Wales Team

England Team

Championship took England to Cardiff and on a blustery day, honours were shared. The game was a poor one and though England had the edge it took a late equalizer to prevent embarrassment after Wales had gone ahead.

The early skirmishes produced few goalmouth-incidents, although Bobby Charlton fired a shot against a post in one attack. Another long-range shot, this time by Martin Peters, also went close, whilst at the other end Davies powered his way through, only for Gordon Banks to make a brave stop at his feet.

The game went through a certain amount of tedium in the first half and neither side looked likely to break the deadlock. However, with five minutes to go before the interval, a Welsh goal suddenly lifted the tempo. Durban intercepted a pass from Peters ad ran 50 yards with the England defence back-pedalling. Durban timed his pass forward to Krzywicki perfectly and the front-man beat the square defence to shoot past Banks. It lifted the crowd, it lifted the Welsh team and, in the second half, it had the effect of lifting England.

Knowing they had to come forward, England showed much more enterprise with Peters outstanding. Wales defended doggedly, though, and managed the occasional breakaway. Davies gave Brian Labone a hard time in the air and Hennessey matched Peters for determination. However, an equalizer was always 'on the cards' in this half and it came as no surprise when England grabbed that goal on 70 minutes. And what a spectacular goal it was, too!.

Charlton and Alan Ball combined to give Francis Lee possession on the left. He cut inside Rodrigues and from the angle of the penalty-area, he hit a 'screamer' into the far, top corner before Millington could move. It was a superb strike and, by now, certainly no less than England deserved.

After the goal, England pressed forward in search of a winner and they almost managed it when Charlton's shot flew just too high. But a goal then would have been unfair on the Welsh who, overall, just about deserved 'a share of the spoils'. For them, Hennessey, Durban, Rees, Krzywicki and Davies were the stars, whilst for England, Charlton, Ball, Alan Mullery, Lee and especially Peters caught the eye.
  

Sir Alf Ramsey was shaping his tactics for the coming defence of the World Cup, and had settled on a 4-4-2 formation with Francis Lee and Geoff Hurst as the two front-runners supported from midfield by Alan Mullery, Alan Ball, Bobby Charlton and Martin Peters. There was press criticism of the system after England had struggled to hold Wales, Lee salvaging a draw with a spectacular solo goal after Dick Krzywicki had given the Welsh a well-deserved lead. Sir Alf said later that he was satisfied with the performance. "Everything we do now is with Mexico in mind," he said. "We must adapt the way we play for the conditions we will meet out there."
  

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
Drew Herbertson, Scottish FA historian
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CG