The contents will be as follows: England versus Argentina in the 1966 World Cup quarter finals; Mike Smith on Burnley’s Continental tour of 1914; a statistical record of Scotland’s Southern League for 1942-43; David Bull on the history of Southampton FC’s mascots; Terry Morris on the Hampstead Heathens; Graham Phythian on Blackburn Olympic; Gary Parle on Allan Hall’s goals record for Lincoln City from 1931-32; accessing overseas newspaper archives on line; plus obituaries and book reviews.

You can obtain a copy by sending a cheque for £4.50 payable to Soccer History  at 26 Saxon Street, Lincoln, LN1 3HN or by purchasing online with Paypal.

This post will be updated when I am able to confirm the content and have a date when the magazines will be ready.

In the summer of 1952 England made a short tour to Europe including politically sensitive matches against Italy and Austria, both countries having assisted Nazi Germany during the Second World War. They were therefore entering enemy territory, so to speak. The developing Cold War was also a factor affecting the visit to Austria. Like Germany, Austria remained occupied by the four Allied Powers (Britain, United States, Soviet Union and France) with the capital cities of Berlin and Vienna also split into four. The game in May 1952 actually took place in the Soviet sector of Vienna, although with the situation less tense in Austria than in Germany, British troops were able to cross over to watch the match. The historian Percy Young summed up the situation regarding the two matches neatly: “In 1952 the atmosphere in both countries, where memories of recent misfortunes combined with a present sense of injustice and a zeal towards spiritual and national regeneration, was tense. As ever football matches were symbolic.”

The two nations were also very powerful in the football world. Austria had been one of the great Central European football nations in the 1930s and by 1951 the country had begun its recovery from the ravages of war and of 16 internationals played since November 1949 10 had been won and only 2 lost. Significant from England’s point of view was that the Austrians had defeated Scotland twice during this run and also achieved a 2-2 draw at Wembley. Italy had already won the World Cup on two occasions and football had made a rapid recovery following the ending of the war.

The Italy game was played on Sunday 18 May and was a brutal affair, ending in a 1-1 draw. One match report said that Lofthouse “left the field at the finish looking like a boxer who had gone a tough 15 rounds.” Other reports suggested he had produced a poor performance, firing him up for the following week’s game. The general opinion expressed in the press was that Austria were firm favourites to win, although the Daily Telegraph noted rather reassuringly that, “our players have by no means abandoned hope.”

For the first time in England’s history there was a significant away following in Continental Europe for a peacetime international. The game was played at the Praterstadion in Vienna’s Soviet Zone, with British troops being allocated some 1,400 tickets although many more obtained tickets through the black market and there was a substantial body of support in the crowd of 43,000. They made their presence felt with their red, white and blue rattles and chanting of E-N-G-L-A-N-D.

The match itself was a classic of its kind, pitting the powerful, physical English team against a technically proficient Austrian side which displayed steel and brute force when required.

The teams lined up as follows:

England: Merrick (Birmingham City); Ramsey (Tottenham Hotspur), Eckersley (Blackburn Rovers); Wright (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Froggatt (Portsmouth), Dickinson (Portsmouth); Finney (Preston North End), Sewell (Sheffield Wednesday), Lofthouse (Bolton Wanderers), Baily (Tottenham Hotspur), Elliott (Burnley)

Austria: Musil (Rapid); Roecki (Vienna), Happel (Rapid); Schleger (Austria Vienna), Ocwirk (Austria Vienna), T Brinek (Wacker); Melchior (Austria Vienna), Hanappi (Rapid), Dienst (Rapid), Huber (Austria Vienna), Haumner (Wacker)

Referee: G Caprani (Italy)

Austria wore white shirts with England in red. The game was played in cool, cloudy conditions with a slight breeze and intermittent rain. The first major incident came on 11 minutes when a shot from Melchior struck Eckersley on the arm, but the referee rejected appeals for a penalty and awarded a corner. Austria were on top in the opening 20 minutes, but England hit back, the ball moved neatly from Baily to Elliott and then Sewell who passed it to Lofthouse, unmarked on the right-hand side of the penalty area. He swivelled on his right foot and hammered a volley with his left to open the scoring. However, the lead lasted barely a minute. Froggatt was adjudged to have tripped Dienst on the edge of the penalty area and Huber equalised from the spot kick. Two more minutes passed and Jackie Sewell restored the lead, then Lofthouse headed against the bar. The home team were level before half time when the England defence opened up to allow Dienst to fire home past Merrick.

Play became more fraught in the second half, The Guardian noting that the game became “scrappy and rather rough on both sides.” Desmond Hackett in the Daily Express went as far as to say, “they [Austria] came out for the second half ready to boot every English player in sight.” The game became littered with fouls, with England conceding 24 free kicks and the Austrians 19: totals which might seem inconsequential today but which were substantial for the 1950s.

