A letter and a set of photographs from Michael Camilleri, of Victoria, Gozo, has prompted me to dedicate this week’s story to the 40th anniversary of the famous match between Malta and England of 1971.

A good part of the Maltese football enthusiasts support British clubs. In the past, such famous clubs as Manchester United, Ipswich Town, Chelsea, Norwich, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur had all made historic visits to the island.

Only one thing was missing. Never in the 100-odd-year history of the game had a British representative side played here.

This was something that every Maltese football fanatic instinctively waited for. The game had progressed a lot from the days of the Mile End. Malta became independent and took its place among the nations of the world.

The pupil had become a fully-fledged citizen. All that remained now was the ultimate test against its former master.

I remember quite clearly the great enthusiasm that hit the islands in the summer of 1970 when it became known that Malta had been drawn against England, Switzerland and Greece in the Nations Cup qualifiers.

Plans were made to improve the Gzira stadium pitch and to increase the ground’s capacity.

The MFA appointed Karm Borg as national coach and embarked on an ambitious programme of training for the squad.

In the meantime, the news that Malta would be playing against England aroused the interest of the British press, who predicted a landslide victory for the 1966 world champions.

The stadium’s pitch was vilified and the Maltese players described as a “bunch of Spanish waiters”.

The hour of truth arrived on Wednesday, February 3, 1971.

For days on end the match against England was the centre of conversation. As the day ap-proached, the excitement gripped the heart of every Maltese.

All the tickets were sold out well before the match, and, in an effort to prevent the congestion of traffic that was expected, the police declared the area around the stadium as a traffic-free zone.

The match was scheduled to start at 3 p.m. but the gates were thrown open at noon. By 10 a.m people were already on their way to the stadium on foot. The buses worked overtime while cars converged on the stadium from the remotest part of the island.

Two hours before the start of the match, the ground, which at the best of times could hold about 15,000 spectators, was already packed with more than 30,000 feverish supporters.

It was a long wait but the crowd soon found ways to while away the time. They pelted the English cheerleader with oranges and chanted offensive slogans against the British!

No-one could really blame them considering the offensive remarks that appeared in a section of the British press against the Maltese.

Soccer history

The match has since become part of soccer history. It is common knowledge how the Maltese rose to the occasion, holding the mighty English team to a narrow 0-1 defeat.

A lot has been written about this match, and it is not my intention to add to this volume.

It is enough to quote a few paragraphs from the reports that appeared in the British press the next day.

The English reporters all agreed that England were outplayed by an inspired bunch of part-timers in the first half and were not much better in the second half.

The British dailies said that the screeching crowd, with thousands more on the balconies of nearby houses, took some beating. They set off firecrackers and pelted an English cheerleader before the game.

Then they booed every England mistake and jeered every pass back. Malta’s close passing began to click and when England scored it was against the run of play.

Norman Hunter collected a pass on the edge of the area, passed, or perhaps, mis-kicked to Peters, who hit a left-foot grounder which bobbed on the sand before creeping inside the diving Freddie Mizzi’s left-hand post.

England had a nasty moment when Louis Arpa headed towards goal and Emlyn Hughes belted the ball away. But Malta’s best chance came shortly before the end of the game when Joe Cini, all alone in front of Gordon Banks, saw his shot being saved by the goalkeeper.

To cut a long story short, one must say that Malta went to Wembley for the return match like sheep to the slaughter. The English newspapers all agreed that this would be England’s turn to revenge itself.

Double-figure scores were mentioned, which, however, never materialised. On the day, the gallant boys in red once again rose to the occasion and held mighty England to a creditable 0-5 score.

Malta: Freddie Mizzi, Joe Grima, Freddie Mallia, Anton Camilleri, Leli Micallef, Edward Darmanin, Ronnie Cocks, Willie Vassallo, Joe Cini, Eddie Theo-bald, Louis Arpa.

England: Gordon Banks, Paul Reaney, Emlyn Hughes, Alan Mullery, Peter McFarland, Norman Hunter, Alan Ball, Martin Chivers, Joe Royle, Colin Harvey, Martin Peters.