Today I'm going back 29 years to 1993 and England's World Cup Qualifier against Holland (or more accurately, the Netherlands) played at the old Wembley Stadium and attended by 73,163 spectators.
The game was a tale of two turning points as well as being England's 694th match ever, my 58th time watching England and my third viewing of Holland. In two previous games against Holland that I had attended I had watched England draw 2-2 in a warm up for the 1988 European Championships and then looked on aghast as England were destroyed 3-1 almost single handedly by Marco van Basten at the old Rheinstadion in Dusseldorf at the 1988 Euros themselves. If anything, this game was even more serious with it being a World Cup Quaifier. The thought of England not making it to the 1994 Finals in the USA having put in a Semi-Final showing at the previous World Cup in Italy was unthinkable. "Would I not like that!" to paraphrase England manager Graham Taylor.
England were about to put on one of their best displays of Taylor's reign. A home win was required to put English noses in front ready for tough qualification games to come and, when John Barnes fired home a magnificent free kick in the first minute, we thought that we'd cracked it. In the 24th minute skipper David Platt scored England's second becoming the first England captain to score in his first three matches as captain. A commanding 2-0 lead but it stayed that way for just ten minutes. Denis Bergkamp pulled a goal back for the Dutch executing that most difficult of skills: hitting a volley from a ball which came over his shoulder. 2-1 and the Dutch were right back in it. Dutch manager Dick Advocaat ripped into his team at half time such had been England's domination of the first half but that lifeline from Bergkamp meant that Holland were still in it. Perhaps the pivotal moment of the match was the injury to Paul Gascoigne: a head injury caused by Jan Wouters flagrantly deliberate elbow that meant the Gacoigne needed to be replaced. The referee, who was five yards away, apparently saw nothing. Sadly that wasn't going to be the only time that a referee failed to produce a deserved red card for a Dutch player in that qualifying tournament and boy did it cost England in the final analysis.
With just five minutes remaining, the normally reliable Des Walker gave away a penalty when pulling on the shirt of Marc Overmars who had left him trailing in his wake (not many people did that to Walker) and substitute Peter van Vossen of Anderlecht stepped up to score the equaliser from the spot. There was an argument at the time that Walker had begin tugging on Overmars' jersey long before he made it into the penalty area but my view is that if a player chooses to commit such a blatant foul then he takes the risk that the referee will choose to award a penalty and there should be no crying about it afterwards. England had squandered their two goal lead and now their World Cup qualification campaign looked to be suddenly much tougher. Taylor saw the draw as the turning point in his reign as England manager.
Sadly the unthinkable happened and England blew their qualification Group finishing third when only the top two would go to the USA. In the end Norway won the Group and Holland finished second with Poland, Turkey and San Marino finishing 4th, 5th and 6th respectively. Both Norway and Holland took four points from a possible six against England and this was to be England's undoing. A draw away to Poland didn't help either. There was to be no USA94 for England and Taylor fell on his sword before the year was out.
CRB Match No. 835.
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