are told, the seriousness of the situation was real.

Evans was among those charged with rounding up players and officials to remain in their rooms as the hotel was put on lock down with Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadzedue in for a speech.

The sight of paratroopers and stern words made sure that the orders were adhered too.

“It gave you a very quick idea of the world you were entering,” admits John Ley, the veteran journalist sent to cover the game by the Daily Telegraph. “At the same time, you didn’t feel in danger and we were in a bit of a bubble in the hotel we were staying in. They were brilliant with us and the facilities were fine – there were none of the excuses like there had been in Moldova.

“But I went for a walk on the morning of the game to get a feel for the place and it was then when the poverty of the place hit you. Everything was so grey. I walked along the Kura and I’ve never seen a river with that colour, while along the banks there were men selling two-stroke petrol out of the back of the van. There were huge queues for bread and I remember passing an emaciated dog collapsing in front of me and a woman crying her eyes out in the street.”

Saunders – who jokes that his thought he was heading to America to play was soon found out – describes seeing the local butcher selling meat hanging from a branches of a tree.

In the hotel, with Wales having brought their own chef and supplies, Evans recalls how they had to reassure a waiter that he and colleagues would be looked after at the end of the meal when one of the plates intended for the players went missing.

“It was an eye-opener but we didn’t meet many locals,” says Grigg, who was 26 at the time. “At the hotel, most of the Georgians were walking around in leather jackets and dark sunglasses and you knew exactly who they were.

“We did try to head out on the day of the game and look for a local bar. We found one but there was only the barman inside. We asked if they served beer but he said they only had vodka. I said ‘Okay, can I have a vodka and coke please’ and he replied: ‘I said we only had vodka. No coke’. It was by the bottle too.”

The game from hell

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As the supporters stumbled to the stadium - allowed to take in their horrendous-tasting vodka into the ground when they told the armed guards it was permitted in the UK – players prepared to make amends for Moldova.

Yordan Letchkov, the Bulgarian 1994 World Cup star, had warned Wales that Georgia would trouble them after praising their performance in their 2-0 loss in Sofia, while Nevile Southall was also wary.

“We’ll have problems like we had in Moldova,” said the great goalkeeper, on his second trip to Tbilisi having been part of the squad that lost 3-0 to the Soviet Union in the same city in 1983. “But we’re not worried about all that goes with this trip. We are nothing to do with the war and when they see the calibre of players of Ian Rush, Mark Hughes and Dean Saunders coming into the country it might lift them. The game is a break from the war and we know the crowd get behind them.”

He couldn’t have imagined what was to follow.

While Newcastle’s Alan Neilson isn’t a familiar name, only one player selected was not a Premier League player, yet they were soon blown away.

“You know you hear about under-estimating sides – well we totally underestimated them,” admits Saunders. “We’d heard of them being called ‘the Brazil of Eastern Europe’ but we had no idea. Put the Moldova result aside, we’d become used to winning and I think we thought we could just turn up with the players we had and get the job done. Within minutes we didn’t know what had hit us and it was too late. Never mind 5-0, it could have been 10-0.”

Georgia should have scored well before the half-hour mark where future Newcastle striker Temuri Ketsbaia scored their first competitive goal on home turf. Nine minutes later a certain Georgi Kinkladze had made it two. Ketsbia and Gocha Gogrichiani embarrassed Southall with lofted goals after the break as his protection evaporated before Shota Arveladze added one more.

Without any sign of a response, it was 5-0 with still half-hour left to play, the white-shirted hosts celebrating together in a kneeled, disbelieving huddle. It was little wonder Chris Coleman calls it his lowest moment in a national shirt.

“We weren’t prepared properly,” says Roberts. “We didn’t know anything about them as individuals or as a team. We didn’t know what we were walking into, but at the same time we had a good team out and we just didn’t perform.”

“They were a proud football nation,” adds Evans. “It wasn’t like Moldova, the Georgians couldn’t be more helpful and we had no excuse.”

'Sack the lot... Wales is a laughing stock"

The mood on the flight home was sombre; the mood at home was vicious.

The early kick-off – it was 1pm UK time – had allowed the press to sharpen their pens, with the Western Mail calling for Smith’s head before he had even landed.

Karl Woodward’s report from the game had described the side – so close to qualifying just 12 months earlier – as being outclassed in the heaviest defeat in 41 years, while Smith’s decision to play Melville as a sweeper as a disaster.

They were not out of touch with the public, with fax machines sending in immediate reaction calling Wales “the laughing stock of world football” with one reader urging Smith to resign and “not to drag Welsh football any further into the gutter.” Brian Flynn had been installed as favourite to replace him “if and when he resigns”.

The South Wales Echo went one step further, the headline screaming a demand to ‘Sack the Lot’ with the FAW suits also in the firing line. “The pen of FAW chief executive Alun Evams and the others who appointed Smith should be drained of the ink, emptied by letters of resignation.”

Of course, none of that happened.

Smith was unrepentant. Though he admitted “we are all ashamed because we were run off the park” he was soon talking about seeing the job through and still believing Wales would make the finals in England. “I don’t need this type of aggravation, and neither do the players he added.”

Not that he was resigning.

“I have just returned home and I am shellshocked by what happened,” Smith said. “I expect to be in charge, but that’s something you should take it up with my employers, they are the people in control of my destiny.”

FAW President Bryan Fear confirmed there was no plans in place to axe him, while Evans was more concerned with the £5m missed out on as failing to qualify stared Wales in the face and how it would affect the gate for the Bulgaria match in Cardiff the following month.

“A lot will depend on Ryan Giggs; if he plays we will get a few thousand more,” Evans said in a damning statement about the national side at the time.

Yorath’s pleas to return were ignored while Ron Atkinson admitted he was flattered to be linked with the job, yet Smith continued.

Instead, the Western Mail pointed towards the future just a few days later with the headline ‘Welsh SOS to Vinnie’.

“The side is crying out for a hard man like Vinnie Jones,” said North Wales FAW councillor Eddie Melen.

Jones made his debut as Wales lost 3-0 to the Bulgarians in December that year. When Georgia arrived in Cardiff six months later in June 1995, the midfielder was sent-off as Wales went down 1-0. It was Smith’s last act as manager, bringing in the Bobby Gould era.

But that’s a whole other story, one that reminds how glorious these current times are.

Georgia is a much-changed place, as the 2,000-strong Red Wall will discover.

But the tale of Tbilisi 23 years on is one that will never be forgotten.