England: Banks, Cohen, Wilson, Stiles, Charlton J, Moore, Paine, Greaves, Charlton R, Hunt, Peters
Mexico: Calderon, Chaires, Pena, Nunez, Hernandez, Diaz, Mercado, Reyes, Borja, Fragoso, Padilla
Attendance: 92,570
Referee: Lo Bello (Italy)
England’s second match of the tournament was against Mexico who were considered rank outsiders for the cup ranking well behind Brazil, Argentina & Uruguay.
However, England went into this match in fourth place in Group one, behind Mexico due to their solitary goal against France and all supporters now knew that nothing less than a win would suffice if we were to keep our dreams alive.
Alf Ramsey persisted in the use of a winger by replacing John Connelly with Terry Paine but also decided to call up Martin Peters instead of Alan Ball.
The support was again rapturous and: ‘When the whites go marching in’ resonated around the stadium. England started positively but after thirty minutes still hadn’t scored and, with Mexico employing similar tactics to the Uruguayans, the players and supporters started to get more than a little apprehensive. Suddenly, the match was not quite as comfortable as expected for England and it took a quite spectacular goal from Bobby Charlton to break the deadlock.
He gathered the ball on the halfway line and advanced toward the Mexican goal and, as the defence seemed to part before him, the let fly from twenty-five yards and crashed the ball into the net past the helpless and bewildered goalkeeper. The relief at England’s first World Cup goal of 1966 was overpowering. The crescendo of applause that followed for the next five minutes bore testimony to the anxieties of the crowd. When they trooped off at half time with Charlton’s superb goal separating the teams, the air was absolutely buzzing; all England fans started talking to one another animatedly about that moment. ‘What a goal’ must have been uttered by all England fans as, once again, smiles and optimism abounded.
England then took control of the match in the second half and simply overrun the Mexicans who struggled to cope with the urgency of England’s play. They swept forward, relentlessly, urged on by an enthusiastic and fervent crowd.
‘Remember the Alamo,’ bellowed one England supporter when Mexico forced a rare corner and we all held our collective breath at the unimaginable prospect of them equalising. Fortunately, Banks held it easily. Then, with only fifteen minutes to go Roger Hunt was on hand to slot the ball home, just yards from where I was standing, after the Mexican goalkeeper, Calderon, had palmed Jimmy Greaves shot straight at his feet to put the result beyond doubt at 2 – 0.
The crowded again erupted and the remaining minutes were spent singing songs of imminent World Cup glory.
The warmth of human spirit was, once again, evident as people swapped stories of what club they supported and where they had travelled from. ‘Are you going against France?’ I was asked.
‘I’m going to them all.’ I replied proudly as I met supporters from other teams that I had only ever read about as they were in a different league to my, QPR, team. I even had to admit to someone that I had no idea where Aston Villa was and jokingly asked if he was one of the Mexican reserves. I seemed to be the only one that found this funny.
By now, everyone had calibrated England’s position in Group one to be that of leaders with a one goal advantage over Uruguay. As we had drawn against Uruguay who had then beaten France, we were all confident that we would beat France and progress, with ease, into the quarter finals
Bobby Charlton’s superlative strike was the talking point all around us and was one of those rare experiences that all football supporters will identify with: As Charlton advanced toward goal the shouts of anticipation from the crowd rose and you knew he was going to let fly and from the moment it left his boot you just absolutely knew it would be a goal.
This was truly one of those life’s moments that I will always treasure, and I am sure that many of those around me at the time will have similar memory.
There was much talk of the success of England’s team, but this was also tinged with some misgivings. Why had we struggled for more than half an hour to break down this rather ordinary team and, in particular, why was Jimmy Greaves not finding the net? Our defensive qualities were in no dispute as we all poured accolades on Gordon Banks, Bobby Moore and their fellow defenders and our midfield seemed to gel with Bobby Charlton now in the form of his life; somehow, we lacked penetration up front as winger, Terry Paine, had failed to make any impression and seemed the next most likely candidate for Ramsey’s tactical changes.