John Toshack and Ryan Giggs have put their differences aside to forge an unlikely understanding.

And Robert Earnshaw, the West Bromwich Albion striker, could be the grateful beneficiary when he plays up front for Wales away to Poland in a World Cup qualifying match tonight.

Giggs, a long-term friend and team-mate of the previous Wales boss Mark Hughes, was expected to follow a number of other senior squad members into retirement.

The Manchester United winger even admitted in his recent autobiography that he was among the players under Hughes who used to hurl abuse and rubbish at the dressing-room television set whenever Toshack was at his most critical, in his previous role as the pundit the Wales players loved to hate.

A few months on, Giggs is Toshack's captain and produced one of his best performances in a Wales shirt against England at the weekend. He is talking openly of five more years in the national team.

The pair are working closely as Toshack starts rebuilding for the future with Giggs as his right-hand man among the players.

As Giggs prepares to win his 53rd cap against Poland - making him the 17th most-capped Welshman - everything is sweetness and light between the two contrasting Wales heroes.

Giggs has clearly put previous events behind him and said: "You can't dwell on the past, we all have to move forward.

"We are all after the same thing which is qualifying for a major championships, that is the bottom line, but we are building now for the next four years or so.

"It is hard enough as it is being a small country. The manager, the players, are all after the same thing. We all need to focus on that and improving and there is no room for thinking about what happened a couple of years ago. We all need to perform in every game and every time we come away. We all have to focus on that alone."

Toshack, who is expected to play Earnshaw up front in place of the suspended John Hartson, is quick to join the mutual admiration, adding: "Ryan has led by example, in the games he has played his all-round attitude has been spot on.

"Sometimes when you are at a club surrounded by top players and winning titles and championships regularly you can do one of two things when you come into the Wales set-up.

"You can come down and be involved and then go away, or you can take a full part. Some of the other lads are looking at him and thinking 'what does Ryan think of me?' or 'I've given the ball away again, what's going through his mind?.' But he has settled the nerves of the younger ones over that."