WALES manager Chris Coleman admits he has given up trying to win over his critics.

The former Fulham and Coventry boss has seen Wales rise to 29th in FIFA’s world rankings during his tenure, their highest berth for 20 years.

Coleman’s charges have also made a winning start to the Euro 2016 qualification campaign, ahead of defining home clashes with Bosnia and Cyprus.

Six points would see the Dragons make a huge stride towards their first major tournament qualification since 1958 with the Euros expanded from 16 to 24 teams.

However, Wales’ performance in winning 2-1 in Andorra last month has been heavily criticised and Coleman was singled out for his team selection, especially on social media with a #ColemanOut hashtag featuring prominently on Twitter while some in the media also called for the boss to quit.

“I wasn’t surprised by the negativity after we won,” he said. “If after games when we play well, but we’ve lost, people said “they played well thought,” then I could understand it.

“But that has never happened, it’s “you’ve lost,” because that’s what it is all about, we are in an industry about winning.

“On the surface we played on and with them getting a soft penalty, we showed a lot of courage and kept going and kept going.

“You can only get three points and we did that, a big three points for us. We’ve played better, but we had to keep chipping away.

“I wasn’t surprised to hear people calling for my head, but the rankings don’t lie do they? Where are we meant to be?

“Did I take over a country that repeatedly qualifies for major tournaments? No.

“I don’t know what the expectations are, to be honest.

“I knew what this job entailed because of the nature of me getting it. If we win it has got nothing to do with me and if we lose it has got everything to do with me.

“But I can’t let that attitude worry me, I can’t be bothered about that, we’ve got a really good group of players who are on the right road.

“We are climbing the rankings and have loads of positives but certain people will always, always focus on the negatives.

“They’ve said so much negative stuff in the past two years it’s difficult for them to go back on what they’ve said.

“I won’t even try to win them over if I am honest with you. I couldn’t care a monkeys about them. All I care about is the players and our supporters who follow us home and away. They are all that matters to me, everything else is just noise.”

Coleman believes Wales will face a dangerous Bosnia after their shock 2-1 loss to Cyprus.

“I think in Bosnia we will face a wounded animal,” he said.

“And they’ve should’ve beaten Cyprus, they dominated and couldn’t score and hats off to Cyprus.

“Bosnia come to us knowing they need a win and will be expecting a win, so they come to us with a point to prove.

“But we have the opportunity to go six points ahead of them, it’s a big incentive and we’ll be a real obstacle for them.”

Joining Newport’s Lee Evans in the Wales squad are Newport’s Chris Gunter, James Collins and Simon Church and Cwmbran’s Danny Gabbidon.

Wales squad for the Euro 2016 qualifiers against Bosnia-Herzegovina and Cyprus: Hennessey (Crystal Palace), Letheren (Dundee), Fon Williams (Tranmere), Chester (Hull), Collins (West Ham), Davies (Tottenham), Dummett (Newcastle), Gabbidon (Cardiff), Gunter (Reading), Ricketts (Wolves), Taylor (Swansea), Wiggins (Charlton), A Williams (Swansea), Cotterill (Birmingham), Edwards (Wolves), Evans (Wolves), Huws (Wigan), King (Leicester), Ledley (Crystal Palace), Bale (Real Madrid), Church (Charlton), Lawrence (Leicester), Robson-Kanu (Reading), Taylor (Reading), G Williams (Fulham), J Williams (Crystal Palace).