A long, hard but entertaining international season ended for England with their first defeat for a year. It also brought an end to their European tour, a tour full of valuable lessons for the following year's World Cup, should they make it.

Ninety thousand people packed the Prater Stadium to see two in form sides battle it out for current supremacy. If possession had been the key to winning, then England would have won by a mile. But, alas, football goes much deeper than keeping the ball and in the end it is goals that matter most. Austria had beaten Scotland, Norway, Russia, Spain, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland in the past year with their only defeat coming in Hungary. So England had a mammoth task with the heat, hard pitch and probably the most fervently patriotic crowd of the tour against them.

The game began badly for England and never really got any better. Austria took only two minutes to open the scoring as a quick break by the veteran Hanappi sent Nemec down the right. He found Koller, who in turn gave it to Hof. The inside-right wasted no time and fired in a 15-yard snap shot wide of Ron Springett's dive.

To England's credit they fought back well and after a quarter of an hour they managed to get back on terms. A fiery surge by Bobby Charlton down the left wing ended with a good centre from the by-line. Bryan Douglas just failed to connect but when the ball ran on to Jimmy Greaves, the Chelsea player made no mistake and hit it into the roof of the Austrian net.

The goal gave England confidence and they were now finding their form under the leadership of Johnny Haynes. For 20 minutes it was one-way traffic towards Fraydl's goal. Unfortunately all the promise fell flat in the confines of the Austrian penalty area. The powerful Stotz marshalled his mass of defenders expertly to deny England any space in which to take advantage. And always there was the vastly experienced Hanappi to clear up any loose balls that might have fallen to English forwards.

Despite all the possession England enjoyed it was the Austrians who scored next. The goal came in the 25th minuteand fittingly it was Hanappi who began the move deep in his own half. His pass forward found Senekowitsch who moved the ball on swiftly to Rafreider and then Nemec. The right winger burst through the middle in his more accustomed centre-forward position and beat off weak challenges from Jimmy Armfield and Peter Swan. A rebound still gave Nemec possession and in a flash the ball was past Springett and into the England net.

Still England dominated the play. Fraydl somehow kept out fierce shots by Greaves and Charlton but over-elaboration by Greaves, Douglas and especially Charlton prevented further chances in the first half.

However, the shots ratio for the second half, England 15 Austria 4, told its own story of how the match continued. The new caps, John Angus and Brian Miller, had satisfactory debuts but Miller never quite revealed the penetrating work of Bobby Robson as Haynes' partner.

The goals that clinched the result came with only ten minutes left. Again Hanappi slipped the ball out of defence. Buzek then sent a long through-pass into the heart of England's defence. Swan headed away, but only as far as Hof, and like lightning Hof set up Senekowitsch and Springett was beaten by a low shot.

It was a sad end to a marvellous season for England. Seven wins, one draw and just the one defeat here added up to a memorable season. On this day, fatigue at having to play three games in seven days finally caught up with them, but care must be taken not to take anything away from Austria who meticulously planned this victory in every detail.
     

England's run of eight matches without defeat (W7 D1 L0 F44 A11) ended in the Prater Stadium. The Austrians played a clever retreating defensive game and concentrated on hitting England with quick counter-attacks. Jimmy Greaves equalized their early goal, but the England defence - in which Burnley team-mates John Angus and Brian Miller were winning their only caps - lacked its usual understanding and they conceded two late goals against an innovative Austrian attack. The demand of playing three games in seven days proved too much for an England team that wilted after matching the Austrians for the first hour.
     

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)
Norman Giller, Football Author
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CG