Pud & I bought 2 tickets ourselves for this Football World Cup Qualifier match and tagged along with the coach organised by the Polish Club. We bunked off school to go and found ourselves in general seating literally on the back row of the stadium. England drew, largely because of the efforts of Jan Tomaszewski, described by Brian Clough as a clown, and so didn’t qualify for the 1974 world cup to be held in Germany.
Derby’s Roy Macfarland was in the team as centre back, and County’s own Kevin Hector was brought on and missed a good chance, but England simply couldn’t overcome the Polish resistance. With Norman Hunter’s weak challenge giving Poland the ball on the half way line and Domarski’s shot squirming under the diving Peter Shilton, it was the mistake that turned the game.
“a completely one-sided match that saw England take 36 shots to Poland’s two, force 26 corners, hit the woodwork twice and have four efforts cleared off the line”
Poland proved to be a strong team in the Finals and came 3rd, having been beaten by Germany in Munich on an unplayable muddy pitch. Same for both teams of course but we wonder if the conditions didn’t suit the Poles as much as the Germans.
I remember a non too pleased England fan throwing chips at us, but that’s about as bad as the anti-Polish sentiment went. Lol
