Alan Mullery & Tony Norman – Quotes from ‘Alan Mullery – The Autobiography’
Adele Bolderson (England Fans Officer, Communications Division – The F.A. Group)
Barnsley F.C.
The Bolton News
Dave Swaffield
Gary Parkinson (Editor, FourFourTwo.com)
Jathan Granger at jgdesigns
Kevin Lamb (Communications Director – Grays Athletic F.C.)
Lucy Pepper (Media & PR Manager) Millwall F.C. + Millwall F.C. programme and website
Mark Perryman at Philosophy Football
Nick Loughlin (Sports Editor, The Northern Echo)
Paul Camillin
Paul Hodson
Richard Walker (Editor – Watford F.C. programme)
Trevor Braithwait (Editor – Sheffield Wednesday F.C. programme)
Tim Herbert (Communications Officer – Plymouth Argyle F.C.) … AND THE CONTRIBUTORS SO FAR
Alan Mullery:
I lived through every emotion on that trip and made friendships that have lasted a lifetime. There was a wonderful camaraderie between Alf and all the players… It was a special time in all our lives.CLICK HERE ⇒
Peter Logan:
The other chap I went with – Frank Nottage – I lost track of him. He stopped going to Millwall and we just sort-of lost touch. He was older than me at the time and, as I mentioned, he wasn’t in all that good health either.
Patrick Burke:
The people who went were a good crowd, and I made friends with a number of them. Some are still friends. The trip resulted in at least one marriage. A Millwall supporter met a Q.P.R. supporter who became goalkeeper for the England women’s team. This was Brian & Pat Napier. I got to know Brian because he was another Millwall supporter. Pat was travelling with some Q.P.R. supporters I think. My wife and me still regularly meet up with Pat and Brian. In fact Pat eventually saw the light and is now a Millwall season ticket holder!
Stanley Lewis:
I lost track of Colin Kerch. He moved down to Tilbury. Alan ‘Cobby’ Jones. He’s dead now.
Peter Logan:
For me the trip was there-and-then and after that I sort of forgot about it. It was an adventure that not many people got to do at the time. But I went to so much football at the time. Yes, it was special though.
Patrick Burke:
I can’t deny that I’ve dined out on the trip. And yes, I felt more than slightly pioneering. When I tell people that I saw the World Cup in 1966 and in 1970 I suppose I’m held in some awe. I forget that many people weren’t even born then. Mind you, I have lived on the stories for the past 40 years! I suppose it’s because in 1970 not many people went abroad with England. It has to be remembered that at that time, the only way to get a cheap trans-Atlantic fare was to travel with an organised group in a charter aircraft. It was only with the coming of Freddie Laker and his Skytrain in the mid-1970s that cheap trans-Atlantic fares became readily available to all.
Peter Logan:
It wasn’t until we moved into the new stadium at Millwall that I thought I recognised this chap (Patrick Burke). I said to my mate “I’m sure that bloke went to Mexico…” But never spoke to him for years. But one day – at a Millwall ‘Dockers Day’ he came up to me and said “You went to Mexico, didn’t you”. But even now we’re still on “Hello…” terms. That’s it. We’re both on the aisle seat at the Den. He’s about three rows in front.
Patrick Burke:
In more recent years, whenever we have followed England abroad we just booked for the three Group games. We usually come back quite happy as we tend to win maybe a couple of the games and qualify for the next phase.
Peter Logan:
I carried on watching England but didn’t attend any more big tournaments. I slowed down a bit. I’m afraid my days of travelling away to matches are finished, and I only go to Millwall home matches now.
Stanley Lewis:
I haven’t really dined out on this over the years. The only thing we [me, Kerch-ey and Cobby] used to talk about was nearly getting nicked in Puerto Vallarta! Apart from that it was planes, coaches, hotel, football…
Jasper Cook:
Over the years I gave most of the souvenirs from my trip away. What would I do with them now? They’re now in the hands of people who would hopefully relish them.
Patrick Burke:
On reflection, it was better than any tournament since in my opinion. Mexico ‘70 was special. I gained a feel for international football – that watching England abroad in a major tournament is always more exciting than a game at Wembley, and that one of the main pleasures of life is travel abroad.
Peter Logan:
It was definitely an adventure that combined a holiday of a lifetime and the chance to see some top-class football. I would hate to think what a trip like this would cost these days. We certainly got good value for our money I think.
Jasper Cook:
I think the majority of England supporters remained solidly behind Sir Alf and his ideas. From what I saw and heard, our squad was better prepared than most, if not all, of our opponents. I felt equally certain however that little was learnt from the tactics employed by the Brazilians. Their eventual and, in my opinion, inevitable success sprang from the huge individual technical ability of all of their players. They were always a joy to watch.
