The England Party for the World Cup qualification matches  May 1957
Player	Birthdate	Age	Pos	Club	starts	subs	App			Capt
Atyeo, P. John W.	7 February 1932	25	IR	Bristol City FC	3	0	3	1		0
Barlow, Ray J.	17 August 1926	29	LHB	West Bromwich Albion FC	1	0	1	0		0
Byrne, Roger W.	8 September 1929	28	LB	Manchester United FC	27	0	27	0	1	0
Clayton, Ronald	5 August 1934	22	RHB	Blackburn Rovers FC	11	0	11	0		0
Edwards, Duncan	1 October 1936	20	LHB	Manchester United FC	12	0	12	4		0
Finney, Thomas	5 April 1922	35	OL	Preston North End FC	64	0	64	27		0
Gratrix, Roy	9 February 1932	25	FB /CH	Blackpool FC	0	0	0	0		0
Hall, Jeffrey J.	7 September 1929	27	RB	Birmingham City FC	14	0	14	0		0
Haynes, John N.	17 October 1934	22	IL	Fulham FC	10	0	10	5		0
Hodgkinson, Alan	16 August 1936	20	GK	Sheffield United FC	1	0	1	1ᵍᵃ		0
Kaye, Arthur	9 May 1933	23	F	Barnsley FC	0	0	0	0		0
Langley, E. James	7 February 1929	28	LB	Brighton & Hove Albion FC	0	0	0	0		0
Lofthouse, Nathaniel	27 August 1925	31	CF	Bolton Wanderers FC	30	1	31	29		0
Marchi, Anthony V.	21 January 1933	24	RHB	Tottenham Hotspur FC	0	0	0	0		0
Matthews, Reginald D.	20 December 1932	24	GK	Chelsea FC	5	0	5	5ᵍᵃ		0
Matthews, Stanley	1 February 1915	42	OR	Blackpool FC	52	0	52	10		0
Pegg, David	20 September 1935	21	OL	Manchester United FC	0	0	0	0		0
Quixall, Albert	9 August 1933	23	IF	Sheffield Wednesday FC	4	1	5	0		0
Stevens, Dennis	30 November 1933	23	IF	Bolton Wanderers FC	0	0	0	0		0
Taylor, Thomas	29 January 1932	24	CF	Manchester United FC	12	1	13	9		0
Wheeler, John E.	26 July 1928	28	RHB	Liverpool FC	1	0	1	0		0
Wright, William A.	6 February 1924	34	CHB	Wolverhampton Wanderers FC	82	0	82	3		67
On Standby
Clough, Brian H.	21 March 1935	22	CF	Middlesbrough FC	0	0	0	0		0
Norman, Maurice	8 May 1934	22	CHB	Tottenham Hotspur FC	0	0	0	0		0
Pilkington, Brian	12 February 1933	24	OL	Burnley FC	1	0	1	0		0
Wilshaw, Dennis J.	11 March 1926	31	IL	Wolverhampton Wanderers FC	12	0	12	10		0

All information is complete to and including England's last match, the fifth of the 1956-57 season, against Scotland on 6 April 1957.

Diary

Wednesday, 24 April 1957 - "The England selectors have boobed again. Today they met to choose 22 players for whom the World Cup teams against Eire and Denmark next month will be chosen. And from the looks of it you'd think they'd been hard pushed to FIND 22 international class players! Men who should never be considered for a cap are in there. And, worse, men who should stroll into any list of the 22 players in the country are OUT-snubbed, ignored, forgotten." - Frank McGhee

Four players are on standby for the first game against Republic of Ireland in case Manchester United FC players are involved in an FA Cup replay.
The FA will choose the side on Sunday for the Republic of Ireland match, when they will also reduced the party down to eighteen players for the trip to Copenhagen and Dublin four days later.

Thursday, 25 April 1957 - "Six key players out of the eighteen named today for the England Under-23 [ed: B team] Soccer tour behind the Iron Curtain next month may not be available for the first game against Bulgaria 'B' in Sofia on May 19. They are Alan Hodgkinson, Ron Clayton, Duncan Edwards, Johnny Haynes, Dennis Stevens and David Pegg. They have all been named already for the full England team... The missing men will be flown out in time for the two remaining games of the Under-23 [ed: B team] tour against Rumania 'B' in Bucharest on May 26 and against Czechoslovakia in Bratislava on May 30" - Frank McGhee
The full tour B team party is: Alan Hodgkinson (Sheffield United), Eddie Hopkinson (Bolton Wanderers); Jimmy Armfield (Blackpool), Maurice Norman (Tottenham Hotspur), Graham Shaw (Sheffield United); Stan Anderson (Sunderland), Ron Clayton (Blackburn Rovers), Duncan Edwards (Manchester United), Dick Neal (Birmingham City), Trevor Smith (Birmingham City); Alan A'Court (Liverpool), Jimmy Bloomfield (Arsenal), Brian Clough (Middlesbrough), Bryan Douglas (Blackburn Rovers), Johnny Haynes (Fulham), Derek Kevan (West Bromwich Albion), David Pegg (Manchester United) and Dennis Stevens (Bolton Wanderers).

