WALES manager Gary Speed has warned his players to learn from history to prevent complacency halting their recent upturn in form.

For the first time in years there is a feel-good factor in the Welsh camp after this month’s victory over Montenegro and a battling display in defeat against England at Wembley.

Speed’s men complete their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign with two tough games next month.

Switzerland come to Swansea’s Liberty Stadium on Friday, October 7, before Wales travel to Bulgaria on Tuesday, October 11.

And, despite the recent encouraging displays, Speed believes his squad’s biggest tests are still to come as he continues to build towards next year’s qualifying campaign for the 2014 World Cup.

Key to how they fare in Speed’s eyes will be how well they deal with the same raised levels of expectation that he faced as a player under Mark Hughes after a fantastic start to the Euro 2004 qualifying campaign almost a decade ago.

“The next game is big one for us because there’s a little bit of expectation there now,” Speed said at a media briefing held yesterday at Abbey Business Equipment’s new offices in Newport.

“It’s great that they’re dealing with that now before the qualifiers next year.

“We started brilliantly (in 2002) won the first four, beat Italy and then went downhill.

“The players have got to face up to that expectation and we’ve got two big games coming up that will be a big test for us.

“Switzerland are a top team who have been excellent in their last two games and they still have a chance of qualifying so that will be a real good game for us,” he added “Bulgaria have had a few poor games recently and they’ve just got rid of their manager, which doesn’t help us, but that will be good preparation for when we have to travel to that part of the world in the next campaign.

“Bulgaria away is a difficult game but we need to get results away from home and it will be a good test for us.”

Speed was hugely impressed with Cardiff City’s young central defender Darcy Blake in the recent games against Australia, Monte-negro and England.

Blake, born and raised in the Gwent valleys, was superb at Wembley as he and Swansea City star Ashley Williams shackled the in-form Wayne Rooney in an unfortunate 1-0 defeat.

But Speed insists there is still a future for experienced players like Cwmbran’s Danny Gabbidon and Newport’s James Collins, who have both been kept out of the starting XI by Blake in recent games.

“Darcy had done so well against Australia and Montenegro I couldn’t have leave him out and fortunately it worked and he had another good game,” explained Speed.

“There is so much quality now that it is difficult to pick a team and sometimes you have to leave players out who don’t deserve to be left out.

But we need the youth and experience and players like James Collins are vital too. He will be a massive part of what we want to do.”