Returning captain Craig Bellamy missed a penalty as Wales made heavy weather of the victory at home to Liechtenstein which gave them three vital World Cup qualifying points.
David Edwards scored his first goal for his country four minutes from the break, and Bellamy then had a spot-kick saved by Peter Jehle just before the interval.
Wales toiled against a packed defence but finally got their second with 11 minutes to go when substitute Ched Evans saw a header deflected home by Liechtenstein captain Mario Frick.
Goalscorer Edwards acknowledged the performance was below-par.
He told Sky Sports: "We made hard work of it but it was great to get a goal before half-time. If we had gone in 0-0 it would have been a difficult second half."
"It's always nice to get the first one and hopefully there are more to come.
"We didn't play to our potential and were sloppy at times. It needs to be sharper and we have the potential in the team to do so."
Captain Bellamy, who played his first international match for 11 months, added: "We've got a win. It could have been better but we got the win."
