Three Lions on the Shirt:Jules Rimet still Dreaming

What is this?

An England Football Team timeline.

?

I've pulled out the posts that I made in "The Madman and his Blue Box" and given them their own thread.

Why?

So they can be read by people who wouldn't look in a Doctor Who thread (and why should they).

OK but what's the background?

Well unless mentioned it's as OTL. So England win the World Cup in 1966 and everything up to the 1970 finals stays the same. So for example Scotland still beat England in 1967.

So it's not an England Wank.

No certainly not! This is the English football team I'm talking about, nothing ever meets our expectations!

Anything else?

Anyone can feel free to add if they wish, just don't contradict what I post. So for example the 1972 European Championships are up for grabs.

Get on with it!

Here we go. All together now "INGURLAND!"
 
1970 World Cup

For England, the group stages of the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico went exactly the same way as OTL, including THAT save by Gordon Banks. However the quarter final against West Germany would go slightly differently.

There was a huge blow to England when at the last minute goalkeepers Gordon Banks and Peter Bonetti had to withdraw because of a stomach upset. Montezuma’s revenge had never been harsher, robbing England of the best goalkeeper in the world. So Alex Stepney, who had not played a full competitive match since the end of the previous club season, was called in as emergency deputy. England were in command for sixty nine minutes thanks to goals from Alan Mullery and Martin Peters in stifling conditions. Franz Beckenbauer very nearly pulled the Germans back into the game with a shot that Stepney fumbled but managed to stop from squeezing under his body. Sir Alf Ramsey immediately sent on Colin Bell as substitute for Bobby Charlton, who was being saved for the semi-final. German substitute Jurgen Grabowski was running rings round exhausted left-back Terry Cooper, and Ramsey decided on a second substitution, sending on Norman Hunter for Cooper in a bid to stiffen the defence. With the changes suddenly England were looking disjointed. A freak header by Uwe Seeler sent the ball on an arc over the wrong-footed Stepney in the 89th minute and the Germans went on an all-out attack to try to equalize. However somehow England held on to win the game.

This meant that England would play Italy in the semi-final at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. Gordon Banks had recovered so he played in goal. Italy led for the majority of the match, after Roberto Boninsegna scored in the 8th minute.

Defender Brian Labone equalized for England during injury time at the end of the second half. The second half ended with the scores deadlocked at 1–1, and at this point the match became a battle of endurance during the two periods of extra time.

Geoff Hurst put England ahead in the 94th minute, but Tarcisio Burgnich tied it back up four minutes later and Luigi Riva put the Italians back in front. Substitute Jeff Astle then scored for England to tie up the score at 3–3. Yet, as television cameras were still replaying Astle's goal, Alan Ball scored the game-winning goal in the 111th minute. Being left unmarked near the penalty area, Ball connected a fine cross made by Newton, clinching the victory for England at 4–3.

The Final was held on Sunday, 21 June, in the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. This final, between Brazil and England, was the one which many pundits had predicted. It was first time that two former world champions met in a final; England having won the 1966 Final, while Brazil had won in 1958 and 1962.

Brazil struck first, with Pelé heading in a cross by Rivelino at the 18th minute. Geoff Hurst equalized for England after a blunder in the Brazilian defence. In the second half, Brazil's firepower and creativity finally proved too much for an England side that were still tired after their exhausting semi-final against Italy. However England despite this played very well and still created chances for Hurst, Ball and Lee. However they were finally beaten by one of the great world cup goals. A total of eight outfield players from Brazil passed the ball until Captain Carlos Alberto hammered the ball into the corner of the English goal following an inch perfect pass across the English 18 yard box from Pelé, prompted by the intelligent Tostao, who, with his back to the goal, told Pelé that Alberto was steaming in on the right flank. Tostao started the move five yards from the left of the Brazilian 18 yard box, then ran the length of the field to the English box without touching the ball again to tell Pelé to lay it off for Alberto. The players involved in the passes in order were Tostao, Brito, Clodoaldo, Pele, Gerson, defender Clodoaldo beat four English players in his own half (Hurst, Ball, Charlton and Peters) before passing to Rivelino who hit a perfect pass down the wing to Jairzinho. Jairzinho crossed from the wing to the centre of the box to Pele who held the ball up to play a pass for Alberto to smash it home. The only outfield players not involved in the move were Everaldo and Piazza.

Although England continued to strive hard and on several occasions hit the post or the cross bar it was not to be and the game finished at 2-1 to Brazil.

Although the English Press were disappointed that England had not retained the trophy there were no recriminations against the team or Sir Alf Ramsey. It was felt that they had been beaten by a wonder goal and by an excellent team. Also the way that they had played had contributed immensely to what many still consider to be the best ever World Cup Final.
 
1974 World Cup

The 1974 World Cup had marked the end of Sir Alf Ramsey’s time as England Football Manager. England scraped through their qualifying group of themselves, Poland and Wales by the skin of their teeth. Both England and Poland managed to beat Wales twice, the first game in Poland ended as a 2-2 draw so it all hung on the last game at Wembley. All England needed to do was draw as they had scored more goals against Wales than Poland but it was a very close run thing with Poland leading 1-0 until stoppage time when Kevin Hector managed to bundle the ball across the line in a goalmouth scramble.

