SOMETIMES you’ve got to throw your hands in the air.

And in this instance, I don’t mean to rave it up to the techno music at the King Baudouin Stadium as 2,500 Welsh fans did so mesmerizingly on Sunday.

This time, I, like many of you need to throw my hands in the air and in as dramatic a voice as possible – I’m thinking Sir Anthony Hopkins or Richard Burton – decree, I was wrong about Chris Coleman!

We’ve now reached the point where there is no longer any justification for opining that Coleman isn’t up to the task of managing the Welsh national side, because results and the attitude of the players suggests that is a total nonsense.

I fear that we are in danger of out and out football snobbery in panning Coleman now, because his perceived failures at Coventry City and in the Greek league and Spanish second division simply don’t carry weight anymore.

Coleman, let us not forget, took the Wales job under the most difficult of circumstances, following the death of his former teammate and good friend Gary Speed.

Those were absolute hellish circumstances in which to get your dream job and Coleman acted with great dignity throughout, even doing the best he could to replicate how the Welsh camp operated under Speed and his assistant Raymond Verheijen.

The entire Speed era felt like a period of great progression and because of his perceived failures since doing a splendid job with Fulham, Coleman was an instant disappointment to those who were inspired by Speed’s progressive methods.

It was virtually impossible to not lose momentum after Gary’s death and to be honest I like many others feared it would be the moment that set the national side back, potentially doing as much damage as half a decade of toiling under John Toshack.

If we are truly honest, Wales were competitive in the last qualifying campaign for about 20 minutes, up until the moment James Collins was sent off at home to Belgium in the very first game in a contest the Dragons were always going to need to pick up points. They lost 2-0.

The destruction in Serbia – with Wales losing 6-1 and feeling oh so sad in Novi Sad – was a particular low point and the closest I came for calling for Coleman to be sacked, but having barracked for a younger manager throughout the Toshack era – and having suggested Coleman – I couldn’t quite bring myself to do so. As you’ll be well aware, some of the other Welsh football writers weren’t quite as restrained.

The issue for me was whether or not the players – who would all have run through a brick wall for Speed – were responsive to Coleman and whether they were willing to fight for him, the evidence in Novi Sad suggesting that they weren’t.

However, Wales finished the campaign with a flourish and the results and performances in the Euro qualifiers have been highly encouraging, Andorra apart (no revisionist history can convince me that was anything other than a very poor display where Wales were saved by a football genius).

It has now become abundantly clear that the players, although perhaps sceptical at first, are absolutely behind their manager. One player told us in Belgium that if Coleman had left at the end of the current campaign it would have been “a disaster,” and that the players think he is “fantastic,” in his man management style.

And if we are brutally honest, aside from motivating, selecting a squad and a shape and representing their nation as an ambassador, is there an awful lot more too international management?

These are the best players in the country and the job of the national coach is merely to select a system and allow the most talented players to shine.

Coleman has clearly got an awful lot out of Gareth Bale and the decision to replace Aaron Ramsey as captain with Ashley Williams was also a fine move and a brave one.

He also, unlike Toshack, isn’t one to let the sun go down on an argument. Coleman is spiky and falls out with people, but he doesn’t hold grudges to the detriment of the squad.

His handling of Craig Bellamy demonstrated that well, even though I suspect his usual line of “we’ve had a coffee and a chat,” is code for “we had a pint.”

And I’d even go a step further and suggest that Coleman is showing tactical acumen that many Welsh supporters refused to give him credit for.

His bold move to introduce an untried teenager in George Williams at half time in the white hot heat of the King Baudouin stadium and to drop Aaron Ramsey deeper and push Joe Ledley on was an inspired move and it really improved the Welsh performance.

Coleman is also presiding over a group of players who not only aren’t making excuses for not turning up to play, but seem genuinely excited to do so. For the first time in what feels like forever, when Wales say a player is missing due to injury, there is no scepticism required.

For all the above Coleman deserves great credit and for many of us, the least we can do is admit we were wrong about him. He’s doing a fine job and long may that continue.