Madam, - Kevin O'Sullivan (October 28th) has, I fear, fallen into the same trap as Frank Johnstone in his excellent Irishman's Diary of October 21st in relation to "the first defeat of England by a European team on English soil" - which, as every English football fan knows, was by Hungary in 1953.
I happened to live in London at that time. When I reminded my English friends, in their mourning after the 1953 match, of the Irish win in 1949, they pointed out to me that "European" means from "the Continent" - ie, the bit cut off from mainland Britain by the straits of Dover!
Teams from Scotland, Wales and both Irelands were "home" teams; for the English defeat by one of "their own" was honourable and didn't count. But for real foreigners to defeat the inventors of the game was a tragedy of the highest order.
Incidentally, I still lived in London in 1966 and had the pleasure of attending all the Wembley games in the World Cup that year, including the final. My friend and I started off by supporting "any team but England", but we got won over and by the final we were roaring for England and delighted to see the Jules Rimet Cup presented to my hero Bobby Moore. - Yours, etc,
WJ MURPHY, Malahide, Co Dublin.