November 17 – Eight Second Wonders

TODAY in 1993 England were up against it in their efforts to qualify for the 1994 World Cup. Graham Taylor’s men had stumbled their way into a scenario where they had win their last game against San Marino by seven clear goals and hope that Holland lost away to Poland in order to qualify for USA ’94.

One would have been forgiven for thinking that the eleven men representing the Three Lions that night would have gone at the team of part-timers from the start, but after only eight seconds England were already playing catch up when Davide Gualtieri scored straight from the kick off.

The plucky San Marinions (Marinos? Marino-ites? Marinese?) held the lead for 20 minutes and dared to dream that one of the biggest upsets the game had ever seen was on after they had scored only their second goal in the 10 match qualifying campaign.

Situated the Apennine Mountains of northern Italy, the tiny nation of San Marino covers an area of 60.5 sq km and the population of the country can just about fit into Bolton’s Reebok Stadium. So what they were doing beating England in a do-or-die World Cup qualifier is anybody’s guess.

Eventually England got their act together and scored seven goals, with Arsenal striker Ian Wright bagging four as England played out a 7-1 win in front of 2,378 fans, the lowest attendance at an England international in the 20th century.

With England only winning by six goals and Holland beating Poland 3-1, it meant curtains for their USA 1994 hopes and also marked the end of Graham Taylor’s reign as national team coach as he fell on his sword six days later.

Taylor had been under the cosh since England’s exit from Euro ’92 when his substitution of Gary Lineker, stranded one short of Sir Bobby Charlton’s record of 49 international goals saw the tabloid press start an obsession with photo-shopping Taylor’s face on vegetables.

Terry Venables jetted in to replace Taylor and luckily for him was not tasked with qualifying for the next international tournament, as England played host to the European Championships in 1996.

See some footage of some of the abuse that Taylor got below and check out what else was happening today here.