Holland invited England to take part in this match to help celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Dutch FA. Unfortunately, the game did not live up to the occasion and the standard of football was of a very poor quality. When last these two sides met, in 1947, England had won by 8-2, but now the Dutch have caught us up somewhat in terms of football ability.

The first half was a virtual non-event with neither side looking likely to score. Muller and Fransen worked hard for an opening for Holland and they constantly fed the ball to Moulijn and Bouwmeester. These two left-sided attackers looked the most likely, of all the forwards on view, to break the deadlock. But in all honesty both defences found it easy to cope with the feeble offering of their opponents, and on a dark and windy December night one had to feel sorry for the 57,500 capacity crowd that turned out to see such fare.

At half-time, the players were presented to Prince Bernhard and this was the first time that the crowd had stirred since the start. Both sides tried hard to up the tempo after the interval but still the game tended to plod along in an uninspiring way. England did have a good chance straight after the restart when Terry Venables' fierce shot struck the crossbar, bounced down and was then sliced wide by Frank Wignall who was following up.

Now and again Bobby Charlton threatened something with his quick-flowing dashes and Jimmy Greaves's form, too, brought hope. For 77 minutes the crowd had waited patiently for some positive goal-action and at that moment they finally had their wish come true. The little, but lively Bouwmeester gained possession and found left-winger Moulijn with a good pass. He cut inside George Cohen and beat Tony Waiters with a fine strike which flew into the top corner. Needless to say, the crowd went wild with delight.

England were now in imminent danger of a very worrying defeat but with just four minutes to go they dashed all the Dutch hopes of victory with an equalizer. Alan Mullery fed Venables and the Egland inside-left moved forward and put a lovely pass through for Greaves. The little striker showed all his lethal-finishing skills by turning sharply to beat Schrijvers before shooting wide of Graafland.

England certainly escaped defeat by the skin of their teeth in this match, but at least they did not lose. That was one thing in their favour at this time; despite their other failings they were proving a very difficult side to beat.
  

Alan Mullery made his debut in midfield alongside Terry Venables, a partnership that they would soon renew at Tottenham. They combined to create a goal for another Spurs star, Jimmy Greaves, who scored four minutes from the end to force a draw in this match to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Dutch FA. England played the game at exhibition pace as if they did not want to spoil the Dutch party. Maurice Norman, the big ox of a centre-half who had been like a man mountain in the middle of the Tottenham and England defences, broke a leg in a meaningless club friendly against Hungary and his distinguished career for club and country was over. Enter Jack Charlton.

Source Notes

TheFA.com
Voetbalstats.nl
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