This was the very first red
change shirt worn by England in a full international. Although red had
been worn by the B team since the war, blue had been the change colour worn
pre-war and in the
previous year's World Cup, for
the humiliating defeat to the USA. When facing Argentina for the first
time, England found that both their blue, and white shirts clashed with Argentina's blue and
white stripes. It looks as if
it was only the shirt that was introduced for the
occasion, because the socks appear to be the usual black ones worn with the
white shirts. From this
point onwards, with as few changes as possible being the intention, England
had obviously decided that red was a better second choice than blue, though
ironically, when they next played Argentina, in 1953, they remained in white
shirts! |