Patrick Burke:
Best England player of the tournament? In my opinion it was Terry Cooper. Good defender and excellent at going forward. Not really surprising as he started his career as a left winger. Most disappointing? Francis Lee.
Peter Logan:
Star man of the tournament for me was probably Bobby Moore. He was so calm and never hurried – the time he always seemed to have on the ball. He could pick a pass… But I never really thought Jeff Astle was a top class international player. People blame him and, of course, Bonetti – but, in the end, it was just unfortunate.
Stanley Lewis:
I never followed England to games afterwards. I hadn’t done before either! I watch them on the telly though. As for Mexico itself… It was a one-off really.
Jasper Cook:
Mexico itself left me with a lot of lasting impressions. It was a vast country, rich in memories of the Aztec Empire and exciting in its ultra-modern developments and ideas. At the same time it was still home to a huge population of almost destitute families who scratched a living from the land and in most cases were housed in badly constructed pre-fabricated homes – often without sanitation, roads or other services. Beasts of Burden still seemed to outnumber the motor car and it was impossible to ignore the beggars in the streets, without giving the money. And although the main reason for going was obviously the football, it did broaden my horizons.
Alan Mullery:
… Mexico was a land of stark contrasts. The football pitches (at the Reformer Club, Mexico City, where England initially trained) were immaculate, like manicured lawns, with perfect playing surfaces. But… every day we saw the contrast between rich and poor. We were training in a top-class sports club with a beautiful clubhouse and facilities. Next door was a shanty town. You couldn’t help feeling sorry for those people in those tin huts, but we had to stay focused on the job we had come to do.
Patrick Burke:
It was worth every penny though I maybe would have taken sunscreen and tried more of the local food instead of the American-style restaurants.
Stanley Lewis:
I wish I’d gone to see some Aztec stuff. But we never did. We were there for the football. I’m not a sight-seer really. But if we were back in 1968 all over again, and my mate said, “Are you coming to Mexico?” Then, yes – I’d do it. Definitely. And one thing I’d do is go to the Aztecs [Temples]. It’s the one thing I regret not taking the chance to see.
Peter Logan:
And another thing… the moon… With a crescent moon it was like – on its back rather than standing-up. No idea why that was. I’m sure I didn’t dream that… Something to do with the Southern Hemisphere? I’ve been to Australia and never seen it there.
Jasper Cook:
Although I like a drink, and I did have the occasional drink, I can say without fear-or-favour that I enjoyed the tournament so much that I never thought to resort to it. It was so enjoyable I never felt the need for it.
Patrick Burke:
A number of fans that went will have gone to the great stadium in the sky by now. Most supporters must now be over 60 years of age.
Extracts from Alan Mullery – The Autobiography by Alan Mullery and Tony Norman. Published by Headline.
Peter Logan:
By this stage everyone wanted to get home really.
Jasper Cook:
I think we might have headed back the next day. We were flying from Guadalajara.
Stanley Lewis:
We stayed in Mexico one, maybe two more days. It wasn’t a long time. And we flew back from Mexico City.
Peter Logan:
We flew from Mexico City Airport to Stansted.
Patrick Burke:
I think we flew out at something like two o’clock in the morning. Something like that. It was a 707 back to Stansted. On the way back the plane landed at somewhere like the Bahamas or Bermuda to re-fuel. I don’t know if it happens today but at that time jets could not take off from Mexico City with a full fuel load because of the altitude.
Peter Logan:
We stopped at Nassau, in the Bahamas to refuel, but we were not allowed to get off the plane. Unusual but probably in those days they weren’t so tight on health-and-safety. I remember it was sunshine and it was hot. It was steaming hot. They did open the aircraft doors however, as the heat was terrific.
Jasper Cook:
We arrived back at Stansted Airport in the early hours of the Tuesday morning (June 23rd).
Peter Logan:
I think we got back late afternoon. We got the coach back to Victoria and I think we got there towards the evening. Then I got the 36 bus from Victoria to Lewisham.
Patrick Burke:
I got back and almost went straight back to work as my holiday leave had run out. I actually fell asleep at work the next day.
Peter Logan:
It was the Tuesday or Wednesday we got home and I was straight back to work. I think people reacted to me like anyone coming back from holiday – “How did it go…Pity about England…” – that sort of thing. Then everyone forgot about it.
Stanley Lewis:
When I got back, there was no real reaction as far as I can remember. “Nice holiday?” That was about it. Mind you, everyone was still gutted because we got knocked out. And people were still talking about the Leon game – and Banks getting knobbled.
