WILSHAW THE MATHS TEACHER GIVES NORTHERN IRELAND A LESSON!
n NOVEMBER 2, 1955 Wembley.
Attendance: 58,000
Dennis WilshaW scored twice in two minutes as england played northern ireland at Wembley for the first time — and the Wolverhampton Wanderers inside forward could finally feel he had achieved recognition. Wilshaw scored four goals for his country in a 7-2 win against scotland earlier in the year only to find the newspapers were on strike. his efforts were only reported north of the border but as one of the game’s last elite amateur players, he was already accustomed to a more peripheral role than some of his illustrious teammates. Wilshaw worked as a maths teacher at hanley high school in the Potteries and argued with Wolves manager stan Cullis, who wanted him to turn professional at Molineux. instead he taught during the week, trained at Port Vale or stoke City in the evenings and played football at the weekends. Wilshaw (below) scored a hat-trick on his Wolves debut in March 1949 and just missed out on a place in the Fa Cup winning team a month later. he went on to be top scorer with 25 goals when Cullis’ side were champions in 1953-54 and clipped in the winner when they beat european champions Real Madrid 3-2 in October 1957 — a famous night of european club football under floodlights. Wolves were on the way to claiming their second title when Wilshaw left in midseason — having scored 117 goals in 232 games — to join stoke City in the second tier. a broken leg at newcastle ended his career in February 1961. he made his way home on a stretcher in the guards van of a train, only to find out he had not been insured by the club and was immediately released, so he was certainly grateful for his teaching career. Wilshaw remained influential at stoke, persuading manager Tony Waddington to sign stanley Matthews from Blackpool later in the same year, thus bringing a local legend back to the Victoria Ground. Wilshaw scored 10 goals in 12 games for england and the victory against northern ireland was his ninth cap. Tom Finney scored the third goal in the 88th minute for Walter Winterbottom’s team.
ENGLAND: R Baynham; J Hall, R Byrne; R Clayton, B Wright, J Dickinson; T Finney, J Haynes, B Jezzard, D Wilshaw, B Perry. Scorers: Wilshaw (2 goals), Finney. Manager: Walter Winterbottom.