THE score looks impressive on paper. It sounds promising for the future. But don't be fooled. For painfully long periods, England were struggling against a faster-moving, quicker-thinking outfit. Man they have to thank was Coventry goalkeeper, Reg Matthews, who stood practically alone in the first half.
   On this display he may well have played himself into the full international side.
You can't say that for more than a handful of his team mates. Main charge against the clever continentals has always been that they either can't or won't shoot. On the strength of their first-half display alone every man in the Swiss forward line can plead not guilty. They shot just as hard and often as England.
   Only brilliant, acrobatic saves by the young Coventry goalkeeper, Reg Matthews, saved England.
Three Matthews moments stand out. In the eighteenth minute he dived to save  a fierce shot from inside-left Aldo Pastega. Five minutes later he gave the crowd an encore in dealing with a similar shot from inside-right Rene Hemel.
   The ten minutes before half-time he made the save of the season.
England defenders stood still, waiting for an offside whistle as centre forward Hans Reutlinger raced through alone. They hadn't spotted Tommy Cummings standing nearly on the goal line. Reutlinger shot from five yards and, incredibly, Matthews saved. Against the run of play, England took the lead in the twentieth minute when centre forward Tommy Taylor soared to head home a long floating cross from his Manchester United team-mate, David Pegg. England played with more snap and authority at the start of the second-half. Twice in the first few minutes Tommy Taylor had the ball snatched from his toe in the goalmouth.
   But England could be justly accused of poor finishing at this stage. Tommy Taylor was twice the offender.
But after exactly an hour Taylor more than made up for his blunders with a repeat version of his first-half goal after a carbon copy of the same move.
   Exactly ten minutes later the third Manchester United member of the party, left half Duncan Edwards, started England's third goal with a short crisp pass to Pegg.
He crossed the ball to Tommy Taylor—sorry if this is getting monotonous—and this time the centre forward completed his hat-trick with a left-foot shot. Arthur Rowley made it 40 in the seventy-fifth minute when he headed home a right wing cross from Bryan Douglas. Inside right Hemel scored a consolation goal for the Swiss with five minutes to go. Matthews dived to parry a shot from Chiesa. Reutlinger shot and the ball was tapped in by Hemel with Matthews helpless.
  

The two great successes of this floodlit match, which was played at Southampton on March 21st, were goalkeeper Matthews, and centre-forward Tommy Taylor. They are placed in that order because Matthews made at least three magnificent saves before England came into the picture in the second half. Three goals from flying headers, two by T. Taylor and one by Rowley, were features of a game in which reputations of some outstanding League players undoubtedly suffered.