John Toshack revealed his delight that the young and the old in his squad are blending together as his Wales side continued to improve with a 3-0 friendly win over Norway.
Wales beat their Scandinavian opponents at Wrexham's Racecourse ground
with some recognisable names on the scoresheet, while the kids continued to convince boss Toshack that his youth revolution is on track.
Carl Fletcher, 27, scored his first international goal at the 27th attempt while Jason Koumas, 28, grabbed two to reach nine in 26 internationals.
Ten others involved against Norway have still not reached double figures in their caps haul.
Toshack said: "Overall I have to be pleased with the way the young players are improving.
"I felt Norway would be better than that, but I don't think they got enough from their senior players who play in the Premier League."
Toshack was without four first-choice men - Craig Bellamy, Danny Gabbidon, James Collins and Gareth Bale - and said: "We are improving, and the kids are doing well. But we do need to get our top players back for when the World Cup qualifiers start.
"What we are seeing at the moment is that there are more alternatives, more options for me to assess. That is pleasing."
Wales now have three away friendlies in Luxembourg, Iceland and Holland ahead of the World Cup games, and Toshack hopes that his key midfielder, Koumas, will be available for those.
Toshack said: "Koumas must realise how important he is for us."
But the manager still hailed the Wigan man's influence in front of a 7,553 crowd in North Wales.
Retired former skipper Ryan Giggs dropped in to see Wales' emerging youngsters in the dressing room beforehand, and it is Koumas who Toshack wants to take on the mantle previously held by the Manchester United ace.
Toshack said: "When Jason is in the mood, you can see what he is capable of. He has such ability on the ball and he has got to understand how important he now is to my squad.
"The problem is getting him out on the pitch, he misses so many games - including all of our away Euro 2008 qualifiers. But we will keep plugging away, we need him playing like that."
Toshack team have now lost just two of their last 11 games, and he said: "I have to be very pleased with the young players and the way they are improving.
"It was good that we maintained the momentum after drawing in Germany in our last match in November.
"It has been a good couple of days with the under-21s winning 4-0 in Malta. We had eight players involved against Norway who could have been in that squad, so there are plenty of good young prospects starting to make a name for themselves."
Norway boss Age Hareide, the former Manchester City and Norwich player, accepted that Wales deserved their victory.
He said: "At this time of year we do not have too many players who are involved in matches, our season ended before Christmas and does not start again until April.
"We started well but in the end we did not look too good. Wales hit us on the counter-attack and fully deserved their win.
"I will not blame the conditions, you have to get on with it regardless of the pitch. You cannot stop the rain.
"We did not play up to our usual standard, and when you do that at this level you get smacked."