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Československo
 

 
 213 vs. Wales
 214
215 vs. Scotland

Wednesday, 1 December 1937
Football Association Friendly Match

England 5 Czechoslovakia 4 [3-2]
 

 Match Summary
England Party
Czechoslovakia Party

White Hart Lane, High Road, Tottenham, London, Middlesex
Attendance: 45,879; Kick-off: 2.30pm GMT
Second half commentary live on Regional Radio

England - Jack Crayston (a right-footed shot from outside the penalty area 11), Jack Morton (a close range shot 20), Stan Matthews (brilliant long shot from a Barkas pass 30, left-footed rising shot 55, received the ball in midfield, feinted this way and then with a left footed shot that bounced and deceived Plánička 85);
Czechoslovakia - Antonín Puč (from wide of goal bore in and beat Woodley 13), Oldřich Nejedlý (from a corner 44, fifteen yard shot from Puč pass 76), Josef Zeman (rushed up and kicked underneath Woodley 58)
Results 1930-39

Czechoslovakia won the toss, England kicked-off.
 

Match Summary

Officials

England

Type

Czechoslovakia
Referee - John Langenus
Antwerp, Belgium

Linesmen - S.A. Donaldson, Essex, and J. Jewell, London

 "Both sides were numbered"

  Goal Attempts  
  Attempts on Target  
  Hit Bar/Post  
  Corner Kicks Won  
  Offside Calls Against  
  Fouls Conceded  
  Possession  

England Team
 

Rank:

 No official ranking system established;
ELO rating 4th		 Colours: The 1935 home uniform - White collared jerseys, navy blue shorts, black socks topped with two white hoops
Capt: Sam Barkas, third captaincy Selectors:
In charge: M.F. Cadman		 The fourteen-man FA International Selection Committee, on 23 November 1937.
181st match, W 116 - D 30 - L 35 - F 544 - A 208.
England Lineup
  Woodley, Victor R. 27 26 February 1910 G Chelsea FC 7 9 GA
2 Sproston, Bert 22 22 June 1915 RB Leeds United AFC 4 0
3 Barkas, Samuel 27 29 December 1909 LB Manchester City FC 5 0
4 Crayston, W. John, injured second half 27 9 October 1910 RH/OR Arsenal FC 8 1
5 Cullis, Stanley 21 25 October 1916 CH Wolverhampton Wanderers FC 3 0
6 Copping, Wilfred 30 17 August 1907 LH Arsenal FC 16 0
7
 Matthews, Stanley 22 1 February 1915 OR/IR Stoke City FC 6 5
8 Hall, G. William 25 12 March 1912 IR/RH Tottenham Hotspur FC 4 2
9 Mills, George R. 28 29 December 1908 CF Chelsea FC 3 3
10 Goulden, Leonard A. 25 9 July 1912 IL West Ham United FC 5 1
11 Morton, John 23 26 July 1914 OL West Ham United FC 1 1

reserves:

 Ken Willingham (Huddersfield Town FC) and Cliff Bastin (Arsenal FC, injured)

team notes:

 Manchester City FC's Eric Brook was the original named outside-left, but due to peritonitis, his place went to reserve Bastin, but he was injured and so the selectors settled on Wolverhampton Wanderers FC's George Ashall, but the club informed them that he was unfit. Eventually then, Morton was called upon.
As well as Crayston's injury, George Mills and Jack Morton both suffered during the match. Accordingly, Morton took turns with Crayston out on the right.
 
2-3-5 Woodley -
Sproston, Barkas -
 Crayston (Hall), Cullis, Copping -
Matthews (Crayston), Hall (Matthews), Mills, Golden, Morton.
"Crayston resumed limping at outside-right and Hall took the right-half position"

Averages:

 Age 25.2 Appearances/Goals 5.6 0.7

 

Czechoslovakia Team
 

Rank:

