Gary asks beauty to stir up Wales

Posted Wednesday, March 23, 2011 by The Sun

WHO said Wales were short of strikers? Gary Speed has drafted in Miss Wales as his secret weapon for Saturday's England clash.

The Wales boss wants to whip up the passion in his camp - by giving his team singing lessons.

So Speed brought in musical beauty Courtenay Hamilton to help the non Welsh-speaking players learn the anthem as he wants them all pumped up before kick-off.

Courtenay - Miss Wales 2010 - will sing both the home tune and God Save the Queen in the Millennium Stadium on Saturday before the Euro 2012 qualifier.

Striker Steve Morison said: "The squad is learning it. We have been given the Welsh version and the phonetic version.

"You can call it the X Factor if you want.

"We all had to get up and sing it on Sunday night. The gaffer asked us to have a go and I thought to myself: 'Please don't ask me to get up there on my own.'

"They played the song to us, we sang it as a group. I found out that you could mime when you are in a group!"

Wales players have been criticised in the past for not singing the anthem.

And Millwall hitman Morison insists the players belting out the national anthem will help stir the 72,500 crowd.

He said: "Our big aim is to get the fans back behind us."