ON THIS DAY

Considering that it is our national Stadium, Wembley was a tad slow to introduce floodlights. They were installed at a cost of £22,000 with the first match under floodlights being an Inter-Cities Fairs Cup match between a London representative side and Frankfurt on Wednesday October 26th 1955.

In 1938 England had still to enter the World Cup but when they beat a Rest of Europe side 3-0 at Highbury in a match that marked the 75th birthday of the Football Association many thought we didn’t need to bother. The visitors included five Italians in their line-up – Italy had retained the World Cup earlier in the year – and so England had to be the best in the world. Ignorance can be bliss!