Sunday, 28 April 1957 - Johnny Haynes is back in the team, along with Tommy Taylor. Tom Finney switches back to the left wing, where he also played against Denmark in December. The eleven that are chosen, alongside Reg Matthews, Gratrix, Barlow, Lofthouse, Quixall, Stevens and Pegg, make up the eighteen who go to Copenhagen.
Jim Langley, Tony Marchi, Johnny Wheeler and Arthur Kaye have all been placed on standby. Marchi will join his club, Tottenham Hotspur, on their tour of Canada and North America.

Friday, 3 May 1957 - Their are five enforced changes to the England sides competing at Highbury tonight.  In the England side, goalkeeper Gil Merrick has withdrawn because of a knee injury, his place going to Ted Ditchburn. Tom Finney has not recovered from his groin injury, his place goes to Ernie Taylor at inside-right and Vic Metcalfe replaces outside-left George Robb, who has damaged knee. For the Young England side, Graham Shaw had already replaced left-back Maurice Norman yesterday, because of his shoulder injury and Vic Groves comes in at outside-right, replacing Bryan Douglas, who has club commitments.
England 1 Young England 2 - "When 22 of the best players in England are brought together for a match like this at Highbury they should produce something really good. As a gauge for the selectors to pick our future international sides, the match flopped. It wouldn't be fair, however, to include Stanley Matthews and Billy Wright is the criticism of the older brigade. The young Bolton goalkeeper did boost his chances. Scorers.—Young England: Dennis Stevens (22 min), Vic Groves (30 mins). England: Ernie Taylor (37 mins.)" - Charles Dettmer

Monday, 6 May 1957 - Tom Finney will decide this afternoon whether he is fit to be England's outside-left in the World Cup qualifying match on Wednesday. Finney, who has a bruised groin, will have a test when the England players have a practice match against Young England at Roehampton. If he fails, Manchester United's David Pegg will probably win his first cap.

Tuesday, 7 May 1957 - "Two goal Tom Finney shot away all injury worries with a sparkling display in an England practice game at Roehampton. But in Manchester a new doubt for the World Cup match arose when Roger Byrne, captain of the Busby Boys, complained of a badly bruised left arm. Byrne was injured early in the second half [of the FA Cup Final] against Aston Villa. He couldn't raise his arm after the game and had to be helped to dress. "My arm is still sore" he said "but I intend continuing with treatment when I join the rest of the party in London and expect to have a fitness test. I should be O.K."
"Finney was outside-left in the England team which beat the Under-23s 5-2. His second goal was a stormer, a left-foot thunderbolt which flashed into the net from a narrow angle. After the run-out, Walter Winterbottom announced: "Finney definitely plays." Big John Atyeo (2) and Nat Lofthouse were England's other scorers. Bustling Derek Kevan got both Young England's goals."
An official from Empire Stadium, Wembley has said that only 30,000 tickets have been sold so far.

England Form: last six games
W D W W W W  f 17:a 6  success: 92%
306	26 May 1956 - West Germany 1 England 3 [0-1] Olympiastadion, Berlin (92,000)	F.Walter Edwards, Grainger, Haynes	tour	AW
307	6 October 1956 - Northern Ireland 1 England 1 [1-1] Windsor Park, Belfast (58,420)	McIlroy Matthews	BC	AD
308	14 November 1956 - England 3 Wales 1 [0-1] Empire Stadium, Wembley (93,796)	Haynes, Brooks, Finney J.Charles		HW
309	28 November 1956 - England 3 Yugoslavia 0 [1-0] Empire Stadium, Wembley (78,500)	Brooks, Taylor (2)	Fr	HW
310	5 December 1956 - England 5 Denmark 2 [2-1] Molineux, Wolverhampton (54,083)	Taylor (3), Edwards (2) O.Nielsen (2)	WCP	HW
311	6 April 1957 - England 2 Scotland 1 [0-1] Empire Stadium, Wembley (97,520)	Kevan, Edwards Ring	BC	HW