Receiving the ball on the edge of the penalty area from a quickly taken corner, George Eastham drilled a shot firmly between the goalkeeper and the post, but would that goal be enough to get the Gunners striker a taste of the 1966 World Cup?
Eastham’s strike in an international friendly in Denmark on July 3, 1966 made it 2-0 to Alf Ramsey’s side, and the forward, already confirmed as a member of Ramsey’s final 22-man squad, hoped that his display might give him a chance of some playing time in the tournament, kicking off a week later on home soil.
“I’d played in three friendlies that season,” Eastham told me during our 2009 interview, “and scoring a goal against the Danes wasn’t a bad reminder for Alf that I was still here.”
In his final season at Highbury, Eastham’s form was – like ours – patchy, scoring six goals in 37 matches. The issue facing the skilful but inconsistent Eastham, along with several other England squad members, was that in those days, substitutes were forbidden in World Cup matches.
Of the England players who appeared in the Denmark friendly, seven would play in the 4-2 World Cup final victory against West Germany a month later. Ultimately, Eastham and goalkeeper Peter Bonetti didn’t appear at all during the tournament. “It was disappointing,” Eastham reflected, “because as an uncapped player in 1962 I’d travelled to Chile and not played there either, but at least in 1966, Alf always made those who didn’t play feel welcome.”
In their plush Hendon Hall accommodation, the Three Lions squad ate together and watched Westerns in the TV room as they progressed through the competition. “I met James Bond – Sean Connery. That was great,” Eastham added. “Ultimately, I felt like I wasn’t entirely Alf’s cup of tea. I was the opposite of Geoff Hurst who was big and strong and came into his own in the latter stages and scored a hat-trick in the final. But clearly Alf knew what he was doing.”
Eastham attended the banquet at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington after Bobby Moore had climbed the Wembley steps to receive the trophy, but Eastham didn’t follow him. Unlike today, those who didn’t appear in the final didn’t receive a winner’s medal either. “It was a wonderful occasion, but inevitably, you feel a little left out if you don’t play,” he admitted.
In the weeks that followed, Eastham, who’d joined from Newcastle United in 1963, departed Highbury, as manager Billy Wright was replaced by former physiotherapist Bertie Mee. Eastham reinvented himself at Stoke City under Tony Waddington, for whom he scored the winning goal in the 1972 League Cup final, and later coached in South Africa.
In the years that followed, the boys from ’66 who starred in the final remained household names and very much in the public eye. But in June 2009, Eastham and the other squad players belatedly received medals from Prime Minister Gordon Brown at Downing Street following a FIFA rule change.
“It was great to see so many of the squad lads like Norman Hunter, and Jimmy Armfield whom I hadn’t seen in years,” Eastham smiled. “It was perhaps 43 years too late, but it was nice to finally get the recognition we deserved. We were Alf’s 22, after all.”
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Greatest 50 Players – 41. George Eastham
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