THE whole of Wales woke-up with a massive hangover this morning after celebrating one of the most famous victories in their history last night -- and it's all thanks to my old team-mate Mark Hughes!

Sparky had already done a momentous job for the Welsh FA long before their historic victory over Italy in Cardiff.

But their win over the Azzurri will now become the stuff of the legends, hopefully giving them the platform they need to qualify for the finals themselves.

And no-one deserves the glory more than Sparky himself who is one of the nicest guys you are ever likely to meet in football.

I don't want to sound clever after the event, but I always knew he was going to make someone a brilliant manager one day.

During his two seasons at Ewood, you could tell straight away that he had the right temperament to become a successful leader of men.

On the pitch, he was one of the game's great warriors, capable of mixing it with the hardest defenders in the business.

But off it, he was one of the most mild-mannered characters you could ever wish to meet and it was that inner calmness which made him stand out as management material.

Whenever he talked, you listened because he was the type of bloke who commanded instant respect in the dressing room because of what he had achieved during a glittering playing career.

I remember him coming up to me on a number of occasions with words of advice and encouragement if he felt there was an aspect of my game I could improve.

And the gaffer openly encouraged that input because it would have been a crime not to utilise Sparky's vast experience.

Now Wales are benefiting from that wisdom and you can see from their results exactly what an effect it's having.

To beat a team of Italy's stature was beyond even the most optimistic Welshman's dreams five years ago because their national game was going through a major crisis.

Now, however, everything seems to be coming together at just the right time because Sparky has managed to mould together a side worthy of playing in the magnificent Millennium Stadium.

Blackburn fans already know what it's like to taste victory there under the roof in front of a full house.

But even the atmosphere we experienced for our Worthington Cup triumph back in February wouldn't have been a patch on the scenes witnessed there last night.

At this rate, Sparky's popularity is going to out-grow that of St David and I couldn't be more delighted for him!

Give hero respect he deserves

ALAN Shearer returns to Ewood this weekend looking for his 300th career goal -- a fabulous achievement in anyone's book.

And I want to take this opportunity to appeal to our fans NOT to boo him.

To be quite honest, I find it acutely embarrassing that some fans choose to barrack Shearer in the way they do.

During four glorious seasons at Ewood, he gave Rovers the best years of his career.

At the end of the day, all booing does anyway is make him that bit more determined to score against us.

But, perhaps even more importantly, what kind of message does it send out to the current players?

We could slog our guts out to bring success to this club but then if we decided to leave at some point in the future it would appear to count for nothing in some people's minds.