The fabulous footballing Fifties!
PATRICK TALBOT continues his look back at the golden age of Black Country football ... the 1950s. This week, more local lads on the international stage
THREE Albion players began their international careers in 1957. Derek Kevan was a powerfully-built striker who could bulldoze his way through defences.
Some said he wasn’t sophisticated enough for international football but he scored 8 goals in 14 games, playing 8 in a row in 1958.
He was in the typical English centre-forward mould. His headed goal at the 1958 World Cup provoked the Italian coach Vittorio Pozzo to remark cynically that “England score goals with the outside of their heads, not the inside!”
Stylish
Wolverhamptonborn Don Howe was a stylish right-back and captain of Albion in the late 1950s. He had excellent positioning skills and tackled confidently. He won 23 consecutive caps from October 1957 to November 1959 (with six different full-back partners).
Dangerous
Bobby Robson played 20 times for England. Beginning as a dangerous inside-forward, he scored twice on his debut against France in November 1957. He evolved into a tireless and confident wing-half for England once he had made the positional change at Albion.
Only five of Robson’s England appearances were in the 1950s.
Two more Wolves players made their England debuts in 1958, and they couldn’t have been more different. Eddie Clamp was a forceful defensive wing-half with a hard tackle. He played in four successive internationals. Peter Broadbent was a stylish inside-forward and very creative. He scored England’s two goals in a defeat of Wales at Villa Park in November 1958, one of his seven games for his country.
Defence
The 1958 World Cup involved seven players from Wolves and Albion. Clamp, Billy Wright and Bill Slater was the half-back line in three of their four games. Don Howe, Billy Wright and Bill Slater were in defence for all four.
Up front Robson and Kevan played in the first three but Broadbent came in for Robson in the final game.
Kevan scored twice in those four games.
Wolves’ Norman Deeley played two games on an England tour to the Americas in 1959. His debut was in Brazil’s famous Maracana Stadium, the other being in Peru. What the Wednesbury man lacked in height he made up for in pluck. Unfortunately, he never got the chance to prove his international worth in England.
Finally, in October, the well-built Birmingham City captain from Quarry Bank, Trevor Smith, got his chance to play in two successive internationals, as England looked to find a natural successor for Billy Wright.
We can only marvel at the wealth of talent that Black Country football contributed to the white shirt of England!