England soccer facts
■ Only two players with the letter ‘U’ at the end of their surname have played for England at senior level and both were also with Aston Villa. They are Ugo Ehiogu (pictured) and John Fashanu. Ehiogu actually scored a goal… in a 3-0 friendly win over Spain on his own patch (Villa Park) in February 2001.
■ Not too many players with the letter ‘Z’ in their name have been capped at senior level. One is the current WBA forward Jay Rodriguez.
■ Aston Villa’s Howard Vaughton scored five goals for England in their recordbreaking 13-0 victory over Ireland in Belfast in 1882. He later became a director of the Birmingham firm which manufactured the second FA Cup.
■ Wolves’ winger Jimmy Mullen was the first substitute used by England in a full international…he replaced Jackie Milburn (Newcastle) against Belgium in Brussels in 1950 and scored in a 4-1 win.
■ Billy Wright set a world record of 70 consecutive international appearances for England when he lined up the USA in 1959, having started his run against France in 1951.
• Gil Merrick, the Birmingham goalkeeper, conceded 13 goals in two internationals against Hungary in the space of seven months - a 6-3 defeat at Wembley in November 1953 and a 7-1 hammering in Budapest in May 1954.
■ Wolves’ wing-half Ron Flowers scored twice in England’s 8-1 win over the USA in Los Angeles in May 1959 – both from fully 30 yards.
■ Allan Clarke scored with a penalty on his England debut in a World Cup group game against Czechoslovakia in Mexico in 1970. It was his wife’s birthday, his wedding anniversary and the anniversary of his transfer from Fulham to
Leicester.
■ Bryan Robson holds the record for scoring England’s fastest-ever international goal… finding the net in a World Cup encounter against France in Spain in 1982.
■ Five Midland-based players – Sam Hardy, Andy Ducat and Charlie Wallace (Aston Villa) and Jesse Pennington and Fred Morris (WBA) helped England beat Scotland 5-4 in a Home International match at Hillsborough in 1920.
Points feast
Last weekend, 293 points were scored in six Rugby Union internationals.
Ireland registered an historic first-ever home win over New Zealand, beating the All Blacks 16 points to nine …. Wales ran in 10 tries as they celebrated a record 74-20 victory over Tonga… … England came back to defeat resolute Japan 35-15… South Africa edged past Scotland 26-20… Australia beat Italy 36-7… and France defeated Argentina 2813.
Did you know?
Last week, in a 3-0 win over the USA, Jadon Sancho, once of Manchester City and now with Borussia Dortmund, became only the fifth player whose surname ends in the letter ‘O’ to appear for England in a full international. The others are John Ateyo, Tony Dorigo, John Salako and Ken Shellito. Frank Soo played in a 1946 Victory international.