What might have been – when Albion faced the might of Honved
Had the Baggies won this game, Black Country football history may have played out differently
TIM Gibbons’ fine series on Molineux floodlit matches, and in particular his article on the iconic Honved game on 13th December 1954, has got me thinking about an encounter that took place just two months earlier.
It is well known that I am a
Puskas and Kocsis had scored an incredible 54 goals between them in their title-winning season
rabid Wolves fan but I could not help but consider how footballing history might have been changed had the outcome of an exhibition match in Belgium on 13th October been different.
The Hungarian champions took on West Bromwich Albion in Brussels’ Heysel Stadium in front of a crowd of 55,000. Honved, fielding many of the players who had been in the Hungarian side which had beaten England 6-3 and 7-1 in the previous twelve months, were given a fierce examination by the Baggies, but proved to be just too strong in the finish.
Budapest Honved had won their fourth championship in the 1954 season whilst scoring 100 goals in the process, including a 9–7 victory over Vörös Lobogó, whom they eventually finished five points clear of in winning the league.
Managed by Jeno
Kalmár, Honved contained many players of the famous Mighty Magyars who finished as runners-up in the 1954 World Cup. They included Gyula Grosics, Gyula Lóránt, László Budai, József Bozsik, Zoltán Czibor, as well as Ferenc Puskás and Sándor Kocsis, who had scored 54 goals between them in their titlewinning season. West Brom had of course won the FA Cup the previous season as well as coming second in the Division 1 table to Wolves, and dubbed the “team of the century” (see Dave Bowler’s book of the same name) were invited to take on the Hungarians in the Festival of Football. Now I do not intend to tell much of the story of the match since I have little original to add to what has already been written, notably by Tony Matthews in his 2015 book, “Baggies Abroad: The Complete Record of West Bromwich Albion’s Global Travels”. However, here is a brief
resumé of its key moments. I am happy to be corrected by fans and apologise in advance for any inaccuracies – after all I am a Molineux man!
The Throstles went behind after 55 seconds as Honved neatly worked the ball forwards to set up Puskas to fire home. Piling on the pressure in response Johnny Nicholls sent a long ball out to Frank Griffin on the right wing. Griffin put in a centre that saw a header, that forced Grosics to tip over the bar.
But the Midlands side levelled things up soon after. In fact just two minutes after Puskas’s opener, Nicholls cleverly backheeled home from a George Lee free-kick. Then after 16 minutes
Albion went 2-1 ahead courtesy of a 25-yard effort from Ronnie Allen. A clever passing movement featured in the build-up before Nicholls pushed the ball through for Allen to run onto and score.
There were no further goals in the first half but on the hour mark the Baggies doubled their advantage. Allen was again influential, flicking on a long clearance from Jimmy Sanders, to send Nicholls through on his own, to cleverly place the ball past the advancing goalkeeper.
An injury to Ray Barlow on 65 minutes, who manager Vic Buckingham refused to replace with roar back into contention. substitute Jimmy Dugdale, First Czibor fired in a saw Albion lose all fierce effort that Jimmy momentum, and as their Sanders got his finger tips defence tired, Honved to but couldn’t stop. Soon piled on the pressure to afterwards Honved drew level and then went 4-3 up through Czibor’s second (on 68 minutes) and seven minutes later a goal from Josef Szoviak.
Although the Magyars were now well on top, West Brom continued to fight for their lives and were denied an equaliser when Grosics made a fine save from Griffin. The brave resistance was put to an end when Kocsis was set up by Puskas to make the final score 5-3.
Had it not been for Buckingham’s stubbornness might his team have enjoyed a famous victory over the Hungarians that would have put Wolves in the shade? We shall never
know. To be fair, Buckingham, a former Tottenham Hotspur player, was a fine manager whose reign at Albion ran from 1953 to 1959 and could count Ajax, Barcelona and Sevilla amongst his many future clubs.
Indeed he is credited with discovering a littleknown player called Johan Cruyff, and is seen by many as the founder of ‘total football’.
However, back in 1954 Budapest Honved turned down an invitation from the Baggies for a rematch at The Hawthorns, choosing to take on Wolves instead. The rest, as they say, is history.
Film of the match is available online at https:// www.bri tishpathe.com/ video/brussels -hungarians-beat-west-bromexclusive