Today I'm going back 34 years to 1988 and England's international friendly against Denmark, played at the old Wembley Stadium and attended by just 25,837 spectators. The stay aways were no doubt influenced by England's terrible showing at the 1988 European Championships played in West Germany earlier that Summer. England had lost all three of their Group Stage games finishing bottom of their Group and returning home to general discontent about the team' showing and the suitability of manager Bobby Robson to continue.
The programme, priced at £2 (around £4.50 at today's prices although nowadays you'd almost certainly be charged in the region of £6) is another of those where I feel obliged to have a moan about the cover. Would it have been to much to ask that an action photograph of one of the English or Danish players on display that night be used?
Making their England debuts in a game that was a warm up for World Cup Qulifiers to come was Arsenal's David "Rocky" Rocastle and two substitutes who would go on to greater things for England: Nottingham Forest's Des Walker (a footnote for die-hard stats fans is that when he came on, Walker became England's 300th substitute ever) and Tottenham's 21 year-old Paul "Gazza" Gascoigne. Rocastle's career started at Arsenal, a club where he would win two League titles (1989 and 1991) and a League Cup (1987) before reluctantly leaving to join Leeds United after making 275 appearances (and scoring 34 goals) for the Gunners. Manager Howard Wilkinson saw Rocastle as a replacement for Gordon Strachan in the Leeds line-up but Strachan played on for another three years and Rocastle ended up making only 34 appearances (2 goals) for Leeds before moving on, first to Manchester City and then Chelsea. The latter part of Rocastle's career was blighted by injury and he ended up making only 14 appearances for England in total despite being one of England's finest midfielders of his generation. Tragically Rocastle died aged just 33 of non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (cancer) in 2001 but he has never been forgotten by Arsenal fans who regularly sing his name even to this day.
Deputising for Gary Lineker and playing in his second and final match for his country was Luton's centre-forward Mick Harford. Harford has certainly been around in the English game and represented a number of clubs in addition to Luton including Lincoln City, Newcastle United, Bristol City, Birmingham City, Derby County, Chelsea and Wimbledon and in all made 582 club appearances scoring 186 goals. Following his playing career, Harford has turned his hand to management and has taken charge of both Rotherham United and Luton Town.
Denmark's side had been substantially overhauled following the European Championships and was now essentially a domestically-based side with just Michael Ludrup (Juventus) and Jan Molby (Liverpool) the overseas exceptions. On the bench, but not used that night, was Brondby's 25 year-old goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel who was still three years away from joining Manchester United. His time would come!
Michael Laudrup hit the post in the first minute but the only goal of the game arrived in the 29th minute and followed all-action captain Bryan Robson making a nuisance of himself in the Danish penalty area before the ball broke kindly for Neil Webb to hammer home. Laudrup was a thorn in England's side all evening and it was only thanks to a last ditch tackle by Tony Adams that Laudrup was prevented from scoring late on, denying an equaliser that the Danes probably deserved.
After that 1988 European Championship debacle, Robson must have been mightily relieved to see an England win as they embarked on their Qualification campaign for the World Cup in Italy in 1990. In the end, England qualified in second place from a Group containing Poland, Albania and Group winners Sweden without losing a game and would go on to have a successful World Cup where they came close to winning the tournament. Denmark never reached Italy in 1990, finishing runners-up to Romania and failing to qualify by a single point. 1992 would be Denmark's year but that was still to come.
CRB Match No. 569
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