Jasper Cook:
Personally I was weary, disappointed, but wiser and more experienced.
Patrick Burke:
I learned that there was mainly disbelief at home that England had lost. Apparently the country had still been in shock the following morning.
Jasper Cook:
I was told that the press and public had been very critical of our performance. We do put ourselves down sometimes, don’t we? What is it? Only seven teams have ever won the World Cup and we’re one of them.
Jasper Cook:
I went to the final with no axe to grind on who won, but knowing that Brazil was going to win it. Had I been a betting man, I would have bet my house on Brazil winning. Apart from the fact that the Italians must have been totally shattered, there was a gulf in class.
Jasper Cook:
I was just going to enjoy the sheer beauty of their football. And it was gorgeous. It was played in the knowledge that the man-to-man marking tactics of the Italian defence would not be able to cope with the brilliant Brazilian forwards. It felt like a proper holiday by this time. This would put the icing on the cake. But, in a way, it was almost as if I shouldn’t have been there. I’m sure there was more deserving people who didn’t have a ticket.
Patrick Burke:
As always, we got to the stadium by coach.
Peter Logan:
There were a lot of Brazil fans. They might have actually been Mexican, but they were all getting behind Brazil. A bit like the Man United syndrome over here I suppose. A lot of people support Man United even if they’re not anything to do with them – you know – where you live. It was the same with Brazil. Everyone’s favourites.
Stanley Lewis:
These Brazilians… The Mexicans loved them. They had the support of the locals.
Patrick Burke:
It wasn’t all sunshine out there. It was a cloudy day, this one. People were well wrapped up. It was cool by Mexican standards.
Peter Logan:
Our seats were, again, very high up behind the goal – the same area where we’d sat before for the semi-final. It was always hard to identify the players from that distance.
Stanley Lewis:
We were pretty much in the same place as we saw Italy versus the Germans.
Jasper Cook:
We were behind the goal that Brazil was attacking in the second half – high up in the stand. We had numbered tickets so it would have been logical that we would all sit in the same block. But everyone sat wherever.
Peter Logan:
I don’t actually think we were sitting in our (numbered) seats. The seating was just long benches anyway – with a number stencilled on. A bit like the old Wembley.
Patrick Burke:
It might have been – ‘first in the stadium’ gets the first seats. Nobody was sitting in the right seats. My seat had been taken by a local.
Jasper Cook:
There wasn’t a steward in sight. The ones who were there didn’t want to know if someone had taken your seat. That was the worst of the stewarding.
Patrick Burke:
They wouldn’t move people out of the seats so we stood in their way. Tough luck really. We’d come all this way – we weren’t going to stand aside.
Jasper Cook:
Where we were it was just packed. So everyone ended up sitting wherever they could and there were numerous scuffles, with people trying to claim their rightful seats.
Patrick Burke:
I stood in a gangway during the game. I wasn’t the only one. My friend Roy [Nightingale] was separated from me. A policeman had told him he’d take him downstairs [to the lower tier] where he could watch it. Roy said to me, “Are you coming?” I said “No, I’m staying here”. I didn’t trust what a policeman might say or do… You know, backhanders or something. But, in the end, Roy said it was actually OK.
Jasper Cook:
A swarthy Mexican gentleman tried to evict me from my seat at half time, but with all the gangways crammed with locals who had somehow gained admittance, I held firm. I just sat there and refused to move and that was it. Eventually matters simmered down. At the end of the day, I don’t think they had sold extra tickets or anything like that. Everyone had got tickets. But they just sat where they wanted to.
Patrick Burke:
From safety angles it shouldn’t have been allowed.
Peter Logan:
But the atmosphere was terrific with all those Brazil fans waving flags and sounding horns.
Jasper Cook:
It was a super game to be at. Next to the 1966 Final this was perhaps the best game I’d seen, although the Italy – Germany semi-final was probably the most exciting.
Patrick Burke:
It was a bit one sided for my liking. Could well have been that the Italians took too much out of themselves with extra time against Germany in the semi. It made Brazil look good. If it had been England I don’t think they would got that 4-1 score line. We might have lost of course but there was a difference between us and the Italians. But I felt very privileged to be there.
Jasper Cook:
I felt privileged to be there. I was almost purring throughout. Brazil were a little like Revie’s great Leeds United team – in as much as they were almost telepathic. But of all that great team – I think Gerson was the one. Such a clever player…
Patrick Burke:
You do wonder how England would have fared. It was a cool day so condition would have been in our favour. Even so, the chances are Brazil would have had the edge.