The climax came just seven minutes from time. Merrick plucked a corner out of the air and threw a long swerving ball down the centre of the field. Finney touched it on to Lofthouse on the half way line. Lofthouse slipped past Ocwirk and ran with the ball at his feet, cheered to the rafters by the British contingent in the crowd. As the goalkeeper advanced the ball was propelled into the left hand corner of the net before the two collided. Lofthouse, semi-conscious, was carried off the field, but soon returned.

When the final whistle sounded there were amazing scenes as the England fans celebrated, with around 200 storming the pitch. Roy Peskett painted a vivid picture of the events for the Daily Mail:

A mass of cheering, khaki-clad British soldiers, many waving Union Jacks, surged slowly across the Prater Stadium in the Soviet sector here this evening. Dotted among them on the broad shoulders of the Dorsets, the Warwicks, the Signalmen, the Gunners, were England Soccer players, their unfamiliar red shirts looking like poppies in a field of corn as they were carried high in triumph to their dressing-room.

The unexpected win was against all odds, for the Austrians had dominated the game for the most part, gaining eight corners to England’s none, the team had suffered a physical battering in a hostile country and come out victorious. The climax led to outpourings of joy from the poetic Peskett: it was “the most momentous Soccer triumph ever to fall to a British side abroad …It was like the end of a schoolboy’s thriller story.” For Desmond Hackett in the Express, “It was a win that the Austrians said could never happen. To make that statement a fact they battered the England team with arms, legs and heads … Never again say that England has run out of the heart to fight. Not a man quit. Not a man came out without some bruise or scar.”

Lofthouse was proclaimed a hero by the English press: “Lofthouse scores two in soccer triumph.” (Daily Telegraph) “Lofthouse the hero of a great win in Vienna” (Daily Mirror); “Lofthouse crocked as he hits winner” (Daily Express).

Lofthouse’s performance in Vienna was a pivotal moment of his career, as Peter Wilson later reported in the Daily Express:

Until that day of glorious memory – May 26 1952 [sic] – in Vienna, when Lofthouse scored the two goals that beat “unbeatable” Austria, he was a man with a chip on his broad shoulder.

He resented the criticism of his England showings, wanted to leave Bolton because it was an unfashionable football address and weighed against his international future. But that winning goal seven minutes from the end of the Austria match, when Lofthouse tore through on his own and knocked himself out in scoring, changed the Lofthouse outlook …

His conduct on the field, his encouragement and unselfish play, his high degree of sportsmanship, his readiness to praise the efficiency of his opponents created in him the model footballer.”

After Vienna Nat never looked back. He went on to hit a record six goals in the inter league fixture with the Irish League in September 1952, he won both the Footballer of the Year title and an FA Cup runners-up medal in 1953, and finally a winners’ medal in 1958. Nat eventually retired as a result of an ankle injury, playing his last game against Birmingham City in December 1960. His final statistics show 255 goals from 452 Football League appearances for Bolton; his goals tally remains a club record some 50 years later, while he also held the England scoring record (jointly with Tom Finney) for some years until Jimmy Greaves came along.

Nat Lofthouse passed away at a Bolton nursing home on the evening of Saturday 15 January, three months after the death of another of his colleagues from that famous victory in Vienna, Eddie Baily. English football has lost one of the great figures of the post-war game.

As a player he spent five years on the books of Charlton Athletic, making just two first-team appearances before moving on to sign for West Ham in February 1951, making his debut for the Hammers against Chesterfield the following month. Quickly settling into first-team football at Upton Park, he was appointed club captain in 1951-52. His arrival at the club heralded the beginning of an era when the East End club became known as ‘the academy of football’. Despite his lack of seniority, Malcolm was placed in charge of training at the club and, heavily influenced by what he had seen of the Hungarians at Wembley in November 1953, the team adopted a more Continental approach to the game. Crucial to this was the presence, over a period of time, of a number of thoughtful players who went on to make their mark in coaching and management over the following three decades. The West Ham ‘school’ included Noel Cantwell, Dave Sexton, Frank O’Farrell, John Cartwright, John Bond, John Lyall, Malcolm Musgrove and Phil Woosnam amongst others. They would meet regularly after training at the Cassatarri Café, just round the corner from Upton Park where they would discuss tactics and training methods, with Allison very much the leader. He later recalled, “We were like any revolutionary group. We got excited and built up a good feeling.”

Malcolm’s West Ham career was effectively ended in the autumn of 1957 when he was diagnosed as suffering from tuberculosis. He said of this period, “Everything was finished, I thought. I was in the sanatorium about nine months and I was a very quiet fellow when I came out with one and a half lungs.” He recovered sufficiently to return to play for the Hammers’ reserves then moved on to spend two seasons with Romford in the Southern League, also coaching the Cambridge University team at this time. The TB set back made Malcolm more determined than ever to succeed in the game and he seized the opportunity to take over as manager of Bath in the summer of 1963. He transformed the club’s fortunes, taking them to an FA Cup third round replay against Bolton Wanderers.

