The England
Party for
the tour of the Continent
May 1948 |
Player |
Birthdate |
Age |
Pos |
Club |
App |
G |
Capt |
Aston, John |
3 September 1921 |
26 |
LB |
Manchester United FC |
6 |
0 |
0 |
Cockburn,
Henry |
14 September 1921 |
26 |
LHB |
Manchester United FC |
5 |
0 |
0 |
Ditchburn, Edwin G. |
24 October 1921 |
26 |
G |
Tottenham Hotspur FC |
0 |
0ᵍᵃ |
0 |
Ditchburn was a stay-at-home reserve |
Finney,
Thomas |
5 April 1922 |
26 |
OR |
Preston
North End FC |
12 |
11 |
0 |
Franklin,
Cornelius |
24 January 1922 |
26 |
CHB |
Stoke
City FC |
14 |
0 |
0 |
Howe, John R. |
7 October 1915 |
32 |
LB |
Derby County FC |
1 |
0 |
0 |
Langton,
Robert |
8 September 1918 |
29 |
OL |
Preston
North End FC |
9 |
1 |
0 |
Lawton, Thomas |
6 October 1919 |
28 |
CF |
Notts County FC |
22 |
22 |
0 |
Mannion,
Wilfred J. |
16 May 1918 |
30 |
IL |
Middlesbrough FC |
13 |
8 |
0 |
Matthews, Stanley |
1 February 1915 |
33 |
OR |
Blackpool FC |
25 |
9 |
0 |
Mortensen, Stanley H. |
26 May 1921 |
26 |
IR |
Blackpool FC |
7 |
11 |
0 |
Nicholson, William E. |
26 January 1919 |
29 |
RHB |
Tottenham Hotspur FC |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Pearson, Stanley C. |
11 January 1919 |
29 |
IF |
Manchester United FC |
1 |
0 |
0 |
Ramsey, Alfred E. |
22 January 1920 |
28 |
RB |
Tottenham Hotspur FC |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Swift, Frank V. |
26 December 1913 |
34 |
G |
Manchester City FC |
14 |
12ᵍᵃ |
0 |
Scott,
Lawrence |
23 April 1917 |
31 |
RB |
Arsenal
FC |
14 |
0 |
0 |
Wright, William A. |
6 February 1924 |
24 |
RHB |
Wolverhampton
Wanderers FC |
14 |
0 |
0 |
All information is complete to and including England's
last match, the sixth of the 1947-48 season, against Italy on 16
May 1948.
Diary
Monday, 5 April 1948 -
"F.I.F.A. WILL NOT LET ENGLAND TEAM GO TO
PRAGUE. "The
International Football Federation (F.I.F.A.) today finally settled all
speculation about England's match with Czechoslovakia, due to take
place in Prague next month, by ruling that the match must be
cancelled. This was communicated to F.A. Secretary Stanley Rous, who
was here as a guest at the France-Italy game. "The Czech F.A.,
newly constituted under the Communist regime, are not now recognised
as being in membership with F.I.F.A., and are barred from
international games against countries whose associations come within
the F.I.F.A. scope. "It will not be necessary for any action in the
matter to be taken by the English F.A. apart from a formal message of
regret at our non-appearance. "There may be a further official
statement tomorrow when the referee's committee of the International
Federation is due to meet in Paris―curiously enough under the
chairmanship of M. Valousek, who was also chairman of the Czech F.A.
before the political coup. It is not expected that M. Valousek will
turn up. "I saw Mr. Rous at the Stade Colombes and he assured me
that no alternative game had yet been fixed for England's tour. He
expects to be able to make known the new plans this week. I understand
that financial complications may rule out Spain. "The second match
of the tour will be against Italy at Turin, and England team manager
Walter Winterbottom was also in Paris today to run the rule over the
Italians."
-
Clifford Webb, Daily Herald
Monday, 12 April 1948 -
"It is not surprising that
England's selectors have decided to wait until Cup Final eve, or even
later, before announcing the 16 players for the European tour.
Mediocre Hampden form, plus a worrying crop of injuries, prompted a
rush of second thoughts. The selectors left their Glasgow hotel meeting
on Saturday night armed with a list of more than 20 players to watch
in the next two weeks. "The tour
itself is still not fixed. Latest information is that Spain, anxious
to receive us as Soccer guests, have waived the financial stipulations
which made their previous offer unacceptable. There are three
alternatives to the cancelled Prague game in this order (favourites
first). 1. Spain in Madrid. 2. Austria in Vienna. 3. a second match
against an Italian side, which would not rank as a full international
in Rome." - Clifford Webb,
Daily Herald
Friday, 23 April 1948 -
"Efforts to fix
up a Soccer match between Spain and England in Madrid as an
alternative to the cancelled Czechoslovakia-England game have failed.
The F.A. announced yesterday that the fixture was definitely off. The
tour will probably now be confined to a match against Italy at Turin
on Sunday, May 16, and against the Swiss 'B' team at Bellinzona the
following Wednesday. Negotiations with the Spanish football
authorities broke down because they would not agree to our financial
terms. Bargaining had been conducted by telegram and telephone
between London and Madrid for some days. From our players point of
view, however, it is probably the best thing that could have happened.
They would have flown from London on May 4 to play a match two days
later, and would have had no time to become acclimatised."
- Clifford Webb, Daily Herald.
