Serbia v Wales preview: Chris Coleman says team set to end goal drought

Friday night’s 2-0 defeat in their opening Group A fixture against Belgium in Cardiff was the fourth game in a row in which Coleman’s charges have failed to hit the back of the net.

Wales have talented players in Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey and Joe Allen, but are yet to click under former Fulham manager Coleman.

The 42-year-old believes that Wales, who are in a World Cup qualifying group with Belgium, Croatia, Scotland, Serbia and Macedonia, are ready to break their jinx in front of goal.

He said: “I would say it is only three games we have not scored in as you cannot put the Costa Rica game (February’s Gary Speed Memorial Match) on the players. But of course the longer you go and you don’t score the more of a psychological thing it can become.

“But we will score goals and I thought we were going to get a goal against Belgium. We have creators and players who can finish.

“Our last three games have been against three very good teams in Mexico, Bosnia and now Belgium, but the only performance I was not happy with was against Bosnia. So we now have to go to Serbia, put in a performance like we did against Belgium and we need to put the ball in the net, we are aware of that.”

As well as their own inability to score, Wales are also fighting supporter apathy, with the defeat to Belgium, held at the 27,000-capacity Cardiff City Stadium, attended by just 20,156.

Ex-Wales goalkeeper Neville Southall said organisers must work harder to win back the fans. “You need some sort of spark,” he said. “But I do think they just seemed to put the game on and not make it into an event and I think we have to look at it as being an event.