After a season at Twerton Park Malcolm moved on to Plymouth accompanied by his skipper Tony Book and more success followed, with Argyle reaching the semi-finals of the Football League Cup in 1964-65. However, the club’s promotion charge stalled towards the end of the season and Malcolm departed, stepping up to become coach to Joe Mercer at Manchester City in the summer of 1965. Over the next five years City achieved tremendous success under the partnership of Mercer and Allison, winning the Division Two (1965-66), the Football League title (1967-68), FA Cup (1968-69), Football League Cup (1969-70) and European Cup Winners’ Cup (1969-70). Tony Book had followed Allison from Plymouth and two other crucial signings were Colin Bell and Francis Lee. Malcolm had now also established himself as a colourful character who made headlines in the national press, but when he took over as manager in his own right, in October 1971, he lasted less than two seasons in the job.

Malcolm moved on to the manager’s job at Crystal Palace but he was unable to keep them in the First Division and in 1973-74 they were relegated again down to the Third Division. Here the club’s fortunes stabilised and in 1975-76, ably assisted by Malcolm’s ‘lucky’ fedora, they reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup. The fedora captured the imagination of football fans throughout the land, one national newspaper even offering readers the chance to “Win a lucky Allison hat”. Nevertheless, after away wins at Leeds, Chelsea and Sunderland Palace went down to Southampton in the semi-final.

Thereafter, Malcolm became something of a wanderer, returning to each of his three senior clubs at various times as well as serving as manager of Middlesbrough (1982-84) and spending time in Europe with Sporting Lisbon and Vitoria Setubal amongst other teams. He remained active in the game until the early 1990s before long-term illness brought an end to almost half a century in the game.

The published obituaries have tended to focus on the publicity seeking man who lived life to excess, but Malcolm Allison was also a shrewd football man who was ahead of his team with his work at West Ham and, with Joe Mercer, produced a golden era at Manchester City. His teams played bright, attacking football and his philosophy is summed up in the following quote: “The most important thing about a professional footballer is that he should express himself … When a man completely expresses himself the best comes out of him. It is my job to help him express that, to show him how he can succeed.”

Malcolm Allison passed away on 14 October 2010 at the age of 83.

This post will be updated when I am able to confirm the content and have a date when the magazines will be ready.

Updated 20 October: I can confirm that the content is as above and expect to be sending out copies to subscribers in the week commencing 25 October.

Thereafter the tour settled down to a pattern whereby they played many of Britain’s leading sides, usually being heavily defeated and meeting with derision from the spectators. It was a gruelling schedule: almost 50 matches in 120 days as they travelled  from the North East to Scotland, Northern Ireland, the North West, the Midlands, London and the South Coast before concluding with a 7-3 defeat by Aberdare on 2 January 1900. The only victory came when they went over to France just before Christmas and defeated SC Tourcoing 3-1.

Although black people in South Africa were already considered second class citizens, the tourists were treated as any group of visiting sportsmen would have been. On their first night in England they were taken down the pub by their hosts where they sang songs in both English and their own language. They travelled around the country by train, stayed in hotels and were introduced to local dignitaries.

We know a small amount about the players. They were shopkeepers, skilled craftsmen and clerks. They spoke English and went to Church. Some of them also played rugby. The player we know most about is the captain, Joseph Twayi. He was a grocer who was born in Bloemfontein in 1873 and died in 1924. A follower of the Wesleyan branch of Christianity, he became a political activist helping to form the South African National Native Congress (SANNC) in 1912. The SANNC, of course, later adopted the name by which it is known today, the African National Congress.

Chris Bolsmann’s detailed account of the tour can be found in isse 25 of Soccer History magazine.

Joe Gaetjens (USA) and goalkeeper Bert Williams (England) watch as the ball passes over the bar and onto the top of the net, outside the goal

This what the US soccer historian Colin Jose has told me about this picture: “This is not a picture of the goal. Look closely at this picture and you can see that the ball is outside of the net, not inside. Walter Bahr [who played for the USA in that match] tells me that this is a shot that went over the bar and is running down the mesh. When Joe Gaetjens scored he was lying flat on the ground, having deflected Walter Bahr’s shot/cross.”

Tony Mason, writing in the latest issue of Soccer History looks at the evidence and concludes: “Some accounts describe it as a long shot through a crowd of players, probably deflected past the England goalkeeper. Others claimed it was a header by Gaetjens but after exploring the major sources it seems likely that a shot at goal struck Gaetjens on the head and was deflected wide of the England goalkeeper.”

The actual goal. Gaetjens is out of the picture to the left as his header enters the net. England defender Alf Ramsey (in blue shirt) and US outside left Eddie Souza look on.

One thing is for certain, there is unlikely to be any doubt of how any goals are scored this evening with intense media coverage of the match.

Finally, congratulations to Bert Williams, the England goalkeeper in the match, who today was awarded the MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list.