Sunday, 25 April 1948 -
"Jack Howe,
Derby County's left-back and captain, is among the 15 players named
for the England tour of Italy and Switzerland next month. It is the
first time he has been officially recognised by the F.A. selectors.
Two left-backs, Howe and Aston have been named. Hardwick, who was
injured in the England-Scotland match on April 10, is not included."
"Three men from Manchester United, F.A. Cup winners, and two from
Blackpool, the runners-up, are included in the party of 15 players
chosen in London yesterday. A sixteenth player has yet to be
selected." "The players, with Jimmy Trotter, Charlton trainer in
charge, will leave London by air on Tuesday, May 11, which will give
them four clear days at their Stresa headquarters to prepare for the
Turin game."
Monday, 10 May 1948 -
"England's Soccer tourists due to leave by air for Italy tomorrow,
meet behind closed doors at Arsenal Stadium this morning for secret
preliminary work-out."
The sixteenth man is added before this
point, it is Southampton's Alf Ramsey, which has caused something of a
surprise, as it was expected an extra goalkeeper would be brought
along, instead, Ted Ditchburn was called up but requested to stay at
home.
Wednesday, 12 May 1948 -
"Taking a leaf out of the Continental Soccer book, the England
players...are to have a strictly hush-hush tactical work-out
tomorrow. "Italian journalists and photographers, who invaded the
Stresa club's ground this morning and had as many interviews and
pictures as they wanted, have been warned that similar facilities will
not be granted at Intra, a few miles away, where our plans to beat
Italy will be put into practise. "All the players are fit, but the
final team announcement is being delayed until Friday or Saturday.
There are two real problems: Aston or Howe as Hardwick's successor at
left-back, and Pearson or Mannion at inside-left. Because of the
usually hypnotic effect any clever ball-holding player has on
Continental defences, Mannion may get the forward berth. Both sides
will have two substitutes standing by to replace players who may be
injured and unable to resume."
- Clifford Webb, Daily Herald
Saturday, 15 May 1948 -
"England are slight favourites to beat Italy to-morrow in what, as far
as the Continent is concerned, must be termed 'the match of the
century.'
"Soccer fans are paying as much as £20 for
seats. More than 400,000 applications were made for the 75,000 places
in the granite stadium where the match will be played, and more than
600 journalists from all over Europe will report the game.
"England's team
[is announced].
All five reserves will be sitting, changed, on the touchline if the
need arises for substitutes, which will be allowed according to
international rules.
"The Englishmen's financial reward
will be £20 each. What the Italians are getting is a secret, but the
figure mentioned is £60 if they lose, and considerably more if they
win." -
Liverpool Echo
[2018 equivalent - £20=£508 & £60=£1,525]
"For the first time in
International match training we had five-a-side practise games and
everyone was on their toes and rarin' to go as the great day approached."
-
Billy Wright, The World is My
Football Pitch. p62
"On the eve of the Italy-England game at Turin
today—Italy's match of the century—I learned that Tommy Lawton, England's centre, has a knee injury. Team manager Walter Winterbottom, says that Tommy will play. But if he can't, Mortensen will lead the attack" - Stanley Halsey, Daily Mirror
Sunday, 17 May 1948 -
"Mortensen and Swift were the
heroes of this match at Turin. Stan Mortensen can look back on many
great games in representative matches, but his magnificent performance
will give him one of his greatest memories, It was as well for England
that he was in such good form, for Lawton had an off-day and Matthews,
Finney and Mannion have all played much better. England were hardly
worth their 4-0 win. Hust before half-time, in particular, the play
was one long Italian attack. The Italians, in fact, twice put the ball
in the net in the space of a couple of minutes, but were ruled
offside. Scorers were Mortensen, Lawton, and Finney (2)."
-
Press and Journal
Tuesday, 18 May 1948 -
"England against Switzerland 'B' at Bellinzona tomorrow, make sweeping
changes from the side which beat Italy 4—0. Only Swift and Franklin
retain their normal places, so that every member of the touring party
will have had a game."
- Daily Mirror
England
Form: last six
games |
W W
D W W
W f 13:a
9
success: 67% |
235 |
21 September 1947 -
Belgium
2 England
5 [1-3]
Stade
du Heysel, Bruxelles
(62,500) |
Mermans, Lemberecht
Lawton (2), Mortensen, Finney (2) |
Fr |
AW |
236 |
18 October 1947 -
Wales
0
England 3
[0-3]
Ninian Park, Cardiff
(55,000) |
Finney, Mortensen, Lawton |
BC |
AW |
237 |
5 November 1947 -
England 2
Ireland
2 [0-0]
Goodison Park, Liverpool
(67,980) |
Mannion, Lawton
Walsh,
Doherty |
HD |
238 |
19 November 1947 -
England 4
Sweden
2
[3-1]
Arsenal Stadium, London
(44,282) |
Mortensen (3),
Lawton
Nordahl, Gren (pen) |
Fr |
HW |
239 |
10 April 1948 -
Scotland
0
England 2
[0-1]
Hampden Park,
Glasgow
(135,376) |
Finney, Mortensen |
BC |
AW |
240 |
16 May 1948 -
Italy
0 England 4 [0-2]
Stadio Comunale di Torino, Torino
(58,000) |
Mortensen,
Finney (2), Lawton |
Tour |
AW |
____________________
CG
|