England were one of the seeds for the competition proper in West Germany but they ended up in group 4 with Italy, Argentina and Haiti. They lost to Argentina, drew with Italy and handsomely beat Haiti. However Italy beat both Argentina and Haiti whilst Argentina also beat Haiti. England finished third in the group. The writing was on the wall for Sir Alf even though England had suffered several injuries during the tournament which had not helped. In the end he jumped before he was pushed and resigned a week after England returned home.

(The final was contested between West Germany and the Netherlands and finished 2-1 to West Germany despite the Netherlands dominating the game.)

The FA interviewed several candidates for the position of England Manager, Don Revie of Leeds United, Jimmy Adamson of Burnley, Gordon Jago of QPR, Jimmy Bloomfield of Leicester City and Bobby Robson of Ipswich Town. Although Revie had planned thoroughly, he had put too many of the FA and Football League’s hierarchies noses out of joint. Bobby Robson interviewed well but in the end the job went to Jimmy Adamson (whom the FA had wanted to appoint instead of Alf Ramsey back when Walter Winterbottom had finally gone).

Revie went back to Leeds (he had thought that the England job was his for the asking) and started to rebuild his team which went on to win the European Cup in 1975, beating Bayern Munich in the final.

Jimmy Adamson’s tenure as England manager did not go smoothly.
 
England under Jimmy Adamson

England did not thrive under Jimmy Adamson. He found it difficult to adapt to the demands of the position as England Manager after being manager of Burnley for such a long time. He especially found it hard to establish a good relationship with some of the players (albeit they did all respect him as a coach).

England managed to win the 74/75 Home Internationals despite playing badly apart from a 5-1 thumping of Scotland but played equally badly in the 75/76 Home Internationals finishing second to Scotland.

They played as badly in the qualifying round of the European Championships. They scraped a 1-0 victory over Czechoslovakia and could only draw 0-0 with Portugal. However it was the result against Cyprus that finally started a hardening of public opinion against Adamson. They only managed a 1-0 win at Wembley and didn’t dominate the game in which it was felt, by the papers that they should have done. This feeling intensified after an even worse 1-0 victory in Cyprus. The matters came to a head after England lost 2-1 to Czechoslovakia in Prague. A really vitriolic campaign was started by the Sun and Mirror. A fantastic display against Portugal didn’t stop the campaign. England completely dominated the game playing nearly 80% of it in the Portuguese half. However they just could not score. They hit the posts or the crossbar on numerous occasions. Defenders legs and bodies kept being hit, and the Portuguese goalkeeper, Damas, played an absolute blinder (think Jan Tomaszewski in OTL). Mick Channon finally scored in the 86th minute. However the Portuguese broke from the kick-off and scored an equaliser. As it happened the result was academic as Cyprus lost 3-0 to Czechoslovakia (England needed to beat Portugal and Cyprus to beat Czechoslovakia!).

Jimmy Adamson had had enough and resigned on arriving back in England.
 
England’s 1978 World Cup Qualifying Campaign


The FA bit the bullet after Jimmy Adamson’s resignation and appointed Don Revie as England Manager. It was not a happy tenure. Through injuries he was never able to pick what he considered to be his best team. Indeed no two teams were ever the same! Also his management techniques, although very successful at Leeds United, just did not work with the England team. Despite that England only lost one game in their qualifying campaign and which was a near miraculous 1-0 loss to Italy in Rome (Italy completely dominated the game but Ray Clemence made some outstanding saves). However despite defeating Italy 2-0 at Wembley everything hung on the Italy-Luxemburg game. If Italy won by anything less than 2 clear goals England qualified on superior goal difference, if they won by 2 clear goals England still qualified as they had the better record between the two teams. However Italy won 3-0, the last goal coming from a penalty in stoppage time (it was a slightly dubious decision), and so qualified by having a superior goal difference (+13 as opposed to +12). The English press went apoplectic accusing the referee of being in collusion with the Italians. However it made no difference England had failed to be at the World Cup Finals for the first time since 1950.


Almost unnoticed in the furore Revie resigned as Manager stating that he did so as he had failed to qualify. To add insult to injury Scotland qualified!



Group 2 Results


13 June 1976 Finland 1 – 4 England Helsinki, Finland


22 September 1976 Finland 7 – 1 Luxembourg Helsinki, Finland


13 October 1976 England 2 – 1 Finland London, England


16 October 1976 Luxembourg 1 – 4 Italy Luxembourg, Luxembourg


17 November 1976 Italy 1 – 0 England Rome, Italy


30 March 1977 England 5 – 0 Luxembourg London, England


26 May 1977 Luxembourg 0 – 1 Finland Luxembourg, Luxembourg


8 June 1977 Finland 0 – 3 Italy Helsinki, Finland


12 October 1977 Luxembourg 0 – 2 England Luxembourg, Luxembourg


15 October 1977 Italy 6 – 1 Finland Turin, Italy


16 November 1977 England 2 – 0 Italy London, England


3 December 1977 Italy 3 – 0 Luxembourg Rome, Italy


Italy qualified.
 
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