Jasper Cook:
I could now actually understand why Brazil thought they’d won it after beating England.
Peter Logan:
We stayed in there quite a while after while they presented the cup.
Jasper Cook:
At the end of the game, both teams were given a huge ovation and the whole trip was almost made worthwhile, solely to see the unfettered joy and excitement of the Brazilian fans. It was worth it for that. We went back to the hotel and probably had a few drinks because it was almost the end of our visit.
Stanley Lewis:
After the game, we came out to get a taxi – I’ll never forget it. I said to the driver, “Can you take us to a nice bar?” So, he’s driving down the road and all of a sudden, he’s done a right turn and gone down this dark bumpy side street. Then he’s done a left – another small dark road. And then he pulls up. Well, we had a look out and it didn’t give you good vibes, you know? Dodgy. We thought, “Fuck this!” We didn’t fancy this at all. So, we says, “Drive on mate, we ain’t getting out here.” Dear me! Kind of place you’d get your throat cut – know what I mean!? He must have been on a few bob to take us there. But we weren’t getting out. So, we say, “Carry on. We want to go to a hotel or something.” So, we got back on the main streets. It was more alive there.
Semi-Final
Wednesday June 17th 1970 – Kick-Off: 4pm
Stanley Lewis:
We went by coach (to the stadium). I did notice that there was no sort of decorations anywhere to say that there was a World Cup going on. Thing is – if you’re a football fan, you know it’s happening. If you’re just an ordinary person on the street, you don’t give two monkeys.
Italy v West Germany match ticket
Patrick Burke:
We travelled by coach to the stadium. I don’t recall any kind of World Cup fever in the streets. Perhaps it was there and I’ve just forgotten about it. Perhaps it was because the Mexicans hadn’t done too well themselves. Things tend to come alive when the host nation does well.
Stanley Lewis:
It was me who wanted to sell our tickets. I went with a mate two years later to the Olympics (In Munich). We only done it on a spur-of-the-moment kind-of-thing. We never went to any of the finals. Only got to the qualifying stuff. One time we had these tickets for the Fencing, and we thought, “Who wants to go and see fencing?” So, I said to my mate, “Give me your ticket and I’ll shift them.” So, this bloke comes up and says, “What d’you want for them?” And I say, “Face-value.” Deal done, and away he went. Easy. That’s what I wanted to do with the Aztec tickets. But Kerch-ey went, “I ain’t come all the way to miss stuff!” So, we went in. Mind you, ‘Cobby’ Jones – he wasn’t bothered one way or the other. He’d got the ‘stamp’ in his passport. He just went with the flow. Don’t think he ever went to a football match after the World Cup either!
Peter Logan:
As usual, the coach took us there and dumped us outside the stadium and just let us get on with it.
Jasper Cook:
I think it was built by public subscription and all the way round on one level there were private boxes, which were owned, and you drove straight up to them. You literally drove straight up to your private box. Of course, we didn’t get the opportunity to go to any of these. I think we entered the stadium from about half way up.
Patrick Burke:
I had no trouble finding my seat – high up in the stadium behind one of the goals. The policing and stewarding was ok.
Jasper Cook:
We were sitting very high up in the stand and my balance has never been the best of balances – and it was frightening. You were sort of looking straight down onto the pitch.
Peter Logan:
It was a brilliant stadium except we was too high-up. You couldn’t pick-up the individual players.
Stanley Lewis:
We found our seats about half way up. Between top and bottom. About half way. Not on the half way line – but to the side of it.
Patrick Burke:
My feelings weren’t completely neutral. I wasn’t anti-German or anything like that and I wanted to see a European team win the tournament.
Peter Logan:
I didn’t really worry who won. It was a game as far as I was concerned. As a neutral I just enjoyed it. If your own team’s involved its different.
Stanley Lewis:
I wasn’t supporting either team. We were out. It didn’t matter at all to us. We were happy to be there. Just enjoying the football.
Patrick Burke:
But we were sitting next to Italians so we supported them.
Jasper Cook:
We were at the Italian end. I was naturally supporting the Italians – not because I was in their end but because even if German fans had been next to me there’s no way I’d have supported them. No question! If I’d been in the German end I still would have been supporting Italy – but I would have kept very quiet about it.
Peter Logan:
I think it was a real mix of fans around us. They were from all over the place.
Patrick Burke:
I don’t think the atmosphere was feverish or anything like that. After all, there weren’t too many Germans or Italians present.
Jasper Cook:
It was amongst the most exciting game I’d ever seen without a shadow of a doubt. It was incredible – absolutely incredible. It helped, of course, being a sort-of neutral.
