This was to prove a dress rehearsal for the World Cup Final just five months later. Nobby Stiles, wearing the number nine jersey but playing in midfield, scored the only goal of the match and of his international career. Some of the less educated football reporters wrote that Stiles had played at centre-forward and that 'Ramsey's gamble of playing him as a spearhead' paid off with a goal. They were yet to understand that jersey numbers were becoming meaningless. Little had been learned since back in the 1950s when Nandor Hidgekuti completely baffled England's defence by playing a withdrawn role in the number nine jersey. Geoff Hurst made an impressive England debut, and Keith Newton's first England game ended just before half-time when he limped off to be replaced by substitute Ray Wilson. The Germans claimed an equaliser when Heiss turned in a cross from Held, but the referee disallowed it after consulting a flag-waving linesman. The shape of things to come! The appearance together of Stiles and Hunter meant the game became a bruise on the memory of several of the Germans.

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