This was England's sixth win in a row since May and they treated the crowd to an exhilarating display of 'goal-power' football. All credit to the Irish, though, as despite the scoreline they contributed much to a first-class night of entertainment.

England continued where they had left off against the FIFA side with Gordon Milne and George Eastham masterly in the midfield of their 4-2-4 formation. The home side took the lead after just 100 seconds. Bobby Moore gave Bobby Charlton a pass from deep in his own half and the Manchester United man set off along the inside-right channel. He feinted and checked and beat two men before laying the perfect pass to Terry Paine, who beat Gregg with an angled shot with ease. It was a fine goal and one that set the pattern of the match.

Soon afterwards Jimmy Greaves hit a post before Wilson forced Gordon Banks into a good save at the other end. At this stage Northern Ireland were making a fight of it and they nearly levelled the scores when Wilson latched on to a bad back-pass by Maurice Norman, only to be thwarted by new cap Bobby Thomson.

The heavy rain was now causing the lush, green turf to cut up but on 20 minutes it did not stop England scoring again. A flowing move across the whole forward line ended with Greaves superbly beating Gregg with a good shot, a clever change of feet completely deceiving the goalkeeper. By now, Gregg was more and more involved in the action as the pressure mounted on his goal. After half-an-hour some wing-wizardry by Paine ended with a deep cross to the far post. There, yet again, was Greaves, who trapped the ball, aimed one way and shot the other to beat Gregg all ends up. It was vintage stuff with Greaves at his most deadly in front of goal.

On 37 minutes, England made it 4-0 with another marvellous goal. This time Eastham flowed down the left, centred, and there was Paine to volley in a splendid shot. The crowd were revelling in all the excitement but they reserved their biggest cheer for just before half-time when Crossan's horizontal header past Banks' fingertips from Magill's cross pulled a goal back for Northern Ireland.

After the break the flood continued, in goals and rain. Immediately Milne put Paine away and Bobby Smith headed a fifth goal. The Irish refused to surrender and Wilson hammered a fierce shot past Banks from Harvey's pass to make it 5-2. England were not to be denied, though, and turned on more power with half-an-hour to go. Milne and Eastham combined again to set Greaves away and once more another rocket zoomed into the roof of Gregg's net. Straight away Eastham and Jimmy Armfield traced an opening for Paine to score again, and then a lovely move between Moore, Paine and Smith enabled Greaves to score England's eighth and his own fourth.

The Irish did have one last word to say when Wilson forced the ball through a mass of England defenders following a corner, but on a night to remember England continued the revival that their fans are loving.
  

Greaves (4) and Terry Paine (3) lit up this first match under the Wembley floodlights, and Bobby Smith scored once in what was to be his final international appearance. Smith (12) and Greaves (19) between them collected thirty-one goals in just thirteen matches together. Wolves left-back Bobby Thomson made a sound debut at the age of nineteen. It was England's sixth win in succession under Ramsey, and a mood of optimism was beginning to build with the World Cup finals bound for the birthplace of the game in 1966. Irish goalkeeper Harry Gregg, a Munich survivor, said: 'Jimmy Greaves is a genius. I have never faced a more complete finisher. He tells me he has an Irish grandmother, Katie O'Reilly. We should have snapped him up!'
  

Northern Ireland had finished bottom in each of the last four British Championships but had drawn on their last visit and had already beaten Scotland, champions for the past two years, 2-1 at Windsor Park. They had also narrowly lost on aggregate to Spain, the eventual winners, in the European Championship after holding them to a draw in Bilbao. England had beaten Wales 4-0 at Ninian Park.
Mesmerising skill from Charlton, in only the second minute, enabled Terry Paine to open the scoring. England scored again as Jimmy Greaves put the finishing touch to some clever passing through the Irish defence. Ten minutes later he was on the end of a Paine cross and just before half-time, Eastham's cross was volleyed home by Paine for his second as England threatened to reach double-figures.
Northern Ireland pulled one back before the interval, Johnny Crossan beating Banks with a diving header from a Magill centre but any hopes of a revival were quashed after the restart. Paine crossed and Bobby Smith headed England's fifth. Harvey put Sammy Wilson through to temporarily reduce the deficit.
But on the hour mark Greaves slammed an unstoppable shot past Gregg from Eastham's pass to complete his hat-trick. Within a minute Armfield combined with Eastham and Paine finished off the move for his hat-trick.
Paine then supplied a pass for Greaves to score the eighth. The scoring was completed when Armfield cleared off the line from a corner only for Wilson to force it back over the line for his second.
Northern Ireland, incredibly, shared the championship by beating Wales 3-2 at Vetch Field as England lost 1-0 at Hampden Park to Scotland who completed a hat-trick of titles.
     

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)
Northern Ireland's Footballing Greats
Norman Giller, Football Author
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CG