On This Day – 23rd May
We’ve all been to those drab, utterly forgettable 0-0 draws. The kind of matches that leave you questioning why you bothered to go in the first place.
These types of games often get played out in front of low crowds. I also think that players don’t try so hard when they see the empty spaces on the terraces.
This may have been this case when England played Chile at Wembley on this day back in 1989. They played out a dull 0-0 draw and only 15,628 fans clicked through the Wembley turnstiles that evening to watch.
Part of the reason for the low crowd could have been because of a Tube strike that night.
There were no Arsenal or Liverpool players in the England team as the two were due to play each other in a Championship decider three days later.
Three days earlier, 82,800 fans went to Wembley to watch the FA Cup Final between Everton and Liverpool. £1.6 million was made through gate receipts, a British record at the time.
The England line-up that night was:
Peter Shilton (Derby County), Paul Parker (Queen’s Park Rangers), Stuart Pearce (Nottingham Forest), Neil Webb (Nottingham Forest), Des Walker (Nottingham Forest), Terry Butcher (Rangers), Bryan Robson (Manchester United), Paul Gascoigne (Tottenham Hotspur),Nigel Clough (Nottingham Forest), John Fashanu (Wimbledon), Chris Waddle (Tottenham Hotspur).
Tony Cottee (Everton) came on for John Fashanu (Wimbledon) on 71 minutes.
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