The England Party for the World Cup qualification matches  May 1957
Player	Birthdate	Age	Pos	Club	starts	subs	App			Capt
Atyeo, P. John W.	7 February 1932	25	IR	Bristol City FC	5	0	5	4		0
Barlow, Ray J.	17 August 1926	29	LHB	West Bromwich Albion FC	1	0	1	0		0
Byrne, Roger W.	8 September 1929	28	LB	Manchester United FC	29	0	29	0	1	0
Clayton, Ronald	5 August 1934	22	RHB	Blackburn Rovers FC	12	0	12	0		0
Edwards, Duncan	1 October 1936	20	LHB	Manchester United FC	14	0	14	4		0
Finney, Thomas	5 April 1922	35	OL	Preston North End FC	66	0	66	27		0
Gratrix, Roy	9 February 1932	25	FB /CH	Blackpool FC	0	0	0	0		0
Hall, Jeffrey J.	7 September 1929	27	RB	Birmingham City FC	16	0	16	0		0
Haynes, John N.	17 October 1934	22	IL	Fulham FC	12	0	12	6		0
Hodgkinson, Alan	16 August 1936	20	GK	Sheffield United FC	3	0	3	3ᵍᵃ		0
Lofthouse, Nathaniel	27 August 1925	31	CF	Bolton Wanderers FC	30	1	31	29		0
Matthews, Reginald D.	20 December 1932	24	GK	Chelsea FC	5	0	5	5ᵍᵃ		0
Matthews, Stanley	1 February 1915	42	OR	Blackpool FC	54	0	54	10		0
Pegg, David	20 September 1935	21	OL	Manchester United FC	0	0	0	0		0
Quixall, Albert	9 August 1933	23	IF	Sheffield Wednesday FC	4	1	5	0		0
Stevens, Dennis	30 November 1933	23	IF	Bolton Wanderers FC	0	0	0	0		0
Taylor, Thomas	29 January 1932	24	CF	Manchester United FC	14	1	15	14		0
Wright, William A.	6 February 1924	34	CHB	Wolverhampton Wanderers FC	84	0	84	3		69
On Standby
Kaye, Arthur	9 May 1933	24	F	Barnsley FC	0	0	0	0		0
Langley, E. James	7 February 1929	28	LB	Brighton & Hove Albion FC	0	0	0	0		0
Marchi, Anthony V.	21 January 1933	24	RHB	Tottenham Hotspur FC	0	0	0	0		0
Wheeler, John E.	26 July 1928	28	RHB	Liverpool FC	1	0	1	0		0

All information is complete to and including England's last match, the sixth of the 1956-57 season, against Republic of Ireland on 8 May 1957.

Diary

Wednesday, 24 April 1957 - "The England selectors have boobed again. Today they met to choose 22 players for whom the World Cup teams against Eire and Denmark next month will be chosen. And from the looks of it you'd think they'd been hard pushed to FIND 22 international class players! Men who should never be considered for a cap are in there. And, worse, men who should stroll into any list of the 22 players in the country are OUT-snubbed, ignored, forgotten." - Frank McGhee

Four players are on standby for the first game against Republic of Ireland in case Manchester United FC players are involved in an FA Cup replay.
The FA will choose the side on Sunday for the Republic of Ireland match, when they will also reduced the party down to eighteen players for the trip to Copenhagen and Dublin four days later.

