Only 40,000 people turned up for this home international and the half-empty terraces made for a distinct lack of atmosphere. The teams served up a poor match for the faithfuls who did attend and England, in particular, appeared to have mounting problems.

A very experimental side looked just that as England struggled to find the rhythm and cohesion so often missing recently. Mike Bailey looked the most impressive of the players that came into the team and he worked tirelessly to try to inject some pattern into England's play. Unfortunately, he could have made good use of the injured Terry Venables, had he been available. As it was, playing Johnny Byrne at inside-left seemed to have no improving effect on the side.

England did manage to take the lead after 18 minutes. Bailey did well, stretching the whole Welsh defence with a lovely long pass from right to left. The ball reached Alan Hinton and the winger moved forward at speed and fired in a shot. The ball came back off a defender and Hinton was able to have another go. Again the ball was deflected, but this time Frank Wignall was there to divert it past Millington with his head.

Drab England managed to increase their lead after 60 minutes when again Wignall was in the right place to head home Hinton's cross.

Wignall had taken both his goals well and had answered his critics in the best possible way. For Wales, who were now up against it, Hennessey had performed well and Allchurch had shown glimpses of his undoubted class. Jones, too, was always a handful and with a quarter of an hour to go a good pass from Ron Davies sent the flying winger away to pull a good goal back.

Near the end, Wales missed a glorious opportunity when Ron Davies shot straight at Waiters from a clear position and England escaped.
  

Mike Bailey, Ron Flowers and Gerry Young formed a makeshift half-back line because of injuries. There was also an experimental inside-forward trio, with Frank Wignall the spearhead to Roger Hunt and Johnny Byrne. Nottingham Forest centre-forward Wignall scored both England goals before Cliff Jones netted for Wales. There were only 40,000 spectators at Wembley, and the game lacked atmosphere and direction.
  

Wales had finished bottom of the last British Championship but had already beaten Scotland 3-2 at Ninian Park. They had, however, lost on all five of their previous British Championship visits to Wembley. England had beaten Northern Ireland 4-3 at Windsor Park in their attempt to win the title outright for the first time since 1961.
Hinton twice had shots blocked before Frank Wignall headed the opening goal past Millington. The Nottingham Forest forward scored again after an hour when he met Hinton's cross with another fine header. Fifteen minutes later Cliff Jones played a 'one-two' with Ron Davies and brought Wales back into the game but England held on.
England now needed only a point against Scotland for the outright championship. Wales thrashed Northern Ireland 5-0 at Windsor Park but it could only secure them a runners-up spot. They also finished runners-up in their World Cup qualifying group to the USSR and so failed to qualify. Their next visit was in the European Championship in 1966.
     

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