One night against Poland haunted England for 40 years. Don't make the same mistake this time

By 略奪する Draper for The Mail on Sunday

Published: 22:44 BST, 12 October 2013 | Updated: 22:44 BST, 12 October 2013

It was a night that has haunted English football for 40 years: October 17, 1973. Seven years after 存在 栄冠を与えるd world 支持する／優勝者s, England received the most abrupt reality check when Poland drew 1-1 at Wembley and 進歩d to the 1974 World Cup 決勝戦. England stayed at home and would not return to the world 行う／開催する／段階 until 1982.

Now, once more, Poland are the 対抗者s, Wembley is the 発生地 and a place in the World Cup 決勝戦 is at 火刑／賭ける ― or at least it is for? England. Their 対抗者s on Tuesday have little to play for but their pride, having already failed to? qualify for next summer’s tournament after their 1-0 敗北・負かす by ウクライナ共和国 o n Friday.

But while Poland’s 苦境 may give English 信奉者s heart, few would argue England are in a rude 明言する／公表する of health. It is 平易な to see how 1973 can be construed as the shock from which the football nation has never 回復するd.

Haunted: Emlyn Hughes is distraught after a 1-1 draw with Poland in 1973 meant England 行方不明になるd the World Cup the に引き続いて year

England Poland 1973

Axed: The draw also cost World Cup winning England 経営者／支配人 Sir Alf Ramsey his 職業

England’s 最高潮の場面s since then have been 時折起こる: one World Cup 半分-final and one Euro 半分-final. Before 1973, the 仮定／引き受けること was that another World Cup 勝利，勝つ would quickly follow. Roy McFarland, who was centre-half that fateful night, said: ‘I think 1966 to 1970 to 1974 was seen as a natural progression, that we would reach the World Cup 決勝戦 ― and we didn’t. I wouldn’t say that was the start of England’s problems but it was 大規模な 後退, and I think it was a major shock, not only to the football fraternity but also to the nation.’

The sight of the 広大な／多数の／重要な Sir Alf? Ramsey, humbled at the stadium at which his team had won the World Cup, making the long, lonely walk 負かす／撃墜する the old Wembley touchline from the 経営者／支配人’s （法廷の）裁判 to the tunnel behind a goal is one of the most poignant in football.

‘It was heartbreaking for all of us, not just Alf,’ said ツバメ Peters, who was in Ramsey’s World Cup-winning 味方する and was captain on the fateful night against Poland. ‘But Alf was still the same 広大な／多数の／重要な man he was in ’66.’

奮起させるd: ポーランドの（人） goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski was in brilliant form to keep England at bay

The irony is that though 1973 does 代表する a watershed in the English game, that particular night the team played 井戸／弁護士席. The real 損失 had been done in a 2-0 敗北・負かす in Katowice that June. At Wembley, England せねばならない have won. ‘I never played in a more one-味方するd international,’ said striker Allan Clarke, who 得点する／非難する／２０d a 63rd-minute 刑罰，罰則 to bring England 支援する into the game. McFarland 追加するd: ‘I’ve looked at the ビデオ several times and I still can’t work out how we 港／避難所’t 得点する／非難する／２０d against them.’
Glenn Hoddle, who would later play for and manage England, was sat at home in Harlow 老年の 15 watching on TV as Brian Clough famously 解任するd ポーランドの（人） goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski as a ‘clown’ and 予報するd England would 勝利，勝つ easily.?

‘I remember him looking 負かす／撃墜する the レンズ of the camera 説 to everyone at home, “Put your feet up, make a cup of tea, they’ve got this clown in goal. 残り／休憩（する） 保証するd, we’re going to 勝利，勝つ the game”,’ said Hoddle. ‘It was fantastic TV and as a youngster I believed him and it made it even more difficult when we didn’t qualify.’

To be fair to Clough, though Tomaszewski 証明するd an excellent goalkeeper, he almost gifted a goal to Clarke in the 開始 minutes and his positioning on one corner from which the ball was 緊急発進するd off the line was laughable. The antidote to those aberrations was the みごたえのある saves.

Clarke remembers an 出来事/事件 に向かって the end of the match. ‘I? ボレーd a ball inside the box. There were so many 団体／死体s I couldn’t see Tomaszewski but he was wearing a yellow goalkeeping jersey.

The ball is sitting 最高の，を越す corner and before it 攻撃する，衝突するs the 逮捕する, I was half-turning thinking, “That’s the 勝利者”. And all of a sudden I saw a yellow arm appear from nowhere and they’ve （疑いを）晴らすd it. And I thought to myself, “That’s it. We ain’t going to 勝利，勝つ this match. This ain’t our night”.’

Chances: Mick Channon sees his 発射 goes just wide

Dejected: Roy McFarland almost in 涙／ほころびs as he leaves the Wembley pitch after the match

まっただ中に the despair, there were comic scenes on the （法廷の）裁判 when Ra msey turned to the 代用品，人s with five minutes remaining and said: ‘Kevin, get changed.’ An excited Kevin Keegan was so keen to enter the fray that Ray Clemence pulled his Liverpool team-mate’s shorts 負かす／撃墜する in the 急ぐ to get his tracksuit off. 一方／合間, Kevin 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます）, of Derby 郡, was 準備するing to come on.

