WALES ushered in the new era for Chris Coleman with a lacklustre draw with Finland at the Cardiff City Stadium.

The late leveller for Finland was a little harsh on Coleman's men on the balance of play, Wayne Hennessey without a notable save to make in the entire contest.

However, without illness victim Aaron Ramsey and in a post-Craig Bellamy world, there was little to suggest Wales can look too far beyond Gareth Bale and Ramsey to provide creative spark in the Euro Qualifying campaign.

Indeed, it'd be hard to see what if anything, Coleman can take from a tepid test against the Finns. The last time the two sides faced off, in a World Cup qualifier in 2009, Bellamy derided a contest between "two poor sides, neither of whom has any chance of qualifying."

Sadly, on the evidence of Saturday, little has changed.

Boss Coleman, who ended speculation that he was set for Premier League basement boys Crystal Palace by penning a new two-year deal with the FAW on Thursday, saw his side pegged back at the death (three minutes into injury time), having led courtesy of Andy King’s firm header on the hour.

Even the presence of £86 million man Gareth Bale failed to lift the gloom in a lifeless encounter, the last-gasp equaliser a touch unfortunate for Wales who nevertheless will feel they should have given the visiting defenders a more thorough examination.

This was always likely to be a close encounter, however, in the opening exhchanges things were a bit too close for the world’s most expensive player, Gareth Bale the victim of two heavy challenges that would’ve had those in the Bernabéu wincing.

The bigwigs at the FAW had no doubt hoped that Bale’s presence, coupled with the rugby match earlier in the afternoon, would help to swell the crowd numbers at the Cardiff City Stadium, but that didn’t transpire and the atmosphere felt flat despite the best efforts of a few hundred fun Finns.

The visitors began to exert some control and almost took the lead after 15 minutes, Celtic’s Teemu Pukki wriggling clear and shooting across Wayne Hennessey, but the woodwork came to Wales’ rescue.

It was a long 26 minutes before Wales even came close to threatening, Bale’s accurate corner almost turned in by Sam Ricketts who just failed to make a telling connection at the near post.

Bale still looks short of the phenomenal form he produced last season but did show glimpses of the ability that mean he’s already a hit at his new club, a sensational run and cross on 37 minutes deserving of more as striker Sam Church was nowhere to be found.

The second half started at a similarly prosaic pace as the first, the hosts not hitting their stride until Simon Church saw a reasonable shout for a penalty turned down, Finland's manager confessing afterwards that he felt Wales had been unlucky.

That seemed to spark life into the Dragons with Bale coming close seconds later, jinxing in from the right and hammering at Lukas Hradecky who palmed away the first effort on target of the entire game.

Wales sniffed a goal and it duly arrived just before the hour, Andy King heading home Robson-Kanu’s pinpoint centre as reward arrived for an increased tempo.

The goal signalled the beginning of a genuine contest, an hour of lethargic and uninspiring, insipid football warming up rather nicely as the cold set-in in Cardiff.

Tim Sparv produced the first genuine Finnish chance, but Hennessey foiled him with a smart stop as the usual raft of substitutions again sucked the life out of the game.

While many would have expected to see no more than 45 minutes of Bale, an hour tops, the former Tottenham winger was still at the heart of anything good for Wales throughout, firing at Hradecky with nine minutes remaining and leaving the fans with a feeling of money well spent by playing 90 minutes. Whether Carlo Ancelotti will be so pleased, remains to be seen.

It seemed Coleman was heading towards a timely victory but there was still time for a shock leveller, Riku Riski taking advantage of some poor defending after King's missed header in stoppage time to slip the ball under Hennessey and plunder a draw.

Wales: Hennessey, Gunter (Richards 71), Taylor (Davies 71), Ricketts, Williams, Ledley, Allen (Tudur-Jones 89), King, Bale, Robson-Kanu (Cotterill 84), Church (Vokes 62)

Subs not used: Fon Williams, Huws, Easter, Wiggins, Ward

Booked: King

Finland: Hradecky, Moisander (Pasanen 62), Ojala (Toivio 46), Eremenko, Pukki (Hamalainen 62), Riski, Arkivuo (Lampi 46, Raitala 70), Sparv, Schuller (Hetemaj 70), Uronen, Ring

Subs not used: Maenpaa, Vayrynen, Hurme, Mattila, Pohjanpalo, Joronen

Booked: Sparv

Referee: Sebastian Delferiere (Belgium)

Attendance: 11809

Argus star man: Gareth Bale (Wales)