Euro 2020

[aldoes mustache]

I hate international football normally so boring, also was that the same team who struggled against the Scottish loved it last night but will not get carried away its England after all lol Like rovers never do it easy

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

For me up there with 5 1 in Germany and 4 1 v Netherlands

I think it was actually better, because of the circumstances (quarter final of a major competition) and the pressure the players were under. It just felt more complete than either of those games, as great as they were.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I hate international football normally so boring, also was that the same team who struggled against the Scottish loved it last night but will not get carried away its England after all lol Like rovers never do it easy

In fairness, the Scotland game was the only average performance and even then we did not concede. Southgate's strategy was to be solid defensively in the early matches and not bow to pressure from the critics, and let the performances develop, which is exactly what has happened.

 

[Alun]

Kane is shit sack hin England and Spurs take all his Money scammers, then we can get him on the cheap. have to say he is amazing the number of goals he has scored is amazing

Maybe worth a punt, ! year deal and if he can come up with the goods and bang, a few goals in, offer him a two year deal at the end of his contract.

 

[Alun]

That was a lot easier than I expected, I thought a dour game with England, winning by the odd goal, but once Kane scored the first goal, in the opening minutes, then there was only going to be one winner, England dominated the game from start to finish and apart from a couple of mistakes, never allowed Ukraine get a foothold in the game. it seems the Ukrainian vodka, I was drinking was was stronger than the team, although you do not know what the Sweden game took out of Ukraine. Onwards to Wednesday now and I am sure a tougher game against Denmark. For what it is worth, I would say Italy are the team to beat, to me the best team over the games played so far.

 

[Ian]

Yes, I would love to see an England v Italy final as both teams are firing at the moment.

 

[Keith Hill (Bolton)]

Can anyone remember when the question was asked, why can't we get young players
from the reds and blues. I think it was just before relegation from league one about seven years ago?

The reason behind it was because they didn't want to risk the lads careers because of the style of football we were playing at the time.
Was it the seasons Les Parry was in charge?

 

[Boz]

Think we had players on loan from both during the L1 relegation season, can definitely remember Pennington a defender from Everton. Can’t recall if we had any loanees from the Scouse teams during Parry’s era, but most players we have loaned from them this century have been disappointing to use a diplomatic word.

 

[ONIGP]

Can’t recall if we had any loanees from the Scouse teams during Parry’s era, but most players we have loaned from them this century have been disappointing to use a diplomatic word.

Peter Gulacsi was a Les Parry era loan and was very good. Hasn't gone on to have a bad career either!

 

[Boz]

Looking at Wiki, seems we loaned Gulasci under the emergency keeper provisions twice. My recollection is he was steady in the times he was with us, but didn't show the signs of going on to have such an illustrious career, though keepers are often late developers.

 

[ONIGP]

I hadn't realised that when we first reached the Semi-Finals in 1968 our group qualification stage comprised a combined league of the Home Championships for the seasons 66/67 and 67/68. We pipped Scotland by one point (old money; 2 points for a win) to reach the Quarters. The Quarter Final was a home and away affair against Spain where we won both legs. The Semis, Final and 3rd/4th place match were all held in Italy, where we succumbed to Yugoslavia 0-1 in Florence. Italy went on to beat Yugoslavia in a replay that was held 2 days after the original match, while we beat the Soviet Union for 3rd Place.

I guess that this makes it our 2nd most successful tournament after 1966, yet it is rarely if ever mentioned. I suppose it was only the 3rd time the competition had been held, only the second time we had entered and the first time we had qualified. After 1966 it probably seemed more like failure than success!

To be honest big tournament football was a mystery for most of us of a certain age; being too young to remember 1966, 1968 and 1970 and failing to qualify in 1972, 1974, 1976 and 1978.

How times have changed! Let's hope our Euro2020 performance relegates it further into the annals of rarely mentioned history!

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I hadn't realised that when we first reached the Semi-Finals in 1968 our group qualification stage comprised a combined league of the Home Championships for the seasons 66/67 and 67/68. We pipped Scotland by one point (old money; 2 points for a win) to reach the Quarters. The Quarter Final was a home and away affair against Spain where we won both legs. The Semis, Final and 3rd/4th place match were all held in Italy, where we succumbed to Yugoslavia 0-1 in Florence. Italy went on to beat Yugoslavia in a replay that was held 2 days after the original match, while we beat the Soviet Union for 3rd Place.