Thursday, 25 April 1957 - "Six key players out of the eighteen named today for the England Under-23 [ed: B team] Soccer tour behind the Iron Curtain next month may not be available for the first game against Bulgaria 'B' in Sofia on May 19. They are Alan Hodgkinson, Ron Clayton, Duncan Edwards, Johnny Haynes, Dennis Stevens and David Pegg. They have all been named already for the full England team... The missing men will be flown out in time for the two remaining games of the Under-23 [ed: B team] tour against Rumania 'B' in Bucharest on May 26 and against Czechoslovakia in Bratislava on May 30" - Frank McGhee
The full tour B team party is: Alan Hodgkinson (Sheffield United), Eddie Hopkinson (Bolton Wanderers); Jimmy Armfield (Blackpool), Maurice Norman (Tottenham Hotspur), Graham Shaw (Sheffield United); Stan Anderson (Sunderland), Ron Clayton (Blackburn Rovers), Duncan Edwards (Manchester United), Dick Neal (Birmingham City), Trevor Smith (Birmingham City); Alan A'Court (Liverpool), Jimmy Bloomfield (Arsenal), Brian Clough (Middlesbrough), Bryan Douglas (Blackburn Rovers), Johnny Haynes (Fulham), Derek Kevan (West Bromwich Albion), David Pegg (Manchester United) and Dennis Stevens (Bolton Wanderers).

Sunday, 28 April 1957 - Johnny Haynes is back in the team, along with Tommy Taylor. Tom Finney switches back to the left wing, where he also played against Denmark in December. The eleven that are chosen, alongside Reg Matthews, Gratrix, Barlow, Lofthouse, Quixall, Stevens and Pegg, make up the eighteen who go to Copenhagen.
Jim Langley, Tony Marchi, Johnny Wheeler and Arthur Kaye have all been placed on standby. Marchi will join his club, Tottenham Hotspur, on their tour of Canada and North America.

Friday, 3 May 1957 - Their are five enforced changes to the England sides competing at Highbury tonight.  In the England side, goalkeeper Gil Merrick has withdrawn because of a knee injury, his place going to Ted Ditchburn. Tom Finney has not recovered from his groin injury, his place goes to Ernie Taylor at inside-right and Vic Metcalfe replaces outside-left George Robb, who has damaged knee. For the Young England side, Graham Shaw had already replaced left-back Maurice Norman yesterday, because of his shoulder injury and Vic Groves comes in at outside-right, replacing Bryan Douglas, who has club commitments.
England 1 Young England 2 - "When 22 of the best players in England are brought together for a match like this at Highbury they should produce something really good. As a gauge for the selectors to pick our future international sides, the match flopped. It wouldn't be fair, however, to include Stanley Matthews and Billy Wright is the criticism of the older brigade. The young Bolton goalkeeper did boost his chances. Scorers.—Young England: Dennis Stevens (22 min), Vic Groves (30 mins). England: Ernie Taylor (37 mins.)" - Charles Dettmer

Monday, 6 May 1957 - Tom Finney will decide this afternoon whether he is fit to be England's outside-left in the World Cup qualifying match on Wednesday. Finney, who has a bruised groin, will have a test when the England players have a practice match against Young England at Roehampton. If he fails, Manchester United's David Pegg will probably win his first cap.

Tuesday, 7 May 1957 - "Two goal Tom Finney shot away all injury worries with a sparkling display in an England practice game at Roehampton. But in Manchester a new doubt for the World Cup match arose when Roger Byrne, captain of the Busby Boys, complained of a badly bruised left arm. Byrne was injured early in the second half [of the FA Cup Final] against Aston Villa. He couldn't raise his arm after the game and had to be helped to dress. "My arm is still sore" he said "but I intend continuing with treatment when I join the rest of the party in London and expect to have a fitness test. I should be O.K."
"Finney was outside-left in the England team which beat the Under-23s 5-2. His second goal was a stormer, a left-foot thunderbolt which flashed into the net from a narrow angle. After the run-out, Walter Winterbottom announced: "Finney definitely plays." Big John Atyeo (2) and Nat Lofthouse were England's other scorers. Bustling Derek Kevan got both Young England's goals."
An official from Empire Stadium, Wembley has said that only 30,000 tickets have been sold so far.

