BRITAIN was still getting over the Suez Crisis the last time Wales graced a major tournament.

Rationing had not long disappeared. No-one had heard of The Beatles. John F Kennedy had still to become president of the USA.

It was, in case you hadn't heard, 1958. Rock and roll was in its infancy. Morecambe and Wise had still to make it big. Britain's first motorway was still being built.

But Wales were in the spotlight, having reached the World Cup in Sweden. And arguably the greatest football team this country has ever produced did okay, too.

There would be no fairytale ending for the underdogs. No Leicester City-style shock which would end with Ivor and the Charles brothers carrying the World Cup on a ticker-tape parade down The Kingsway.

But Wales did make the quarter-finals — getting out of a group that also included the host nation, Hungary and Mexico — before succumbing to a Pele-inspired Brazil in the last eight. Wales also got further than the likes of Czechoslovakia, Argentina and England.

Chris Coleman speaks to the Welsh press pack

If they get further than England in Euro 2016, it's time to book your place early for some kind of welcome home celebration. Because it is likely to mean Chris Coleman has guided Wales to at least the quarter-finals. There has been a lot of celebrating over the last two years as it became evident that Wales's long wait was about to come to an end. Fans latched on to the Together Stronger motto, more and more red shirts started appearing at home matches.

Suddenly supporting Wales became the thing again. And for those who don't remember the 2004 qualifying campaign, when Wales were beaten by Russia in a play-off, that was a novel sensation.

Not that much of all this was evident when Wales began their Group B campaign with a trip to Andorra and were within nine minutes of being held to an embarrassing 1-1 draw.

They were rescued by a Gareth Bale strike. And that pretty much set the tone for how Wales's campaign would play out.

Wales are no one-man team. There are too many other players Coleman relies on for that to be the case.

But in Bale they have a marvel, a magician and a match winner.

If the Real Madrid ace stays fit in France, then Wales have a chance of beating whoever is put in front of them.

A true superstar - but Wales are far from a one-man team

They might not be favourites, but at least they have a chance.

Bale is one of the best wingers in the world as well as being a top-notch goal poacher. He could just as easily operate down the middle for almost all of Europe's leading clubs, which is just as well for Coleman as that is where he is likely to be deployed this summer.

Harsh as it may sound, but the man Tottenham sold to Spain for a fee now thought to be close to ￡90 million was the difference between Wales qualifying and that long wait for a finals appearance stretching to 60 years.

Of Wales's 11 goals in qualifying, Bale scored seven and weighed in with two assists.

After the scare in Andorra came a draw with Bosnia and Herzegovina and a win over Cyprus. And by the time Bale scored twice in a 3-0 win away to Israel, Wales were on a fast track to France.

Then he scored the winner in a 1-0 home victory over Belgium and did the same with a header in a battling success against Cyprus.

Wales didn't exactly end with a bang, drawing at home to Israel and losing in Bosnia, but they had long since qualified by the time Bale scored the second goal in a comfortable 2-0 defeat of Andorra in Cardiff. Only five players scored more goals in Euro qualifying than Bale. Three of those were Robert Lewandowski, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thomas Muller, so that's not a bad field to be part of. But there is more to Bale than just skill, pace and goals. He is a team man, one who is willing to run all day to help his side.

He played in all 10 of Wales's qualifiers — and you can imagine his Madrid paymasters had something to say about that — and the only reason he did not feature in the pre-tournament training camp was because he had the small matter of a Champions League final to contend with.

With Bale, Wales have realistic hope. And the bosses of England, Russia and Slovakia — Wales's three Group B opponents know that.

But if Wales are to progress out of that pool — and there is a decent chance as the top two teams in each group will be joined in the last 16 by the four best third-placed teams — Coleman will want his cavalry to deliver too.

He will need keeper Wayne Hennessey to eradicate the errors which crept into his performances in the second half of the season.

He will want Swansea City's Ashley Williams to be the figurehead at the back, the player who former boss Brendan Rodgers recently labelled among the finest leaders in the Premier League.

The Swansea City connection - Neil Taylor and skipper Ashley Williams

He will require Neil Taylor to replicate the form which made him among Swansea's most consistent performers in 2015-16.

If the trio can manage that, and the likes of Ben Davies and Chris Gunter also hit something like their best form, then the Welsh rearguard — which kept seven clean sheets in qualifying and conceded just four goals — could be just as miserly again.

Coleman could also do with Joe Allen arriving in France with the attitude of having a point to prove to Jurgen Klopp, the Liverpool boss who praises him to the hilt, but doesn't pick him maybe as much as he should.

Shock Premier League winner Andy King will also be useful to have around, and it would be nice if the Aaron Ramsey of 2013-14 also showed up.

Wales's optimism is not misplaced. This is the side who dragged themselves from a humiliating low of 117th in the Fifa world rankings into the top 10.

They managed to shut out Belgium twice, the same Belgium who can put a 4-3 win over France and a 3-1 victory over Italy on their 2015 CV.

The agony of Russia, 2004, is now firmly in the past

This is a squad of players who have made things happen, not a bunch of players waiting for the next hard-luck story to befall them.

And what hard-luck stories they are. The Joe Jordan penalty fiasco of 1977, the night the floodlights failed at the Vetch against Iceland in 1981 when the visitors claimed an unlikely — and ultimately agonising — 2-2 draw.

Then there was the harsh penalty decision against Scotland — another one — in 1985, the night Jock Stein collapsed and died. The play-off defeat by Russia in 2004.

And we haven't even mentioned the Paul Bodin penalty miss against Romania in 1993.

But those dramas, those mishaps are gone now. The players who Coleman has shaped into a winning unit have ensured the Welsh history book has a new chapter.

And who knows, it may only be half-written.