Wednesday 1st May 1968
Under 23’s International
England U23’s v Hungary U23’s
Programme Price: 6D
Its back to 1968 for my review today and this programme issued for an Under 23’s international between England and Hungary at Goodison Park. I found this twelve-page programme to be a very interesting and enjoyable read and I hope I get that across to you in this review.
With page 1 being the front cover, page 2 is blank whilst the following page features a message from I. Robinson the chairman of the Intermediate Committee. He starts by saying that on behalf of the Football Association, he extends a very warm welcome to the officials and players from the Hungarian Football Association to Liverpool. He goes on to say that previous games at all levels between England and Hungary had provided lots of entertainment and was hoping for more of the same for this fixture.
Page 4 sees an article titled ‘They’ve Ambitions’ which states that the players selected for the England Under 23’s would still be in their early 20’s by the time the 1970 World Cup in Mexico came around, meaning they would be in contention for a place in the World Cup squad.
At the bottom of page 4 and continued onto page 5 there are pen pictures of the England team. As you can imagine there are plenty of players in the squad that went on to become household names; Emlyn Hughes, Howard Kendall, Colin Bell, and Rodney Marsh to name but a few.
Page 6 provides the team lineups with the referee named as Joseph Hannet from Belgium. The following features several photographs of players in the England squad.
Page 8 is titled ‘Why Under 23 Football’ and begins by informing the reader that the first Under-23 international match to be played by an England XI was held in Bologna in Italy on 20th January 1954, a game that the Italian side won 3-0. The England team for that historic occasion reads as follows, R. Wood (Manchester United) P. Gunter (Portsmouth) S. Ellis (Charlton Athletic) J. Whitefoot (Manchester United) W. Dodgin (Arsenal) D. Edwards (Manchester United) A. Finney (Sheffield Wednesday) P. Broadbent (Wolverhampton Wanderers) S. Leary (Charlton Athletic) J. Nicholls (West Bromwich Albion) F. Blunstone (Chelsea). Reserves: J. Haynes (Fulham) and R. Flowers (Wolverhampton Wanderers) – I am sure there are people reading this review that will recognise some of those names, if not all of them! The article goes on to state the importance of younger players getting the opportunity to play in international football.
Page 9 provides every England Under 23’s results from that first game in Italy in 1954 to 1968. Some results that caught my eye were England 5-2 Netherlands (16.03.1960 – Sheffield) England 8-0 Wales (12.12.1966 – Wolverhampton and Romania 1-0 England (02.06.1963 – Bucharest).
Page 11 looks at football in Hungary and starts by stating that the game was introduced to the country by Charlie Lowenrosen and was first played in 1896. The following page provides two action photographs of England players Peter Springett and John Hurst with the programme coming to an end with a blank page 12.
For the record, this game finished 4-0 in favour of England with the goals coming from Martin Chivers, Rodney Marsh, Joe Royle, and Colin Bell.
Gareths Football Travels 