ENGLAND knew exactly what they had to do against the Austrians i this crucial World Cup game but at half-time the victory they needed seemed a million miles away. What a dismal performance they put up! It was even harder to take and doubly disappointing after their brilliant display against Brazil. Nothing went right in the opening half. There was no cohesion, no thrust and only some desperate defending prevented an even worse disaster.

The crowd, once again, was boosted by the presence of around 300 British sailors and their white hats made an interesting sight. But they must have been very frustrated by England's performance, there was plenty of effort but no real pattern emerged. Johnny Haynes tried hard to lift his colleagues but when Austria scored after 15 minutes nobody in the stadium was particularly surprised.

It was a cracking goal too with Koller firing in a brilliant 25-yard shot which gave Colin McDonald no chance. England continually struggled and before half-time Austria had several other near misses. Two more thunderbolts by Koller and an open goal missed chance from the tall Buzek threatened to finish off England. In this spell McDonald, Billy Wright and Tommy Banks strove manfully to repel the eager Austrian attack and McDonald particularly was again in top form. He made some fine saves and effectively kept England in the match.

As against both the Soviet Union and Brazil, though, England proved themselves very much the second half side and they were thankfully a different proposition after the break. Within five minutes of the restart Haynes had fired in three fierce shots, all just off target. Shortly afterwards Alan A'Court saw a good effort diverted for a corner. This brought the strains of the Last Post from a bugler amongst the navy lads, but suddenly their spirits were lifted by an England equaliser.

Bill Slater planned a free-kick into the area where Derek Kevan headed it on to A'Court who immediately hit a right foot shot at goal. Szanwald blocked that effort but Haynes moved in smartly to hit home the rebound.

The game had changed dramatically and from then on it was nearly all England as the ball playing Austrians faded. All of the England forwards put in goal attempts although usually off target. This was were Tom Finney was sorely missed as his coolness in finishing would surely have paid dividends. Despite their new found dominance. England's build up was slow and their finishing was poor as they searched desperately for the winner. One wondered how the two-footed power shooting of young Bobby Charlton might have used some of the chances that came England's way.

With 20 minutes remaining, disaster struck. Austria, in a rare attack, regained the lead. Once more it was a long-range shot this time from Körner. McDonald moved late for the ball and could have been unsighted, it was his only blemish on another fine display of goalkeeping. Unfortunately, at this level players can be severely punished for even the slightest mistake.

England now had to dig deep into their reserves of energy to get out of trouble but they showed great character by swiftly coming back at Austria. A speedy-interchange of passes between Haynes and Bobby Robson allowed Haynes to put Kevan through for a second, and well taken, equaliser. For the remainder of the game England pushed forward to try and snatch the winner but bad luck and bad finishing combined to prevent them gaining the win that would have seen them automatically go on to the next stage.

It now remained that England must play-off against the Soviet Union to see who finally qualified from the group.
  

England, needing to beat Austria to qualify for the quarter-finals, were trailing 1-0 at half-time to a thunderbolt of a goal scored from thirty yards by left-half Koller. Johnny Haynes equalised ten minutes into the second half, and then the Austrians regained the lead following a corner. The ball was cleared to Koerner, who beat goalkeeper Colin McDonald with another long-range shot. Derek Kevan, whose bulldozing tactics had brought him severe criticism, pulled England level again ten minutes from the end after running on to a Johnny Haynes pass. Five minutes later they celebrated what they thought was a winning goal after Bobby Robson had breasted down the ball and shot all in one sweet movement. The referee ruled that Kevan had obstructed the goalkeeper. This draw meant England had to play off against Russia, their third meeting in a month. England were fuming over Bobby Robson's disallowed goal. Derek Kevan's challenge on the goalkeeper would have been perfectly acceptable in the English league. There was a different interpretation of the rules by Continental referees. Most experts were fully expecting Bobby Charlton to be called in for his World Cup debut for the deciding match against the Russians, but Walter Winterbottom and the selectors decided the pressure would be too great for him.