TWO Fulham players and a boy from the Fourth Division looked as if they could be considered for places in England World Cup squad after this Under-23 clash.
The two Fulham men were goalkeeper Tony Macedo and right back George Cohen. The boy from the Fourth Division was centre forward Johnny Byrne, leader of Forth Division Crystal Palace. He was the star in the first half, when the English attack showed spasms of individual brilliance, but rarely made a combined move.
   Behind the attack, Macedo and Cohen positioned themselves intelligently and used the ball well.
There was no trace of shakiness in Macedo, and Cohen found he had such mastery over his winger that he could afford to carry the ball up into attack. Sixty seconds of fireworks started when Dave Shawcross, Manchester City right half, broke through the German defence in the thirty-third minute, splitting them with a great through pass to Byrne.
   The kid from the Football League wilderness took the pass in his stride . . . went forward, one, two, three, four steps . . . and hammered a perfectly placed shot.
It was his first goal for England in his third England Under-23 match. But four minutes from half time a mystery man made an equaliser for West Germany.
   Wearing a No. 14 shirt, he had come on for inside left Straschitz.
No.14—later we found out his name was Heinz Hoeher—slid a pass to centre forward Strehl, who with all the time in the world, placed his shout out of Macedo's reach. England regained the lead in the fifty-third minute. Byrne missed a cross, but Southampton right winger Terry Paine rushed in and cracked the ball high into the net. With fifty-nine minutes ticked off, Bolton inside-right Fred Hill made it 3—1 with a header fro Paine's corner. Shawcross scored England's fourth close in seven minutes from time.
     

The Under-23 team gave a scintillating floodlit display against Germany at Tottenham and deserved their 4-1 win. Though they were not at full strength owing to Cup commitments by four clubs, the England players showed themselves to be a more skilful and confident force than the Germans who seldom looked like scoring. They took the lead after half-an-hour when Byrne scored a glorious goal from the edge of the penalty-area and they might well have increased their lead before Strehl equalised eight minutes later. Throughout the second half England were on top and were soon ahead again through Paine. Six minutes later Hill scored following a corner from Paine and near the end Shawcross made it four. In defence Cohen and McGrath were outstanding, while Byrne led the forwards skilfully and was well supported by his four colleagues. 
  

DURING home international matches last season many spectators must have been intrigued to see parties of men sitting with charts in their hands like students taking notes at a lecture. They were not students, but F.A. coaches making detailed notes on the game in progress. The object of the exercise was to obtain as much information as possible for analysis by the F.A.'s Director of Coaching. Much of the material is used in post-match discussions with the team to help obviate future mistakes and also to stimulate thought and discussion at coaching courses and conferences.

   Perhaps the most ambitious piece of match analysis, for this is what the operation is called, took place when the England Under-23 team played West Germany in March at Tottenham. A team of no less than seventy coaches including such household names as Wally Barnes, Ted Fenton, Jack Mansell, Phil Woosnam, and Alan Dicks, sat in the large visitors' enclosure with its splendid plate glass windows. The atmosphere in the enclosure was that of an examination room; hardly a word was spoken throughout the match and many  observations were so intent on their task that after the final whistle they even asked who had won and what was the score! The tasks allotted to the team included:

Tackling: the amount of ground covered by each player other than goalkeepers was plotted on a scale plan of the pitch. This employed twenty observers. One of their diagrams shows Moore, England's left-half and captain, running, jogging, and walking during the first ten minutes of the first half.
Passing: a detailed and sub-divided summary of all passes made during the game was made. Each pass with the outside of the foot was noted and also whether or not this pass was successful. Similarly the number of through passes, the number of times three or more consecutive passes were made, and the number of first-time passes were noted.
Dribbling: a record was kept of each time a player dribbled the ball, whether the dribble was successful in that the player either shot at goal or passed to a colleague, or whether it was unsuccessful resulting in him losing the ball!
Heading was similarly recorded with a note as to its value.
Throw-ins, Goal-kicks, and Corner-kicks were all noted with the sequel in each case.
Individual records: each player of either side had a comprehensive record taken of: (a) the number of times he made contact with the ball. (b) The number of 'runs' off the ball — one of the vital factors in the game that is so often missed by the spectator. (c) The number of times he 'pushed' the ball and ran. (d) The number of dribbles he made. (e) The number of times he kicked or passed first time.
Goalkeepers: Here the observer noted the goalkeeper's fielding and gathering, catching, punching, diving and deflecting, diving and smothering, touching over the bar, and in particular his service by throwing and kicking.

   Significantly the England centre-forward made no less than 106 contacts with the ball and England's total number of goal-scoring attempts was 43 as compared with 17 on the part of West Germany. This bears a very close relationship to the match result of 4-1 in England's favour. Study of the analysis suggests certain immediate points for discussion: was it possible for instance that our outside-left was dribbling too much in the first half, and would the West German goalkeeper have been better advised to make lower and safer clearances?

   Obviously an analysis as complete as this needs much organisation and careful planning in addition to a large number of willing and competent observers. These may not be available at club level but it is feasible to carry out some degree of match analysis, and it can be particularly valuable if weaknesses and suspected and points need to be proved. A club manager may for example know that one of his players is not working hard enough on the field. If two people carry out a check by plotting the player's running during the whole or even part of a game and compared this work with that of his opposing number or even with one of his team-mates, positive and irrefutable evidence is produced.