Northern Ireland Team

England Team

For the first time the Home Championship was condensed into one week and England got off to a flying start by winning in Belfast. Although England's extra power told, it was not without 'hiccups' along the way, however.

The Irish 'roared' into their customary passionate, opening spell and in the first 15 minutes they could have 'sewn-up' the game as a succession of chances went begging. Three times Irvine shunned clear openings after clever flicks by Best and Dougan had set him up. Best was prominent early-on but as the game wore on, Bobby Moore's mastery at the back sealed up the holes.

The combination of Francis Lee and Bobby Charlton in midfield gave England a refreshing look and many of their attacks were much more direct than of late. As the sides settled down England, having withstood the early charge, began to take a grip on the game, and with five minutes of the first half remaining they took the lead. Lee was brought down by Harvey and Martin Peters met Lee's free-kick with a downwards-header to score.

After the break Northern Ireland tried hard to come back into things and after exerting some good pressure they equalized on the hour. A fine piece of skill by the irrepressible Best set-up the other lively winger, McMordie and his shot beat Gordon Banks. For a short while, the 24,500 crowd anticipated an Irish celebration of a possible victory. Irvine missed another excellent chance and a superb save from Banks thwarted a fine effort by Northern Ireland's best player, Jimmy Nicholson.

A minute later and Lee stunned the crowd into silence with a brilliant individual goal to cap a fine display by him. The Manchester City player was still not finished and near the end he was sent crashing to the ground in the penalty-area to give Geoff Hurst the chance to 'thunder' home the spot-kick.

So, England ended with a convincing scoreline, although it must be said that they enjoyed a little of the 'luck of the Irish', luck that the Irish didn't seem to have on this particular day! Some positions were still giving cause for concern to Sir Alf Ramsey who still had plenty to do in the coming months. Indeed, many felt that some new blood would be necessary before England went to Mexico to defend the World Cup.
  

The scoreline flattered England. Goalkeeper Gordon Banks was under long periods of pressure after Eric McMordie had cancelled out an early Martin Peters goal. With Newton doing an excellent containing job on George Best, England began to gain command. Goals from Francis Lee and Geoff Hurst wrapped up the game for them but not before Banks had made two splendid saves against the always dangerous Derek Dougan. Live television cut the attendance to 23,000.
  

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