Patrick Burke:
It was another classic. One of the best games I have seen for excitement.
Stanley Lewis:
It turned out to be the best game. By a mile. Probably the best game I’d ever been to. Unbelievable! And I was the one who wanted to sell our tickets!
Jasper Cook:
It was a game the Germans should have won comfortably within the ninety minutes. The goals scored in extra time would probably not have been scored in normal time, against defences which by then were almost completely exhausted, players dropping with cramp all over the park. The atmosphere during the extra time period was electric. All around us people were almost collapsing with excitement as the goals went in.
Stanley Lewis:
What won it for Italy was when Beckenbauer was injured. They’d used their subs I think, so they had to keep him on.
Peter Logan:
It just see-sawed backwards and forwards – one team winning then the other… There were some brilliant goals there.
Jasper Cook:
We were just sat there soaking up the atmosphere. When the final whistle came players were collapsing from exhaustion and in the Germans cases I am sure from sheer disappointment.
An Easy Decision
Patrick Burke:
We probably had tickets for the West Germany v Uruguay third place play-off, but didn’t go. We thought it wasn’t worth a 50-mile trip on a road that twisted and turned along the mountainsides for a game that meant nothing. They could drop the game really.
Jasper Cook:
I’m not sure whether we had tickets for the Third Place Play-Off. We certainly weren’t interested. We wouldn’t have wanted to go there and see the Germans win anyway!
Peter Logan:
We didn’t bother to go to the 3rd place play off. Again it was a lot of travel.
Patrick Burke:
Nobody remembers who came third anyway. Nobody cares. We had no interest.
Peter Logan:
The next day we headed down to Mexico City. I think that was already set-up as part of our itinerary – though I’m sure we would’ve been staying in Guadalajara had England been playing the semi-final there..
Jasper Cook:
We then had tickets for the semi-final in Mexico City – Italy v West Germany. Virtually all our lot from the motel were booked all the way through. Even though England was out we were still part of this big adventure.
Peter Logan:
People on the coach still couldn’t believe England had lost. I picked up more information from the people who’d been to Leon for the game.
Jasper Cook:
We travelled some 300 or 400 miles by coach. It was a long journey.
Patrick Burke:
We travelled down to Mexico City by coach along winding mountain roads. It took about twelve-to-fourteen hours.
Peter Logan:
The roads were pretty dusty – even in parts of Guadalajara they were unmade roads. The highways between cities were sort of half-and-half.
Accommodation
Stanley Lewis:
Our hotel was on a busy main street. Near enough to the middle. Centre-ish. There was a big square nearby.
Jasper Cook:
We found ourselves in Cuautla, a small spa town up in the hills some 60 miles south of Mexico City. This was our new base. It was the only time the organisers of the trip got it wrong. The thing was the hotel they had booked us into was awful. We all got together and our courier said that there was nothing they could do, and we said, “Well you’d better do something because we’re not staying here!” It was almost like a Salvation Army soup kitchen! They got us transferred.
Peter Logan:
We eventually finished up in a motel in Cuernavaca, which was a fair way outside Mexico City. Probably about an hour-and-a-half from the centre.
Patrick Burke:
We were in a motel about 50 miles outside Mexico City. It had grounds in it.
Peter Logan:
The motel accommodation was excellent; with everything we needed close at hand. A swimming pool, we all had our own rooms – you know like two to a room. All the meals were laid on.
Jasper Cook:
I immediately found the local Mexicans to be much more friendly towards us. Perhaps it was because England was now out, or because the snub to the Guadalajara officials was felt less acutely in this area. Whatever the reason, the final eight days of my stay were spent in more cordial and relaxing surroundings.
Out-and-About
Patrick Burke:
It wasn’t all football by the way. Some of us took in the culture, believe it or not. I don’t recall any lager-louts then! They’d organised mini-buses for us and we went to art galleries and the Aztec pyramids.
Peter Logan:
Sightseeing trips were arranged as usual, and one I can remember well was the visit to the Aztec Indian Pyramids. They were massive and the steps to the top were very big, bigger in fact than the terracing steps behind the goals at the old Wembley Stadium.
Jasper Cook:
We had a trip around Mexico City. As you came down from Cuautla into Mexico City for a few miles all you saw was corrugated iron hovels. Then you got into Mexico City and it was fantastic.
Patrick Burke:
We took a tour of the city and we went past a cinema in Mexico City, which had a big poster outside of Peter O’Toole’s latest film ‘Adios, Senor Chips’.
