NEWPORT defender Chris Gunter added his name to those in the Welsh camp clamouring for Chris Coleman to be offered a new contract, writes Michael Pearlman.

Coleman appears to be hinting that he’s not planning on staying on once his contract expires next year and that attitude appears to be utterly at loggerheads with the view from the players.

Skipper Ashley Williams led the calls for Coleman to stay and former Cardiff City defender Gunter endorses that view.

“For sure, we feel Chris Coleman is the right man to carry on and take us into the next campaign,” he told the Argus.

“The circumstances of him taking over were almost impossible really with what happened (Gary Speed’s death) but you’ve seen the atmosphere is now one of the best since I’ve been involved with Wales. If you speak to any of the players they’ll say the same thing.

“We don’t want a change of manager, if anyone calls for that it’d be ridiculous.”

Gunter believes Wales can hold their head high despite losing out to Croatia.

“It was cruel at the end, we put a lot of work into it and we’re on the end of a comeback similar to the one we produced against Scotland,” he said.

“It’s disappointing, we had a few chances on the break at 1-0 to extend our lead and it’s tough to take, we sat back and defended well but couldn’t quite hang on.

“We felt quite solid, but sometimes you hold your hands up to a great strike and after that the momentum was with them.

“We showed we can match a top class team, but it’s not been good enough ultimately, but there are a lot of positives for us all to take from the camp.”

The aim now is to finish in third spot to provide a seedings boost.

“We need to finish as high as possible, there is no way we’ll drop off, every game is as vital as at any other time because we’re trying to win the fans back,” he said.

“It was nice the crowd were positive with us, we really appreciate them, we need them to come and get behind us.

“Every time you’re in a group you want to qualify but this was always a tough group, as good as our squad is.

“We’ve had some good performances and we need to come back next year and look to carry on.

“We need to start getting the results, we want to win every game and everybody was devastated to lose out to Croatia but it’s an experience we need to learn from.”