Wednesday, 8 May 1957 - The England B team party trained in Hendon without Stan Anderson, who has an ankle injury, and Maurice Norman, because of his shoulder injury. The will join the party next week.
England 5 Republic of Ireland 1 - "A triumph for Tommy Taylor. His first half hat-trick made the game safe for England. A triumph for the selectors because this was a win to silence the critics. It was fast, crisp, punchy and skilful, and we must now be ninety per cent certain of qualifying for the main rounds of the World Cup competition in Stockholm next year. A triumph for Tom Finney, the man who has always previously lost his form and found only failure at Wembley. At long last, he faced up squarely to the hypnotic hoodoo of this great ground...AND CONQUERED IT." - Frank McGhee.

Sunday, 12 May 1957 - The eighteen players to represent England assembled in London, ready to fly from London Airport to Copenhagen. The team is expected to remain unchanged from that which beat Republic of Ireland on Wednesday, but that will not be confirmed until tonight. Following their arrival in Denmark, the players had a 'vigorous work-out', and as expected - an unchanged team was then named.

Wednesday, 15 May 1957 - Denmark 1 England 4 - "England won their World Cup match against Denmark here all right-but what a scare they had before making sure of victory in the second half. Forty thousand Danish fans, who had never given their all-amateur side a hope, could hardly believe their eyes when England were one down after 26 minutes. And that goal scared the pants off England came from John Jensen, 20 year old inside-right making his first international appearance. England were back in the hunt with a Johnny Haynes goal two minutes late and with three more from Tommy Taylor (2) and John Atyeo, but this was a shabby performance." - Archie Ledbrooke

Thursday, 16 May 1957 - The twelve players who make up the B team party finished their training at the Bank of England Sports Ground Roehampton with tactical exercises, under the leadership of team manager and coach, Bill Nicholson.

Friday, 17 May 1957 - The England B team left London Airport this afternoon bound for Sofia for their first match of their Iron Curtain tour against Bulgaria on Sunday. According to a Bulgarian Legation official, the Bulgarian youngsters recently beat a full strength senior team of their own countrymen 2—1. The England youngsters will be without six of their best players: Alan Hodgkinson, Ronnie Clayton, Duncan Edwards, Johnny Haynes, David Pegg and Dennis Stevens, who are all still involved with the senior team in Ireland.
The senior team prepare for their final World Cup match by having a 'stiff practice and training session' at their Roehampton training facility. Stan Matthews was hesitant in putting any undue pressure on his ankle. It was an injury he picked up in a game of tennis.
However, as Walter Winterbottom boarded the plane bound for Dublin from London Airport: "It is very doubtful whether Stanley Matthews will be fit to play against Eire on Sunday." The team will not be decided until Matthews has a further test in Dublin tomorrow morning.

After the match, Stan Matthews will fly on to Ghana to play in an exhibition match. Billy Wright will join his Wolverhampton wanderers clubmates in Rhodesia. Roger Byrne and Tommy Taylor will return to Copenhagen where Manchester United are touring. Nat Lofthouse flies to Germany to join up with his Bolton Wanderers side.

England Form: last six games
D W W W W W  f 19:a 6  success: 92%
307	6 October 1956 - Northern Ireland 1 England 1 [1-1] Windsor Park, Belfast (58,420)	McIlroy Matthews	BC	AD
308	14 November 1956 - England 3 Wales 1 [0-1] Empire Stadium, Wembley (93,796)	Haynes, Brooks, Finney J.Charles		HW
309	28 November 1956 - England 3 Yugoslavia 0 [1-0] Empire Stadium, Wembley (78,500)	Brooks, Taylor (2)	Fr	HW
310	5 December 1956 - England 5 Denmark 2 [2-1] Molineux, Wolverhampton (54,083)	Taylor (3), Edwards (2) O.Nielsen (2)	WCP	HW
311	6 April 1957 - England 2 Scotland 1 [0-1] Empire Stadium, Wembley (97,520)	Kevan, Edwards Ring	BC	HW
312	8 May 1956 - England 5 Republic of Ireland 1 [4-0] Empire Stadium, Wembley (52,000)	Taylor (3), Atyeo (2) Curtis	WCP	HW