Wales manager Chris Coleman hailed the courage of his players for claiming a victory on a pitch he said was "not up to the standard of a UEFA qualifier".
Gareth Bale struck twice to spare Welsh blushes against Andorran opponents ranked 199th in the world and who were within nine minutes of claiming their first ever point in European Championship qualifying.
But while Coleman was delighted with the attitude of his players, he was less than impressed with the 3G surface in Andorra la Vella which had only been passed by UEFA last week after previous inspections had showed that the ball ran too fast on it.
The pitch constantly threw up rubber crumbs from its base when the ball rolled along the surface and it was clear that Welsh players were unhappy with the surface.
"When we trained on it, my heart sunk," Coleman said after Wales began their Euro 2016 campaign with a nervous victory.
"In my opinion the pitch is not up to the standard of a UEFA qualifier.
"But I don't want to make a protest because I want other teams to come here.
"I didn't want to say anything about the pitch before the game, but I can now and if you're a passing team forget it."
Coleman praised his players for their attitude after falling behind to Ildefons Lima's controversial fifth-minute penalty, awarded by the fifth official behind the goal rather than the referee even though there appeared little contact between Neil Taylor and Andorra's Cristian Martinez.
"I think we showed a hell of a lot of courage," Coleman said.
"Look at their record and people thought it was a formality but I was worried before we kicked a ball.
"We watched them against Holland when they lost 2-0 and they drew with Finland and they made it difficult for us.
"But we stuck at it and I'm proud of my team. It wasn't about the performance, we just needed to win the game.
"We've played a lot better than lost but you've got to take that pitch into consideration.
"We could not show our quality but we showed great courage and determination and stayed calm in certain situations when we could have lost our heads."
And Coleman singled out Bale for his magnificent winner, a 25-yard free-kick struck with stunning power and accuracy.
"In the main he couldn't get into flow of it because the pitch wouldn't let him do that. It was too sticky," said Coleman.
"But not many players on the planet can score a goal like the second one.
"Time's ticking, the pressure's on and wallop, it's 2-1."
Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey came off in the closing stages with an ankle injury and could face a race against time to make the Gunners' huge Barclays Premier League game with Manchester City on Saturday.
"He got a kick and there was a twist in his ankle," Coleman said.
"It was coming to the end of the game and it was pointless taking a risk with him.
"Hopefully he'll be okay for Arsenal at the weekend but we'll have to see what the next 24 to 48 hours hold."
Andorra coach Koldo Alvarez dismissed Coleman's criticism of the pitch but did not want to talk about the issue.
"I'm no expert but we just played and defended well as team," Alvarez said.
Source: PA
