WALES boss John Toshack believes the key to his side ending their scoring drought in tomorrow's Euro 2008 qualifier with Slovakia (kick-off 3pm) lies in midfield.

Since Wales played Azerbaijan in the final match of their World Cup qualifying campaign in October 2005 they have scored just three goals in six internationals.

But rather than hoping his strikers can find their form, Toshack is instead pinning his hopes on those lying behind them chipping in.

Carl Fletcher, an ever-present under Toshack, has been ruled out through injury but the Wales boss is hopeful that the likes of Simon Davies, Jason Koumas and Carl Robinson can get their names on the scoresheet.

"We have have got a number of players in our side who can score goals from midfield," said Toshack.

"As a striker I was always upset if I didn't score every game. Even if we won, I felt it was my job.

"But very often midfielders are not too concerned if they score or not because they feel it is not their responsibility - strikers do.

"But you can't have a team being dependent on just one or two people to score goals, and we have midfielders here who can score goals, Simon Davies and Jason Koumas can, Carl Robinson scored in Northern Ireland.

"It's not something totally foreign to them and what we have been trying to do this week is to make them more aware and to get them to go into the penalty area with confidence and get into goal scoring positions.

"Hopefully they will take them because for the chances we have created over the last three games we haven't scored as many as we should have done."

While Toshack is hoping his midfielders can play their part in firing Wales to victory, he is also backing his misfiring strikers to come good.

Skipper Craig Bellamy was guilty of a number of misses in the heart-breaking loss to the Czech Republic in Teplice and apologised to his team-mates after the game, but Toshack is confident the goals are around the corner.

He said: "Craig was annoyed with himself after the game in Teplice, he felt that at 0-0 had he scored it might have been different. As confident and as bouncy a lad as he is he still knew he should have scored.

"But strikers know that you can go through a bad spell and then all of a sudden you are hitting the back of the net.

"I've seen games when strikers have missed chances and they've dropped their heads and people are saying they are not fit, then the ball comes over, they score and all of a sudden they are running around like a three-year-old.

"It's very important they keep going and the goals will come along. Hopefully that will be the case on Saturday."