I remember that night so well - and thats a brilliant read I was more gutted for Wales than England that night as well and only able to take a small consolation at Frances demise winding the clock back further I remember the only other time England failed to qualify in my lifetime in 1973 when we failed to beat Poland at Wembley - the Polish keeper had famously been called a clown by Clough before the game and had the game of his life - we hit the bar with minutes to go but ultimately were sunk by one of Shiltons rare mistakes abetted by Hunter further up the pitch allowing the pole to get into the shooting position in the first place Its just not the same these days
Re: I remember that night so well - and thats a brilliant read We also had a goal (by Alan Clarke I think) disallowed. Remember jumping on my brother when it went in....at least we realised it was disallowed though. My mate tells the story that he was at a mates house and in the uproar of thinking England had scored the dog bit someone and they didn't realise it was disallowed, by the time they settled down the game had restarted and they thought we'd got result we needed when final whistle went!
I can't believe it's 20 years ago. There wasn't much wrong with football back then, sky was only very young, so why things changed I dont know. Things just seem so much more scripted today.
We also failed to qualify in 1978, mate We were pipped by Italy in the qualifying group stage, after Don Revie quit the manager's job in the summer of 1977.
Re: We also failed to qualify in 1978, mate Glad you also can remember that, because I was just thinking I was going cuckoo,lol!!!
can remember 1978, argentine when the only team in the home nations to qualify were scotland, that was depressing. on the other hand the atmosphere's at the hosts matches were unbelievable.
the atmosphere was unprecedented to british football fans at the time. aerial views above ground saw the stadium filled with ticker tape. the noise was unrelenting. totally different to west germany the previous hosts. couldn't really get a sense of mexico's atmosphere in 1970 with the then state of telivision. can only just remember 1966 at wembley.
Remember staying up to watch Argentina v Brazil in'78 World Cup, thought that was going to be a classic.....was a bore draw!
Seventies football was a million times better than today. Loads of Youtube videos from that era as well for nostalgia wallowers like myself, who don't have ESPN classic.
Re: I remember that night so well - and thats a brilliant read Back in the days when there was no score in the top left of the screen! That's actually quite a recent innovation, even I remember in the 80s before we had a revolutionary teletext TV tuning in halfway through a match and not actually knowing the score for 20 minutes, either until they flashed it up or the commentator said something!
Re: I remember that night so well - and thats a brilliant read That would be on the rare occasion that there was a live match on! I think Sky introduced the score and time on screen in this country.