Stanley Lewis:
I didn’t look round Mexico City much. I was never a walker. Went to Rome a couple of years ago and we went to the Vatican. And the walking I done in there… Well, it nearly killed me!
Jasper Cook:
The trip revolved around three things really – Canada Shoes (an international footwear company), Coca Cola, and the ‘peasant’ population – many of who didn’t own shoes… We stopped outside the home of, I think, the owner of Canada Shoes. Outside there were Rolls Royce’s and chauffeurs – it seemed two or three deep. Actually it seemed half the adverts I had seen on the television were for Canada Shoes and the other half were for Coca Cola.
Peter Logan:
Coca Cola was a universal thing, you know. There were adverts for it everywhere.
Jasper Cook:
They didn’t even wait for the proper advert breaks during football when advertising Coca Cola on TV – they just ran the adverts over the top of the game while it was actually being played. It was almost subliminal – a glass of Coca Cola appearing on the screen and somebody shouting ‘Drink Coca Cola!’ – then it would vanish and you’d be back at the game.
Patrick Burke:
We didn’t come across many (other) fans in Mexico City. In fact it might be true to say that in those days’ supporters didn’t travel in vast armies. Even in those days we took more fans than anyone else I think.
Peter Logan:
I was a bit deflated because England was out but footballs football isn’t it. I was still up for seeing some football. I’d go and watch football anywhere. It was a new place; we were going to a new stadium everyone had heard about beforehand.
Stanley Lewis:
Leon was their (W. Germany’s) area. They’d played their group games there.
Patrick Burke:
The stadium (the Estadio Nou Camp) was alright – but a come-down from Guadalajara
Jasper Cook:
It was quite a small stadium – very ordinary. I don’t think it was a full house either.
Stanley Lewis:
The coach took us from the hotel to the ground. What a khazi of a stadium it was. When you went to the toilets it was filthy. Horrible!
Patrick Burke:
It was a lively atmosphere but the stewarding and policing was ok. Because the Germans had played their group games there, I think they’d made a lot of friends with the locals.
Jasper Cook:
I don’t remember any problems with stewards. We were outnumbered by the German fans but not badly so. The only reason we were outnumbered (generally) was because of this possibly anti-England feeling. But, as I said earlier, the Germans – like the Brazilians – they were fated by the locals because they did all the right things. They got that right and England didn’t.
Patrick Burke:
We found our seats ok. It was in the open.
Jasper Cook:
We were behind the goal. The one where Gerd Muller scored the winner… He literally hadn’t looked like scoring until he got that winner.
Patrick Burke:
I was behind the goal where Beckenbauer scored – and Muller scored the winner…
We were behind the goal – sort of nearer the corner flag.
Jasper Cook:
I thought the conditions made it essential that England play with an extra mid-field man. But it was unexpected and individual lapses that put us out.
Stanley Lewis:
We heard somewhere that Banks had been nobbled and Bonetti was playing.
Patrick Burke:
I didn’t know about Gordon Banks – that he wasn’t playing. I don’t think I knew until the teams actually came out for the game. Players – as I recall – didn’t used to come out for a warm up before games in those days.
Jasper Cook:
We didn’t know about Gordon Banks not playing until we got there. Possibly when the teams came out onto the pitch. The decision was made very late.
Peter Logan:
Back in Guadalajara, the word that Banks wasn’t playing sort of spread amongst the England supporters that was there. Of course, none of us knew or could understand why…
Patrick Burke:
I don’t remember any particular reaction. Nobody saying “Oh blimey, Bonetti’s in goal…” No, nothing like that.
Jasper Cook:
Peter Bonetti was a good goalkeeper. I never really had doubts about him. But with Banks – especially after that save against Brazil – it might have been different. Who knows?
Alan Mullery:
I would have picked Stepney for the game ahead of Bonetti… He had won the European Cup with Manchester United two years before and his big-match temperament was excellent. Don’t get me wrong, Peter Bonetti was a first-class keeper, but I don’t think he was the right choice on the day.
Jasper Cook:
I can’t remember the game itself in great detail.
Patrick Burke:
It was a classic game played in a hot house…
Peter Logan:
We couldn’t listen on the radio, so the only means of knowing what was going on was from the stadium scoreboard in Guadalajara… It kept us up to date with the scores but that was it. We didn’t know what was really happening. So – although we were watching Brazil beat Peru – most of the time our eyes were on that…
Jasper Cook:
I do remember, however, that for most of the game we were superior to the Germans. Even the biased Mexicans were silenced by half time, and had lapsed in to bursts of applause at the quality of our play. It’s fair to say that at half time it felt that we were literally on the coach to the final…
Stanley Lewis:
When I braved the toilets at half-time, there were all these Germans, but it was us doing all the chanting because we was winning 1-0. It comes back to bite you on the bum though, doesn’t it…
Alan Mullery:
Keith Newton’s angled pass to the edge of the six-yard box was perfect. The minute I hit it, I knew it was a goal. The ball flew past German keeper Sepp Maier… We were one up and on our way to the semi-finals… Martin Peters added a second after forty-nine minutes and, for over an hour, things were looking good.
