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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).

“We’ve got to see him, because it means so much to us,” said Bellamy of McAllister’s bonkers odyssey. “I’m beyond proud of that fact.” While super-fan McAllister may kick himself when he discovers he could have just taken a direct flight from Cardiff to Astana like the Wales team, he is likely to receive a hero’s welcome from around 1,000 fellow supporters who took a far less circuitous and comparatively unadventurous route to Astana. “To see how they all get on with each other as well,” said Bellamy, beaming with pride at the devotion of his bucket hat-wearing brethren. “They look after each other, they’re well behaved but they enjoy themselves. We want to be like that, we want to play like that.” While Celtic’s Bigger Cup exit at the hands of Kairat Almaty last week proved that teams from far-flung European outposts don’t always have it their own way when they visit Astana, the current incarnation of Wales should realistically expect to beat a team 83 places below them in the Fifa rankings and one who they have already seen off in Cardiff. For the first time in 15 years, the Welsh team is also likely to be boosted by the rare inclusion of representation from Hollywood FC.