But Poland were 現実に a 罰金 味方する, （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing Brazil in the third-place play-off in the 1974 決勝戦, where Grzegorz Lato was the 最高の，を越す scorer and Kazi Deyna, who would later play for Manchester City, was one of the 優れた players, 補足（する）d by Robert Gadocha. England were only belatedly beginning to realise a raft of いっそう少なく exalted nations, such as Poland and Holland, were now より勝るing them. And, of course, qualifying for a 16-nation World Cup was かなり harder in the? Seventies than the 32-team 競争 today.

Hoddle, who will now sit on the （売買）手数料，委託（する）／委員会／権限 始める，決める up last week by FA chairman Greg Dyke to identify where the England 国家の team has gone wrong, believes that 1973 did 代表する a 重要な 行方不明になるd 適切な時期.

‘This is where I think we got stuck,’ said Hoddle, the last Englishman to guide England into a World Cup 決勝戦. ‘We 勝利，勝つ the World Cup in 1966 playing 4-4-2, which was fantastic, against Germany. They then reinvent themselves: they knock us out in Mexico 1970; in Euro 72 they knock us out in the group 行う／開催する／段階s and go on to 勝利，勝つ it; in 1974, they 勝利，勝つ the World Cup; in Euro 76, they are 走者s-up; they didn’t have a 広大な／多数の／重要な World Cup in 1978; at Euro 80 they 勝利，勝つ it again in Italy.

‘We won the World Cup but what did we do? We didn’t qualify for 1974, for Euro 76 and for 1978. That ’73 game was probably the time when something should have been done, when we changed our philosophy.

Work to do: Roy Hodgson and his coaching staff know there is still plenty of work to do to qualify for the World Cup

重要な man: Jakub Blaszczykowski is the danger man for Poland but they are over-reliant on the Borussia Dortmund 星／主役にする

‘If you had said to me that day we were watching the 1970 World Cup and Euro 72, when I was 14, that I would be 伴う／関わるd the next time England played in a major tournament, I would have laughed in your 直面する.

‘We got stuck with this 4-4-2 system that worked in 1966. We had to come up with a different system that was going to work for us because we 残り／休憩（する）d on our laurels. The Germans went away and reinvented themselves with a 掃海艇 who （機の）カム into midfield and man-場内取引員／株価. We didn’t have that 見通し, someone at the 長，率いる of the FA, not even the 経営者／支配人, to say, “We’re going to change this”.’

Germany did change after Euro?2000 when, at a low ebb, they switched 策略 and their style of play again. And Hoddle, when England 経営者／支配人 from 1996-99, partly building on Terry Venables’s 遺産／遺物, changed the way England played, with a 支援する three and an extra man in midfield.

‘I thought, “Now is my moment. I can change this”,’ said Hoddle. ‘I learned from my experience of 存在 an international footballer, playing a 4-4-2 system and getting outrun in midfield when we didn’t have the ball. And when we did have it, we didn’t have enough 選択s to keep it.’

Tactically, England often look 混乱させるd, but it is frequently forgotten that Ramsey’s 4-4-2 system of wingless wonders that won the World Cup was a 本物の and thoughtful 戦術の 革新, one the few the English game has ever 与える／捧げるd to modern world football.

Change: Glenn Hoddle 試みる／企てるd to change the way England played but too often they have 逆戻りするd to 4-4-2

Peters was at the heart of it, playing wide midfield in a wholly 慣習に捕らわれない way. ‘I wasn’t a winger,’ said Peters. ‘Little B 同盟（する） [Alan Ball] and I were midfield players that broke wide. We had to get 支援する and defend. We worked hard to defend when we played against a midfield player opposite us and then would break to support attacks.

‘I wasn’t quick but I could run and run and run. So I would? run into the box, see a space, run into there, ball didn’t come in, get out again, run in and then one would come in and bang! Goal!’

The 原則s Ramsey? encouraged are 存在 会社にする／組み込むd by the most astute coaches even now.

When Pep Guardiola 主張するd that even Leo Messi had to 与える／捧げる defensively and when Jose Mourinho says Juan Mata has more to learn, they are working to a 詳細な計画 Ramsey helped to 設立する.

Laying the 創立／基礎s: Ramsey 器具／実施するd 策略 that are still 広範囲にわたって used by 最高の，を越す coaches today

Forty years on, though, the England team seem nowhere nearer to 判決，裁定 the world. Indeed, the team that take on Poland on Tuesday looks その上の away than their 相当するものs of 1973 from 存在 a 軍隊 in world football.

‘I’m afraid we’re still 苦しむing for not having a 見通し to change the system,’ said Hoddle. ‘We’re always behind. We have a lot of catch-up to do and, hopefully, we can do it now.’

The truth is, 40 years since that defining day, the FA are only now 試みる／企てるing to make some sense of it all.