Patrick Burke:
After the second goal – when we went 2-0 up – I was feeling pretty good.
Peter Logan:
We just kept seeing the score come up.
Jasper Cook:
I do remember at 2-0 up we were playing so well – we were cruising. That was the most disappointing thing of the whole trip I suppose.
Peter Logan:
When we saw that England were 2-0 ahead, all hell was let loose. We were in ecstasy. It looked like we was coasting… There were quite a few England fans who’d stayed in Guadalajara…
Alan Mullery:
Franz Beckenbauer pulled one back after sixty-seven minutes… A soft goal, a real sickener that definitely shook our confidence.
Patrick Burke:
When they got the first goal back the momentum was with them.
Jasper Cook:
It wasn’t until they actually pulled one back that I thought ‘Oh God, no…’
Patrick Burke:
Some people blamed Ramsey for taking off Bobby Charlton when we were 2-0 up but, of course, (Bobby) Charlton, being no youngster, was being saved for the semi-final.
Jasper Cook:
I thought when Alf did the changes, ‘has he done the right thing?’ It was 2-1 but even so, we could have scored another one or two.
Alan Mullery:
Some have criticised Alf, saying that by taking Bobby Charlton off, he freed Beckenbauer to score that vital goal. The fact is that Bobby was still on the field when Germany scored. Alf took Bobby Charlton off a couple of minutes later and sent Colin Bell on to give us a fresh pair of legs in midfield.
Peter Logan:
Our joy turned to dismay as the Germans drew level. Remember, all we had was the scoreboard at Guadalajara to go by… The Brazil / Peru game finished before the England one because Brazil had won 4-2 in the 90 minutes.
Jasper Cook:
Before extra-time started I still thought we had a good chance to win – like in ’66.
Alan Mullery:
Alf got us together at full-time and said what he had said in ’66. ‘You’ve won it once, now go out and win it again’. But it was less convincing this time. It was 100oF in the shade and the England players were physically drained.
Jasper Cook:
We couldn’t believe what happened at the end.
Stanley Lewis:
Bonetti didn’t play very well. Didn’t have a lot of help in defence. Labone – he didn’t play very well either. It was a good team on paper. But it was so hot out there. The worst thing that Ramsey done was he took Bobby Charlton off. Beckenbauer had just been following him all round the park. Everywhere he went, Beckenbauer went. But when he (Charlton) went off Beckenbauer ran the game. Everything went through him. They just ran amok after that. We were 2-1 up went Charlton went off…
Alan Mullery:
… We all sat in the dressing-room in silence… The truth was that we had been 2-0 up and, as a team, we should have held on to that.
Peter Logan:
If I remember rightly, I think it was on the bus that we found out that England had lost. From a distance, and not knowing anything really about the match apart from the result, it seemed like it’d just all caved in…
Patrick Burke:
No doubt in my mind that Bonetti was to blame. He was hesitant. When a ball comes across your goal towards the far post you come out and get it. He was caught in two minds. Then again maybe somebody should have been marking Muller. It’s a collective thing really, isn’t it…
Patrick Burke:
I shook hands with some German fans. Said ‘well done’ and that. Then we made the long journey back to the motel.
Stanley Lewis:
We were down in the dumps. Tail between our legs. We just got the coach back to the hotel.
Jasper Cook:
We got on the coach and headed back to the motel in Guadalajara. But when we got there the Brazilian press people were all in the swimming pool fully clothed celebrating there ‘winning’ the World Cup! You see we were the only team they feared. And we said “What’s going on?” They said, “Sorry, but we are so happy!” We probably just had a quiet drink.
Patrick Burke:
Speaking to some Brazilian supporters I came across later in Guadalajara, they said they were glad England had been eliminated. We were the one team they feared. Looking back now it easy to see why. As I say, we could have won or drawn against them in the Group match. We gave them their hardest game. Brazil played 5 times in the whole tournament. They scored 4 times in three of their games and 3 goals in another. But they only scored once against England.