I guess that this makes it our 2nd most successful tournament after 1966, yet it is rarely if ever mentioned. I suppose it was only the 3rd time the competition had been held, only the second time we had entered and the first time we had qualified. After 1966 it probably seemed more like failure than success!

To be honest big tournament football was a mystery for most of us of a certain age; being too young to remember 1966, 1968 and 1970 and failing to qualify in 1972, 1974, 1976 and 1978.

How times have changed! Let's hope our Euro2020 performance relegates it further into the annals of rarely mentioned history!

Yes, that 1968 tournament always struck me as weird. It must be the least remembered of all tournaments where England reached the latter stages.

The 1982 World Cup was also strange, with two group stages followed directly by the semi finals, if I remember correctly.

 

[ONIGP]

Yrs, that 1968 tournament always struck me as weird. It must be the least remembered of all tournaments where England reached the latter stages.

The 1982 World Cup was also strange, with two group stages followed directly by the semi finals, if I remember correctly.

Yes, I remember 1982 quite well. Northern Ireland had a memorable tournament beating the hosts, Spain, to reach the 2nd group stage. England managed to be knocked out without losing a match! Unfortunately Brooking and Keegan weren't fully fit which didn't help our cause.

 

[ONIGP]

The 1982 World Cup was also strange, with two group stages followed directly by the semi finals, if I remember correctly.

Yes, it was a ridiculous format and thankfully wasn't repeated again, nearly all the knockout-stage jeopardy was removed. Like "best 3rd placed teams" in Euro2020 it was an attempt to deal with a 24 team tournament.

 

[Keith Hill (Bolton)]

Off the top of my head, I remember Mexico because of the way England's players were treated. Especially the jewellery shoplifting accusing Sir Bobby.
Argentina because of a few things, squad numbers alphabetical for Argentina, the amazing ticker tape and colour tele. Holland and total football.
France world cup,
Euro 96, good memories but disappointing.

I distinctly remember Platt scoring v Belgium, cos we watched it in work, on a new fangled portable television,

Italy and Gazza.

The media's obsession with penalty shootouts.
And absolutely slagging off of our managers. Because of the lad culture that we are going to win any and all tournaments, only to be left deflated again and again.

USA, the fact we were even thinking of implementing changes to rules, such as a shootout, if teams drew their group games. It was nonsense of course.

Not bad since I was up very early this morning!

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

I’m going to show my age and mention the 1958 World Cup, the first I remember. All four home nations qualified.

Wales did best by reaching the quarters after initially failing to qualify for Sweden, but got a second chance against Israel because nobody would play them. Look it up.

England drew all three group games and then went out after a playoff. This was especially sad as we had a great team six months earlier but at Munich three great English players lost their lives - Tommy Taylor, Roger Byrne and of course Duncan Edwards. Bobby Charlton understandably lost form and didn’t make the squad. I wonder how we’d have done with the original team. I can’t imagine how Bobby felt when England won in 1966 and United won the European Cup in 1968.

 

[bigmart]

Yep you showed your age

 

[Keith Hill (Bolton)]

I’m going to show my age and mention the 1958 World Cup, the first I remember. All four home nations qualified.

Wales did best by reaching the quarters after initially failing to qualify for Sweden, but got a second chance against Israel because nobody would play them. Look it up.

England drew all three group games and then went out after a playoff. This was especially sad as we had a great team six months earlier but at Munich three great English players lost their lives - Tommy Taylor, Roger Byrne and of course Duncan Edwards. Bobby Charlton understandably lost form and didn’t make the squad. I wonder how we’d have done with the original team. I can’t imagine how Bobby felt when England won in 1966 and United won the European Cup in 1968.

You must be waiting for a telegram?
Same age as her majesty?
Who does the queen get a telegram off?

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

Yep you showed your age

Do you want me to tell you about the White Horse cup final when the old Wembley opened?

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

You must be waiting for a telegram?
Same age as her majesty?
Who does the queen get a telegram off?

I’ve got a long wait still for a telegram. I’m about the same age as Prince Charles.