 No official ranking system established;
ELO rating 9th to 10th		 Colours: Red shirts, white shorts, red socks
Capt: František Plánička Selectors: Lieutenant-Colonel Josef Tesař
Czechoslovakia Lineup
  Plánička, František 33 2 June 1904 G SK Slavia Praha 68 117 GA
  Košťálek, Josef 28 31 August 1909 RB AC Sparta Praha 33 1
  Daučík, Ferdinand  27 30 May 1910 LB SK Slavia Praha 6 0
  Vodička, Antonín  30 1 March 1907 RH SK Slavia Praha 17 0
  Bouček, Jaroslav  25 13 November 1912 CH AC Sparta Praha 19 1
  Kolský, Karel  23 21 September 1914 LH AC Sparta Praha 7 0
  Říha, Jan  22 11 November 1915 OR AC Sparta Praha 6 4
  Kloz, František  32 19 May 1905 IR SK Kladno 10 6
Zeman, Josef  22 23 January 1915 CF AC Sparta Praha 1 1
Nejedlý, Oldřich  27 25 December 1909 IL AC Sparta Praha 34 22
Puč, Antonín  30 16 May 1907 OL SK Slavia Praha 58 34

reserves:

 reserves not known

team notes:

 The match programme that accompanied this game was adamant that Sparta Praha's Jaroslav Burgr was to be the original right-back and captain. The left-back was to be his clubmate Josef Čtyřoký. Slavia Praha's Jiří Sobotka was the orginal centre-forward and SK Židenice's Oldřich Rulc was the outside-left.
 
2-3-5 Plánička -
 Košťálek, Daučík -
Vodička, Bouček, Kolský -
Říha, Kloz, Zeman, Nejedlý, Puč.

Averages:

 Age 27.2 Appearances/Goals 23.5 5.9

 

    Match Report
STERN CHALLENGE BY CZECHOSLOVAKIA

England beat Czechoslovakia by five goals to four on the Tottenham Hotspur ground yesterday afternoon...

England were concentrating on attack, and it was typical of their game that the first goal should have been scored by one of their half-backs. Crayston came up the field, the ball went across to Goulden, who returned it for Crayston to drive a waist-high shot into the far corner of the net...

The ball was pushed out to Puc, who cut in and from a very acute angle beat Woodley. The game was very fast at this time, and four minutes later Morton gave England the lead again. He was put through cleverly, beat his man, and finished with a fine shot just out of Planicka's reach...

Matthews, with a brilliant long shot after Barkas had audaciously come through with the ball, made the score 3-1...

...a minute from the interval Czechoslovakia forced a corner on the right. It was perfectly placed and Woodley had no chance from point-blank range.

A shock, perhaps, but it seemed a mild one when, 12 minutes after the re-start, Matthews dribbled over to the left and sent in a lovely, left-footed rising drive which restored what looked a winning lead of two goals...

A breakaway on the Czechoslovakian left gave Zeman a chance of scoring, and he did not wait as Continental forwards are too apt to do. He took it in a flash, and whatever complacency England might have felt vanished. With 15 minutes to go Puc raced away down the left wing and pushed the ball back for Nejedly with a left-footed shot to make the scores level...

England just deserved the scales to weigh in their favour when, with seven minutes to go, a shot by Matthews was deflected off a defender out of Planicka's reach. - The Times - Thursday 2nd December, 1937

   Football Association Challenge Cup

First round replays played on 1 December 1937:

Gainsborough Trinity of the Midland League defeated Port Vale after extra time in the big shock of the day. Lancaster City of the Lancashire Combination held Accrington Stanley for a second time, before finally succumbing in a second replay at Preston, five days later. Bradford City had an astonishing 11-3 victory against Walker Celtic of the North Eastern League, following a 1-1 draw, just four days earlier. Meanwhile, Bournemouth won 6-0 at Dartford of the Southern League, after failing to score against them at home in the first game. In the two other games, both all-league affairs, York City won at Halifax, and Lincoln City beat Rochdale.

IN OTHER NEWS...

It was on 1 December 1937 that the battle for the Chinese capital of Nanjing began. Japanese forces had already captured Shanghai and it took them eleven days to capture Nanjing before the soldiers were given free rein to massacre thousands of innocent civilians, horrifically raping and murdering as many females as they could find. There were wild celebrations in Japan, but China did not surrender. It would take the World War for Japan to eventually be defeated in 1945.

Source Notes

Original newspaper reports
TheFA.com
Fotbal.cz
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CG