ENGLAND came back from their home defeat against the Irish with a superb victory over France which sowed the seeds of promise for the following year's World Cup finals in Sweden. Everyone felt that this England team must surely provide the nucleus of the Party for that tournament unless there was a major lapse in fitness or form.

The big success in this game was the outstanding play of Bryan Douglas. Since the great Stanley Matthews left the international arena there had been a void which nobody had yet been able to fill. But the great man himself would have been proud of Douglas' performance against the French. He teased and and tormented the visiting defenders from the start and in the first half England were able to build up an impregnable 3-0 lead, thanks mainly to the wing wizardry of the Blackburn star.

It was worth recording that for the first time Douglas had a proper inside-forward alongside him and Bobby Robson's performance was almost as impressive. The partnership certainly promised a great deal.

The rout began as early as the third minute. Robson fed Douglas and the winger cleverly went round Kaelbel to centre. Tommy Taylor, under pressure from Tylinksi, timed his jump perfectly at the near post to beat Abbes superbly with a looping header to the far corner.

In the 24th minute England notched a second. Again it was Douglas the provider as he received a good pass from Don Howe and then jinked his way past several challenges before only Abbes blocked his path to goal. The 'keeper dived one way and Douglas went the other before pulling the ball square, giving Robson the easiest of chances to score.

Johnny Haynes was also in top form and he sprayed passes all over the lush Wembley turf. On the half-hour he sent a glorious through-ball for Taylor to run on to and the game was virtually all over at 3-0 to England.

The French tried bravely to rally themselves early in the second half and Wisnieski was unlucky with one effort which struck the base of Eddie Hopkinson's post. This attempt at a revival was short-lived, though, and England soon regained control to dominate the rest of the game.

They missed many glorious chances and Abbes leapt across his goal like a demented frog, getting in the way of several close-range attempts. Taylor, Haynes, Tom Finney, Robson and Douglas all missed straight forward chances and Abbes was by far the busiest player on the field. In the last 23 minutes, no less than 18 shots rained in on the French goal but miraculously for them only one more counted.

That came with five minutes to go and was the icing on the cake. A superb seven-man move began with Duncan Edwards. Eventually, and inevitably, Douglas made the final pass, once again setting up Robson for goal number four. A damp and grey November dy had definitely been brightened up by a splendid England performance that augured well for the future and excited the crowd.
  

Bryan Douglas had a storming game, and three of the four England goals came from his crosses. Bobby Robson, winning his first cap, scored two goals as did Tommy Taylor. Tragically, they were to be his last for England. The game was so one sided that it was almost reduced to French farce, with England hammering in twenty shots to none from France in the last twenty minutes. Only one of them produced a goal, Bobby Robson hitting the back of the net at the end of a seven-man movement to underline his arrival as a force in international football. Three months later England lost three of their major players, Roger Byrne, Duncan Edwards and Tommy Taylor, to the Munich air crash that devastated the Manchester United team.
   

Like England, France had qualified for the following year's World Cup. In 1954 they had failed to progress beyond the first round. They did, however, have two victories over England and had drawn 2-2 at Wembley in a victory international. The two more recent meetings had ended in a 2-2 draw at Highbury in 1951 and a 1-0 French victory in Paris in 1955. England had not beaten them since 1949 in Paris.
They began redressing the balance very early when Tommy Taylor beat Tylinski to a Bryan Douglas cross to head England in front. Douglas also created the second. Going round Abbes, he pulled the ball back for Bobby Robson to score the second. Nine minutes later an inch-perfect pass across the field from Haynes let Taylor in to score his second (and sadly his last for England). There was no further scoring until a neat passing move ended with Douglas supplying Robson with his second and England's fourth.
France finished third in the 1958 World Cup and did not return to Wembley until the 1966 competition. Byrne, Edwards and Taylor died at Munich less than three months later.
  

Three week after the shock defeat by Ireland, England put on a match improved performance in their victory over France. Two changes were made - Robson was included for the first time at inside-right and Finney returned to the left wing. Outstanding in a good England team was Douglas, whose dribbling, passing and shooting proved to be too much for the French defenders. Only a great game by the French goalkeeper Abbes prevented the Blackburn winger from scoring himself, but three of England's goals were scored direct from his passes. The first came after only five minutes, when Taylor headed in a Douglas centre. Twenty minutes later Robson scored after Douglas beat the entire defence before pulling the ball back; then, ten minutes from half-time, Taylor crashed in a third from Hayne's pass. The second half was more even; France nearly scored on one or two occasions, but England's superiority was confirmed when Robson made it 4-0 from Douglas's centre.