Wales had Craig Morgan sent off in this UEFA Under-21 Championship qualifier but still emerged with their pride intact after a battling display.

Wrexham centre-back Morgan can consider himself unlucky to have been shown a red card for an aerial challenge with Alex Pollhuber, referee Ararat Tchagharyan stunned the Wales camp with the speed of his red card.

Unfortunately for the Welsh, the Armenian official was not as quick to punish two fouls on the impressive Craig Davies - both of which warranted penalties.

Austria were ahead early on through Roman Kienast and grabbed a second through Jurgen Samuel 10 minutes from time, when Wales' 10 men were tiring.

But in between the goals Wales were the better, neater side and were unlucky to leave without something to show for their efforts.

Lincoln's new signing from Boston, Lee Jon Beevers, captained the Wales youngsters for the first time, with regular skipper David Pipe rested for this Group Six qualifier.

Goalkeeper Lewis Price returned to the side from the senior team, and the only other change from the side which won 1-0 at Merthyr Tydfil on Friday against Austria was the return of Arsenal's Adam Birchall.

Wales were almost ahead in the second minute and it was Markus Berger, the Austrian centre-back who scored the own goal at Merthyr, who was involved again.

Berger got his head to a corner and forced his goalkeeper Ramazan Ozcan to excellently tip the ball over at full stretch.

But after Samuel stubbed a good chance wide, Austria took a ninth-minute lead.

Roman Kienast was given far too much room to control the ball on the edge of the box, but his low shot inside the near post should have been stopped by Price to his right.

On a very small pitch, the Welsh were under intense aerial pressure from an Austrian side who looked nothing like the feeble, disinterested bunch on show last week.

On home territory the hosts were fierce and physical - and they launched into some highly debatable tackles.

The Austrians continued their confrontational style and Christian Fuchs' late follow-through into Beevers deserved censure.

But referee Tchagharyan completely failed to spot the offence, which angered Wales boss Brian Flynn - who was just a couple feet from the incident.

Wales should have had a penalty when Pollhuber hauled Davies to the ground as the pair challenged for possession.

Wales almost equalised when Davies set up Ramon Caliste, but the Manchester United youngster's left footer was superbly saved by Ozcan at full stretch to his left.

Wales brought on David Pipe at the break for Caliste, who had suffered a heavy tackle minutes before the interval - with Birchall taking up a more forward role.

Pollhuber was then booked for bringing down Davies after the Welshman had beaten him for pace out on the right.

Davies then had a fine angled drive deflected wide before disaster struck Wales when Morgan was sent off in the 57th minute for a mid-air collision with Pollhuber - a decision which looked harsh.

Wales were denied another penalty seven minutes later when Davies' clever dragback fooled Pollhuber, who stuck out a foot and tripped the Oxford striker - but the Armenian official gave nothing.

Joe Ledley sent a curling free-kick inches wide with 10-man Wales still coming forward in search of an equaliser.

But the visitors were tiring and after Samuel had seen a 25-yard effort dip inches over, the same player sealed Austria's win when he skipped through a reduced defence to clip the ball past Price.

Teams:

Austria U21 Ozcan, Berger, Fuchs (Kulovits 81), Garics, Gercaliu, Kienast (Konrad 85), Pollhuber, Prager, Saumel, Schiemer (Metz 60), Mimm.

Subs Not Used: Probst, Sonnleitner, Thonhofer, Holzl.

Booked: Schiemer, Pollhuber.

Goals: Kienast 9, Saumel 80.

Wales U21 Price, Beevers, Morgan, Duffy, Gilbert, Birchall (Cotterill 81), Arron Davies, Ledley, Crofts, Caliste (Pipe 46), Craig Davies.

Subs Not Used: Worgan, Crowall, Critchell, Anthony, Parslow.

Sent Off: Morgan (57).

Att: 500

Ref: Ararat Tshagharyan (Armenia).