For the first time, England took their home match with Wales to Wembley. The teams celebrated this event by providing the stadium with a memorable game and a magnificent spectacle for the crowd.

Some 93,500 people paid a record £43,600 and greeted the sides with a tremendous cheer as they strode on to the lush green grass which was bathed in warm sunshine. The white and scarlet jerseys made for a colourful scene and amongst the crowd was the Duke of Edinburgh.

From the start both teams played attacking football. England quickly moved into a smooth flowing rhythm and all their forwards looked dangerous. The passing was swift and accurate and the home side's teamwork became the outstanding feature of the game.

Soon the Welsh was struggling and, within ten minutes, England were 2-0 up. The first goal was as a result of a lovely move. Redfern Froggatt began the move with a pass to Nat Lofthouse. He quickly moved it on to Tom Finney, whose centre was touched on by Roy Bentley to Billy Elliott on the left. The Burnley star quickly turned the ball back across goal to find Finney, now in the middle, who shot a fine goal past Shortt.

Shortly afterwards came the second goal. Elliott took a corner on the left and, as the cross came over, Redfern Froggatt cleverly flicked the ball to Lofthouse and the number nine scored from close range.

It looked as though England were going to run up a cricket score but, quite unexpectedly, Wales pulled a goal back after 15 minutes.

Ford, always a real handful for Jack Froggatt, found himself competing with the centre half for a high bouncing ball in the area. Ford won the duel and latched on to it nodding it down with his head before crashing a low shot past Gil Merrick with his right foot.

This put a different complexion on the scoreline and on the half-hour another incident seemed to offer Wales further hope. Again Jack Froggatt and Ford clashed for a 50-50 ball but this time the England player was injured. As he was carried off the crowd thought that it was the last they would see of him in this game. How wrong they all were.

Within ten minutes, he came back on to the field to a tumultuous welcome. His injury meant that he would have to line-up on the left wing, a position he used to play and England reorganised completely to accommodate him. It was quickly obvious the changes were not going to affect their general play.

Redfern Froggatt, Finney and especially Lofthouse were magnificent in restoring England's superiority. Mere words cannot convey the superb contribution of Finney to England's cause and Lofthouse gave his best performance so far in the purple patch that he is in. He gave Daniel a torrid time both in the air and on the ground. Just before half-time, England took a 3-1 lead through an unlikely source.

Finney, turning brilliantly, fired in a shot which was going wide of the far post, that is, until the large figure of Jack Froggatt came from nowhere to dive forward to head home. The roar that greeted the goal must surely have been heard in Cardiff. Incredibly before the break he nearly added another only to be foiled by the legs of Shortt.

England continued with their magical play after half-time. Almost immediately it was 4-1. Another superb Finney, Lofthouse combination gave Bentley the chance to shoot a fine goal from twenty yards.

Wales, who all the time played open attractive football, showed their character a minute later by pulling a goal back. Again Ford was on target latching on to a Foulkes shot that bounced off Lionel Smith.

England continued to turn on the style, though, and with 15 minutes left, Lofthouse capped a marvellous performance with a fifth and final goal. His fierce shot from 25 yards was far too hot for Shortt to handle and the ball went in despite the goalkeeper's attempted save.

It had been a memorable match with outstanding perfomances from many, if not all, of the 22 players.
     

This was the first time Wales had ever played at Wembley, and a Wednesday afternoon crowd of 93,500 paid record gate receipts of £43,000. England were two goals up in the first ten minutes through Tom Finney and Nat Lofthouse. Five minutes later Trevor Ford pulled a goal back for Wales, and was then involved in a collision with Jack Froggatt that led to the England centre-half being carried off. Billy Wright switched to the middle of the defence, with Billy Elliott dropping back from the wing to left-half. Jack Froggatt, whose cousin, Redfern, was making his debut at inside-right, came back on as a passenger on the left wing.  Remarkably, it was Jack who scored England's third goal just before half-time with a brave diving header. Roy Bentley made it 4-1 in England's first attack after half-time, with Ford instantly replying for Wales. Nat Lofthouse rounded off the scoring with a shot from twenty-five yards that goalkeeper Bill Shortt could only help into the net. The significant thing about this match was that it was the first time that Billy Wright played at centre-half for England.
  

Having made three visits in wartime, Wales now appeared at Wembley in the British Championship for the first time. They had not beaten England in the competition since 1938 but had shared the title with them the previous season. England had already drawn 2-2 with Northern Ireland at Windsor Park, but Wales had lost 2-1 to Scotland at Ninian Park and had to avoid defeat to continue their interest in the Championship.

England scored twice in the opening ten minutes. After some early pressure Tom Finney converted an Elliott centre. The second came from an Elliott corner. This time a flick-on from Redfern Froggatt supplied Nat Lofthouse with a goal.

Within five minutes Wales had pulled one back. Trevor Ford fought off the challenge of Jack Froggatt to shoot past Merrick. Froggatt was later stretchered off but then returned to play out on the wing and then miraculously met Finney's cross with a diving header to score England's third.

In the second half Lofthouse and Finney combined to set up Roy Bentley with a chance to shoot and score from just outside the penalty area.

Wales almost immediately scored again when a Foulkes shot was blocked by Smith but fell to Ford to score his second with a cheeky back-heel. Lofthouse completed the scoring with 15 minutes left when his 25-yard shot went crashing through Shortt's hands.

Wales ruined Northern Ireland's chances by beating them 3-2 at Windsor Park and the Championship was concluded at Wembley.
  

Source Notes

TheFA.com
Original newspaper reports
Rothman's Yearbooks
Mike Payne's England: The Complete Post-War Record (Breedon Books Publishing Company, Derby, U.K., 1993)
Glen Isherwood's Wembley: The Complete Record (SportsBooks Limited, Cheltenham, U.K., 2006)
Norman Giller, Football Author
Wales' Complete Who's Who since 1946 (Sutton Publishing Ltd, Stroud, U.K., 2004)
Drew Herbertson, Scottish FA historian
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CG