England lose critical World Cup qualifier in 1973.

 England lose critical World Cup in qualifier in 1973.

It was one of those fatalistic moments in the history of English football team. The England football team have always been under the fiercest scrutiny, almost a laboratory experiment that could never be understood. But, on one night 52 years ago, England were about to experience that pivotal turning point which would condemn them to years in the football wilderness. English football fans would cry into the beer for the best part of a decade and nobody was there to pick us up from the floor. There was a mournful silence.

It was a gloomy, sullen and morose evening, a dark and melancholy night when the world of Sir Alf Ramsey came crashing around his ears. Ramsey would lose his job as England manager and 1966 would become just a distant memory consigned to the fading archives. All of those stereotypical perceptions of England and the Beautiful Game were shattered into a thousand pieces and poor Sir Alf Ramsey just pulled up the collar of his coat and shambled off the old Wembley pitch like a man who had just stolen a loaf of bread or pint of milk. 

For it was today in 1973 that England were deprived of the opportunity to participate in the following year of the World Cup in West Germany. 1974 was not the year English fans could take any comfort or consolation from. A 1-1 draw against Poland in a critical World Cup qualifier sent us all into a tailspin of disaster, disappointment and woeful frustration. England would not be going to the World Cup Finals hosted by West Germany in 1974 and Scotland would be our only British representatives in West Germany. 

And yet weeks before, in the opening friendly of the international season, England had comprehensively beaten Austria with a 7-0 victory that led us to believe, misguidedly, as events would prove, that England were very much the greatest international team in the world. Unquestionably so. But this was so much of a false dawn that many of us felt robbed, embarrassed and vaguely disenchanted with international football. It could all have been so different had things gone according to plan. Nobody thought this would ever happen. 

So there we were two years away from our teenage years, spellbound by the incredulity of  what had just happened. At the old Wembley Stadium there was a palpable air of stunned bewilderment and disbelief. And yet the year before, West Germany had arrived for a vital European Championship match at the old Wembley against England and then played them off the park with a stark reminder of English defensive vulnerabilities. The West Germans won convincingly with a 3-1 victory and England were gutted, punched in the ribs and speechless. Even Brian Clough called the Polish goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski a clown but this was far from a circus act more of a minor catastrophe. 

For 90 minutes, England threw the kitchen sink at Poland, plates, cutlery and crockery flying through the night air as if their lives depended on it. In the years that followed, England could never come to terms with the absurd unexpectedness of the events that would unfold like the most dramatic play they would ever experience. At first it must have felt like a Greek tragedy, but then it occurred to you that Homer had nothing to do with international football. So we took defeat on the chin and just got on with the business in hand. The quest for World Cup winning glory would just have to continue and it all seemed so forlorn.

So as the likes of Roy Mcfarland Colin Bell, Tony Currie, Mick Channon, Martin Chivers and Alan Clarke and company all trooped wearily back towards the Wembley tunnel, the realisation had dawned on us. England just weren't up to the job, freezing on the big occasion and resigned to their fate. That air of tired resignation seeped damagingly into England's muddled mentality and mindset and it didn't bode well for the future. England were clueless, anodyne, flat and totally confused. 

Admittedly, England did manage a 1-1 draw which in the modern  narrative might have been good enough in today's game. But only one team were permitted to qualify for World Cups in those days and England had fallen short. Only a victory would ensure qualification for the World Cup and England never really looked like scoring the necessary goals that would rubber stamp our passport to West Germany. 

And so it all unravelled like a ghoulish, haunting, goth spectacle, rather like some sinister and macabre TV adaptation that would send a shiver down our spines. Deep into the second half of the game, England were still knocking on doors, stamping our feet, resorting to a crowbar, anything to blast open Polish resistance. The attacks came in waves, goal-line clearances and frantic urgency just followed persistently. How hard could it be but of course it was. We were making a mountain out of a molehill. This clearly was a formidable obstacle and the Poles refused to budge. In the end, nothing mattered and yet it felt like the end of the world for all English football fans. Life though is precious and, besides, the truth had to be told.

At one point, England looked so desperate and determined that you almost felt sorry for them. There are times when sport just gets to you, an unbearable spectacle that just degenerates into some sorry tale of what might have been. With the match now approaching its final chapters, Poland sensed that something was in the air, worrying and disturbing us all.  There was a nervous tension, anguished apprehension, something we thought would never happen. But it did. There were anxious frowns on the Wembley terraces, concerned faces and a suspicion that there were deficiencies within the English make up of the game, its faults, foibles and familiar failings.

So it was that the worst case scenario revealed itself. Norman Hunter, who was notorious for biting legs and tackling like a bull in a china shop, had hitherto become a Leeds United legend. But wearing the Three Lions England shirt had caught him unawares. On the half way line, Hunter casually took possession of the ball and then completely lost his bearings, fumbling and stumbling horrendously, a tackle that he was never likely to win. 

Within a whirlwind of seconds, Poland broke swiftly along the wing, the likes of Wlodzimierz Lubanski and Robert Gadocha flooding forward at breakneck speed. And then the body blow would be struck with severe wounds in the England defence. The ball would be laid back across the England penalty area and Grzegorz Lato went storming hungrily into space before drilling the ball low and hard past a perplexed Peter Shilton, the England goalkeeper. 

There was the scant consolation of an England equaliser. An Alan Clarke goal from the penalty spot did alleviate our immediate fears but this was never going to be good enough on the night. England left the building by the tradesman's entrance and were now exiting the World Cup. For the next decade, Scotland laughed up their sleeves and there was something of a sadistic giggle and chuckle under their Tartan breath that prevailed for the rest of the 1970s.

Now of course though England have reached another World Cup Finals and rendered that whole traumatic period for the national side as just a temporary blip. Thomas Tuchel is no Sir Alf Ramsey nor a treacherous Don Revie although he may have not been thinking clearly at the time. Tactics, formations, diamond formations and 4-4-2 may come and go. Now is the era of the low block, the pressing game, VAR, draught excluders at free kicks and who knows what else the game has to offer. 

To be sure though England will be in the USA, Mexico and Canada, grappling with yet another load of logistics, scientific data and analytics. We'll be analysing our club's fortunes, celebrating or commiserating depending on the results that have either promoted or relegated us. We will fly off to the promised land, crossing our fingers, sampling LA for a while perhaps, lapping up Florida then quite possibly rubbing shoulders with Hollywood. They will dance to the mariachi beat in Mexico before taking in the sweetest maple syrup of Canada. These are interesting times once again for England.