Blake looking on bright side after his injury blow.

Byline: Steve Tucker

Wales Under-21s ................. 2 Bosnia-Herzegovina U-21s .. 0 THERE were highs and lows for Cardiff City's Darcy Blake this weekend.

A good S senior squad ahead of their game in Liechtenstein on Wednesday. But the 20-year-old was brought down to earth with a bump when a calf strain ruled him out of joining up with the seniors, robbing him of the chance of earning his first full cap for his country.

But the 20-year-old, who is currently on loan at Plymouth, was focusing on the positives after the Welsh youngsters cemented their place at the top of their European Championship qualifying group with their victory.

"The aim is to go one step further than last time and qualify.

We are confident," said New Tredegar-born Blake. "We've still got a lot of players who can drop down like Aaron Ramsey and Simon Church if we need them to give us that little bit more too.

"It was good to get the win over Bosnia. International football is always tough. We made hard work of it, but we managed to find a way through them and get two goals.

"We all had our own opinions at half-time and we were determined to come out and move the ball quicker. We felt as soon as we got the goal we would be all right."

After a subdued first half at Wrexham's Racecourse, that goal did indeed come on 56 minutes via a header from Sheffield United marksman Ched Evans.

The super striker then sealed the victory deep into added time with a deflected volley.

It took Evans' tally to 13 goals in 12 under-21 appearances, but he too was unable to hook up with the seniors with a knee and ankle injury.

Blake was full of praise for Evans.

"Ched is just such a good player to have around," said Blake. "He can pop up on the edge of the box, score 30-yard goals, five-yard goals, he can score any kind of goal. He's great to have in your side.

"Ched just gets on with it. He's good enough to play in the senior team everyone knows that. But he helps us so much in the under-21s just giving us that quality up front."

On a personal note Blake is with Argyle until January and is enjoying his time at Home Park.

But he admits his heart is with the Bluebirds where he feels he has not yet been given a proper chance by manager Dave Jones to show what he can do.

"It's going well at Plymouth. I'm enjoying it. I really needed to get some game-time. I needed to prove I can play at Championship level," added Blake.

"Of course my heart is with Cardiff City. I'm a fan after all. I will sit down with Dave Jones in January and see where we can take things from there.

"I'd love to be playing for Cardiff week in and week out.

"Perhaps it is a bit unfair in that I never really had my chance, but the way they are playing at the moment it is always going to be hard to break in.

"I guess I need to bide my time."

TO THE POINT SCORERS Wales Under-21s (0) 2 Evans 56, 90 Bosnia-Herzegovina Under-21s (0) 0 Bellamy 17 TEAMS Wales Under-21s Maxwell, Morris, Blake, Ribeiro (Wilson 52), Taylor, Richards (Chamberlain 56), Craig (Bodin 73), King, MacDonald, Williams, Evans. Unused: Cornell, Alfei, Thomas, Taylor.

Bosnia-Herzegovina Under-21s Sehic, Savic, Sunjic, Bunoza, Anacic, Galesic, Pejic (Susic 65), Kiso, Subasic (Bekic 76), Dzafic (Miljkovic 58), Coric. Unused: Hamzic, Hasanovic.

Attendance: 1,933 Referee: Radek Matejek (Czech Republic)

CAPTION(S):

Wales' Elliot Chamberlain and Bosnia's Boris Savic battle PICTURE: Chris Brunskill