AFTER a champagne start with a goal in the first minute, Young England gained a close victory over Rumania at Wembley Stadium.
But the game, which had promised greatness, became tawdry through petty fouling. Quick-fire Young England flashed into a one-minute lead. Jimmy Greaves, 17, cracked it in and proceeded to make life a misery for the Rumanians. He and Villa's blond bomber Stan Crowther inspired fourteen minutes of sheer supremacy from the kick off.
   It was Crowther who began the thrust for the first goal.
He broke up a threatened Rumanian attack before it could reach the half-way line and set up a left-wing raid himself. Inside-left Ray Parry flicked the ball to Alan A'Court and as the left winger's cross was nodded down Greaves pounced to crack in a low drive.
   Crowther and then A'Court had long, dangerous shots held by Utu, the Rumanian goalkeeper, and then he made a brilliant save from Greaves.
Then for a spell England faded. The first time the Rumanians got within shooting distance they came as near to equalising as anyone ever could. Outside right Anghel dallied plumb in front of goal and by the time he had decided to shoot goalkeeper Alan Hodgkinson had rushed out to parry his shot. Anghel got to the ball again, but by then three England players had dashed back on to the goal line and left back Gerry Harris turned the shot round the post for a corner. The Rumanians appealed for a penalty. The crowd fell into a hushed murmur of uncertainty, but the French referee, J. Devillers, gave a corner. Centre forward Ene missed another chance when he beat Hodgkinson in a race for the ball and pushed it wide of the post as the 'keeper lay helpless.
   England breathed once more . . . THANKS TO GREAVES again.
He catapulted forward in the twenty-third minute to head in a cross from A'Court and finished his plunge by somersaulting into the net after the ball. The joy lasted just three minutes. Hodgkinson failed to hold a centre from the left and Ene darted in to cut England's lead.
   Eleven minutes later it was lost entirely.
This time England's defence was slow to anticipate a cross from the right and before they could move to cut it off inside left Georgescu had slipped in to crack the ball home. In the fifty-fifth minute centre forward Bill Curry rose to nod down a Lawton-like bullet but Utu held it on the line. And that Curry header really turned the English tap full on. Utu clutched and clawed at a long shot from Stan Crowther, grabbing it at last as if life itself depended on him holding it.
   He did it again with a header from Greaves . . . he dashed out to intercept . . . he held another header from Curry.
But a goal had to come. In the sixtieth minute in a furious goalmouth battle for possession, Curry had a split-second chance and he took it with a rasping shot which crashed down over the line from the crossbar. Parry and Groves juggled their way through again, holding off a succession of tough challenges—one of which, a 'tackle' on Greaves, could easily have been a penalty. Near the end England twice had the Rumanians struggling desperately and from a free-kick A'Court whizzed a header just wide of a post. But the Rumanians almost snatched success from England in the dying minutes when unhappy Hodgkinson again failed to hold a cross shot and the ball skidded from him to nip outside the far upright.
  

England, in red shirts, won the only international at this level to be played at Wembley despite losing the two-goal lead given them by Jimmy Greaves on his first appearance at the stadium. Greaves went on to score 44 goals in 57 full internationals after scoring a record 13 goals in 12 under-23 internationals.
  

After their comfortable win over Bulgaria the England Under-23 team, was given a rather rude awakening when they were only able to beat Rumania by the odd goal in five. The match opened sensationally with a superbly taken goal by Greaves within fifty seconds of the kick-off, and twenty minutes later the same player put England two up with a fine diving header. The came an amazing turn in the game's fortunes, for within further fifteen minutes Rumania were level through goals scored by Ene and Georgescu.  For a while it appeared that England might well completely lose their grasp on the game, but a partial revival was rewarded with a goal by Curry which restored their lead. During the remaining thirty minutes there was no further score. Once again Crowther had a fine game, and young Greaves will also retain pleasant memories of his first game at Wembley.