Connections - England 6

With five Spurs men involved with England in this summer’s major tournament this latest look at what connections the England national side has to Tottenham explores the national teams shootouts that have occurred at the European Championships. Then we uncover the Tottenham lads included in the England Hall of Fame. Can you name all eighteen players and managers? 
 
Then we find Tottenham at the center of the action when England met ‘The Rest.’ There is also a quick look at what happened with Spurs and the national side either side of the Second World War.

England manager Terry Venables with Paul Gascoigne in 1994.

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With the Euros now underway and the likelihood of a penalty shootout deciding a team’s progress looming large we look at England previous shootouts in this competition. It has occurred on four occasions and there were Tottenham connections in three of them. The first two came in the 1996 competition. England played Spain and Paul Gascoigne (then at Rangers) scored for England as they won. 
Then four days later another shootout this time V Germany. Gascoigne and Christian Ziege both took the fourth kicks for their countries and scored. Teddy Sheringham scored with England’s fifth, as they lost in the sixth round.

In 2004 Helder Postiga scored for Portugal as that country put England out of the competition. In 2012 England lost at the quarter final stage to Italy 2-4, without a Spurs man being involved in the shootout.

England also had a shootout when they competed in the King Hassan Cup competition held in Morocco in 1998 when Les Ferdinand missed England’s fifth kick and Belgium won.  That was Les’s seventeenth and final cap for his country. Glenn Hoddle was the England manager that day and Terry Venables had been in charge during the 1996 Euros competition. For more information on those competitions see the Spurs and The Euros series (1). We will look at the World Cup shoot-outs when that competition gets underway.  

Left - Ray Clemence leads England out at Wembley V Brazil in 1981. The South Americans won by the only goal.

There are fifteen players with Tottenham connections currently in the National Hall of Fame. These are Pat Jennings, Ray Clemence, Danny Blanchflower, Alf Ramsey, Dave Mackay, Martin Peters, Paul Gascoigne, Ossie Ardiles, Glenn Hoddle, Cliff Jones, Jimmy Greaves, Gary Lineker, Grahame Souness, Teddy Sheringham and Alan Mullery. 

You will have noticed that only nine of them are actually English.  They stand alongside two each from Northern Ireland and Scotland, with one each from Wales and the Argentine. 
 
There are three Spurs men in the managers section, Bill Nicholson, Alf Ramsey and Terry Venables.

Below - Hall of Famers - Peters and Jennings.
 

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As for the THFC Hall of Fame, Watch out for an exciting announcement in the next few weeks.
 
England has met ‘The Rest’ on three occasions and Tottenham have been heavily involved each time.   To celebrate the FA’s birthday’s England met the Rest of Europe in 1938 (the 75th) and 1953 (90th). The first was a 3-0 victory with Willie Hall scoring the opener (2). Fellow Tottenham player Bert Sproston was at full back and the game was played at Highbury.  Hall’s goal was a left footed shot into the top corner.

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In a sign of the times, remember TV was still finding its own feet, the game was covered by the BBC in the London area only and they just showed the first half.  The game kicking off at 3pm on a Wednesday afternoon still sold out the seating areas in advance with just standing available on the day in a crowd of just over 40,000. After the match a banquet was held and a number of former international were invited.


Left - Teddy Sheringham on England duty.


The second game at Wembley saw Spurs represented by Alf Ramsey who scored from the penalty spot in the last minute to make the score 4-4.  The BBC showed the whole match. The reason I mention this will become clear. Then in 1963 and the FA’s 100th birthday it was the Rest of the World.

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The game at Wembley saw Spurs provide Maurice Norman, Bobby Smith and Jimmy Greaves. Jimmy scoring the winner in the 2-1 win again in the last minute.  The match report I checked showed Greaves could have had a hat full except for the goalie Russia’s Lev Yashin (who certainly was the best goalie in the world).  He also had one ruled out. Greaves speaking after the game said ‘it was the best goal I never scored’ as he went past four defenders and slipped the ball just wide of the goalie. Sadly the ref had blown for a foul on Greaves during his jinking run.  A picture of the goal that did register appears in Every Picture Tells a Story Set 7 (2).  The England manager that day was Alf Ramsey.  I just discovered the ITV network had the TV rights to this game but the game, which for some reason was on a Wednesday afternoon, and only the second half was broadcast, even less in some regions.

The tale doesn’t end there, in 2001, just 63 years after the first of those games; FIFA decided all three were in fact unofficial internationals. However to help further confuse people, they decided the caps awarded could stand. The FA still maintains that is an official game. Which helps explain why football historians tend to contradict each other at times.

Unlike the First World War no Tottenham player played for the country either side of the conflict. The last man to make his debut for England before the war was Bert Sproston, (left)  as well as the above game he also played V Wales that October.

The last Spurs man to actually play before the war was Willie Hall. In May 1939 England toured Europe and in Italy Willie Hall scored the second goal in England’s 2-2 draw in Milan. He then played in the 1-2 defeat to Yugoslavia in Belgrade and sat out the win in Rumania. England did not play an official international then until they met Northern Ireland in September 1946 in Belfast.

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The first Spurs man to play for the country after the war was Ted Ditchburn when they beat Switzerland 6-0 in December 1948. The right back was Southampton’s Alf Ramsey. The first Spurs man to play at Wembley after the war was Ron Burgess for Wales (three times) against the English. The first England goal from a Tottenham player post war was Eddie Baily when he scored away to Northern Ireland in October 1950.  There were of course unofficial war internationals between 1939-46.

If you enjoyed this latest look at the clubs connections to the England team then watch out for –
‘Spurs and the Olympics’ with a host of medal winners and tales appearing shortly and ‘England Seven’ will be back at the International break. You can find the whole Connections series, including England 1-5, @  http://www.indiaspurs.com/blog/hotspur-towers-the-international-index
 
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Keith Harrison.
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Notes – 1 – All previous articles about the European championships and the World Cup can be found at – http://www.indiaspurs.com/blog/hotspur-towers-the-international-index
2 – Due to the technical problems we experienced every Picture 7 will appear shortly which will contain a picture of Willie Hall at this game appears.