Jasper Cook:
It was from a Belgian journalist who was also at the motel that we got some information following the game. We said we were very disappointed – we had been playing so well and felt we were on our way to win it. We asked if he had had any indication as to why England had made the changes? I mean, it wasn’t as if we’d put two duffers on in midfield. As a team manager I would think twice about it. If my side were playing well I wouldn’t want to make changes for the sake of it – which some managers do. But he said it was all part of the plan. Basically, if Alf hadn’t had made the changes when he did, (Bobby) Charlton and Peters would not have been fit enough to play in the semi-final. He told us the next day that Ramsey would have made the same decision if the game had come up again.
Patrick Burke:
Some fans were desolate but I wasn’t too upset. It wasn’t ‘end-of-the-world’ stuff… No point in crying your eyes out… Our defeat was just one of those things.
Stanley Lewis:
I thought, ‘Sod this. It’s all finished. What’s the point?’ I wanted to go home. I said to my mate, “If we go to the Aztec. Just stand there with our tickets, someone’s bound to come up. We can flog them.”
Jasper Cook:
It had been a long disappointing day.
Alan Mullery:
We sat by the pool and Alf ordered champagne. We all had a glass and Alf thanked us for what we had done in the tournament. He said he was very proud to be our manager. I felt sorry for him. He was obviously bitterly disappointed, but carried it with dignity as always… The FA gave us all the opportunity to stay on and watch the semi-finals and final, but I had been away for six weeks and I was missing (my wife) June and our little girl, Samantha. Inside two days I was on my way home.
Patrick Burke:
Not all the England’s supporters went to see the game. (England v West Germany). Some people went to Acapulco instead, as that was one of the side trips on offer. Still can’t understand why anyone would go on a side-trip when it’s clashing with an important game. Perhaps it was the only time they could fit it in – or it was all pre-booked.
Peter Logan:
We had tickets for the Guadalajara quarter-final and if England had won the group they would have been staying there.
Patrick Burke:
I think the ticketing arrangements made provision for us to either stay in Guadalajara or go to Leon for the quarter-final.
Peter Logan:
The organisers said that we could exchange our tickets for Leon. That was the arrangement because you don’t always know where your team is going to be playing, do you.
Jasper Cook:
It was organised fairly quickly. I think we had our quarter-final tickets transferred from Guadalajara to Leon. Leon was a fair journey as well. Certainly over 100 miles
Peter Logan:
But Frank and me thought, it’s a long trip and we were going to be making a long coach trip the following day down to Mexico City. So what with the heat and humid conditions we thought ‘Shall we stay in Guadalajara?’ We weren’t the only ones who made the decision. It was just the travelling. We decided we wouldn’t bother. A lot of them did swap their tickets but I think a few didn’t.
We arrived the day before the game… We drove down to Leon in the team bus, with a police escort. Leon itself was a fairly nondescript industrial city. The accommodation was OK; a motel in a guarded complex… It was only a short drive from the Nou Camp stadium, where the match would be played.
Stanley Lewis:
We went by coach. It was a fair old trot away from Guadulajara.
Jasper Cook:
We did it as a day trip. It was a midday kick-off. I think we had to head off fairly early in the morning. About seven-ish. We went by coach.
Patrick Burke:
I don’t recall the journey but it was an early start, as it was a noon kick-off.
Stanley Lewis:
It was a lovely hotel in Leon. Like a ranch. All greenery and flowers. Again, somewhere on the outskirts. And it was all on one level and the swimming pool – it was like going in the warm bath. Yeh, lovely. But then some bloke says, “I’ve found out where all the bars are!” So, we all rushed out of the hotel and piled into cabs, and it was like, ‘Follow that cab!’. And, like, there’s this convoy of England fans. So we’re driven down this road, and there’s this big white wall on one side and on the other all bars and clubs. It was like something out of a cowboy film.
Peter Logan:
I suppose it was a bit of a wrench not to go. If we’d been on a train perhaps… But if it was on a coach… So we went to watch the Brazil v Peru quarter final match instead.
Jasper Cook:
We were dropped at a convenient place where we could get snacks – food and drink. We wandered through the streets – some having the odd tipple of tequila or whatever. I had some but was drinking mostly water I think. As a diabetic, it was hard to find sugar-free drinks. I never found any sugar-free Coca Cola! I think it was a pretty straightforward walk to the stadium from where they dropped us off.
Patrick Burke:
I remember troops outside the stadium. I suppose that was normal though I don’t remember them outside the stadium in Guadalajara.
Jasper Cook:
There was an excellent atmosphere and confidence.
Patrick Burke:
I think I was reasonably confident. I felt ok.
Extracts from Alan Mullery – The Autobiography by Alan Mullery and Tony Norman. Published by Headline.
