The 6–0 victory at Vale Park elevated United into the upper echelons of Division Two, but I knew it was too late in the season to pose any threat to leaders Leicester City and second-placed Nottingham Forest, both of whom gained promotion. During the Vale game I tweaked a hamstring, nothing serious, but in the dressing room after the match I asked the United phsyio, Alf Willie, to take a look at it as a precautionary measure. As Alf examined my leg he told me one of the FA Selection Committee had been at the game.
‘He’d have been here to have a look at Joe [Shaw],’ I replied. ‘Besides, they have to be seen to attend matches other than those at their own club, otherwise they get it in the ear.’
‘That’s as maybe,’ said Alf. ‘But the same old boy was also at Bury and our home game against Huddersfield.’
There are very good players who, to the surprise of many, are never called upon to play for England, even though the consensus is that they are eminently capable of playing at international level. Other players are awarded one, or, at best, a handful of caps that appear meagre reward for their undoubted talent. Sometimes it is simply down to the fact that the player in question was unfortunate to be competing for a position in the England team currently held by a truly world-class player. Colin Todd (Derby County) up against Bobby Moore, for example, or any one of around ten of us goalkeepers and Gordon Banks. There are numerous Stoke City supporters of a certain age who still can’t understand why centre-half Denis Smith was never selected for England, likewise Sheffield United supporters and Joe Shaw.
Following our victory of Port Vale I received an envelope through the post bearing the three lions motif of the Football Association. The England Under-23 team were due to embark on a continental tour in three weeks, immediately after the domestic season ended. I was hoping to be selected and though I had kept goal for the Under-23s in their recent three matches knew my selection was far from certain. Bolton’s Eddie Hopkinson, Gordon Clayton (Manchester United) and Tony Macedo (Fulham) were but three other goalkeepers in contention for the two places in the touring squad.
As soon as I laid eyes on the envelope I knew it was good news. The FA never wrote to players to inform them they had been dropped from the squad. I tore open the envelope and as I read its contents my face must have turned as white as the paper that contained the words, ‘You have been selected as goalkeeper for England versus Scotland, Home International Championship, Wembley Stadium, 6 April 1957.’
I was standing in the hall, on one wall of which hung a large brass-framed mirror. I heard my mother call, ‘Is that you, Alan?’ I managed to reply in a voice the size of one of those silver balls you see on wedding cakes. My mother came into the hall to see what was the matter.
‘Alan, are you all right?’ she asked.
I handed my mother the letter. She read as much as I had done before looking up at me. She looked shocked. Brenda emerged from the kitchen. Mother handed her the letter. Brenda looked shocked. I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked shocked. My legs felt as weak as fruit tea and I waited for my pulse to come down into the low hundreds before I spoke.
‘I can’t believe it,’ was all I managed.
Brenda shrieked with joy and threw her arms around me. My mother stood with tears glazing her eyes.
I really couldn’t believe it. Three months out of the army. Just under four years after keeping goal for Worksop Town in the Midland League I was now about to make my England debut, at Wembley, in the most prestigious match in the international calendar. I was suddenly aware I was laughing. It was nervous, uncontrollable, high-pitched laughter.
‘There is a tide in the affairs of man, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune and success.’
Julius Caesar
The letter from the FA told me to report to the England team hotel in Hendon, North London, on the afternoon of Monday 1 April. I recognised, of course, the significance of the date and hoped it would not prove ominous.
Letters from the FA tended to be rather curt, the same being true of those sent to the Scottish lads by their respective Football Association. When Jimmy Greaves was first called up for England, his letter from the FA began, ‘Dear Greaves’. Jimmy simply thought a typist had erroneously omitted the ‘Mr’ part of the letter until, that is, he received his second letter. Jimmy felt the tone of such letters was suggestive of how the FA perceived footballers, as being little more than minions and menials in service. Jimmy saw the tenet and tone of the letters he received from the FA as being like something from the pages of Dickens, so much so, he would always complete the reply slip confirming his availability by writing, ‘Greaves is willing’. At the time, I always wondered if anyone within the FA was familiar with David Copperfield and would have recognised the impish, ironic humour of Jimmy’s replies.
My Sheffield United teammates were delighted for me. To a man they congratulated me on my call-up and wished me good luck. Joe Mercer was also pleased. Joe, of course, had played many times for England. He told me it was like taking medicine – not particularly pleasurable to begin with but much better to stomach the more games you played.
‘You’re working hard at your game and being rewarded for that,’ Joe told me. ‘You’re progressing all the time. Being selected for England is great. I’m pleased for you but, remember, in football the great thing is not where you are at any given time, but in what direction you’re moving. You’re going in the right direction, Alan, just be sure to continue that way.’
Wise words that I have never forgotten.
The press too were fully behind my call-up, which surprised me somewhat given my rise to full international status had been meteoric to say the least. Ted Ditchburn of Spurs had kept goal for England in their previous international, a 5–2 win over Denmark in a World Cup qualifying match that was distinguished by a hat-trick from young Tommy Taylor and two spectacular goals from his Manchester United teammate Duncan Edwards. The success of Taylor and Edwards, along with two other young players, Ronnie Clayton of Blackburn Rovers and Jeff Hall of Birmingham City, perhaps paved the way for my call-up. Three and half years after England had been humiliated by Hungary and, by the same token, English football had been placed in true perspective in global terms, Walter Winterbottom was placing faith in youth. Walter wanted to create England teams in four-year cycles with a view to winning or, at least, doing well in the World Cup. Walter was still hampered by the fact that the England team were chosen by a committee of FA selectors, but ever since Hungary, Walter had exerted his influence over the committee without ever being able to wrench from them selection of the team.
Walter’s first eye-opening experience of the FA International Selection Committee had taken place some weeks after he had been appointed as England’s first full-time manager. Walter’s ‘Road to Damascus’ moment happened in, of all places, the Victoria Station Hotel in Sheffield in 1946. In addition to Walter, also present were the Chairman of the International Selection Committee and eight other members of the FA.
According to Walter, after a ‘very good lunch’, they all sat around the dining table putting forward nominations for each position for Walter’s second game in charge, at home to the Republic of Ireland. There were five players nominated for the position of goalkeeper. The list was reduced by a process of votes until it was down to the final two and a straight majority vote.
Walter was fascinated by the whole rigmarole, and when it was over and Frank Swift (Manchester City) had been selected he asked: ‘How many of the Committee have actually seen these goalkeepers play this