Schools' trips to Wembley

I'd been watching football at Plainmoor with someone for years before we discovered that, for both of us, our first visit to Wembley had been for a schools' international in 1971. Did anybody else go on this type of trip?

This was the age of the football special - a chartered train laid on for a particular match - this one being organised by the local schools' FA running direct from South Devon to Wembley Central. Each school had its' own carriage - or two - and I remember on the return journey a rumour spreading that such-and-such school was going to attack our carriage at nine o'clock. We sat there waiting, scraves tied in knots, but nothing happened. What did happen, in the spirit of the football specials of the time, is that certain individuals threw light bulbs, bottles and loo rolls from the windows.

This game was played at under 15 level - I was that age at the time - and featured 4th year (year 10) pupils. Until around 1971 you could leave school at the end of the 4th year, so this represented the most senior age group of those who had to be at school.

You'll not see too many star names on the team sheets. Although many England Schools players went on to become stars, a lot didn't. Equally many future stars didn't feature in schools' games for whatever reason - the likes of Peter Reid, Tony Woodcock and Viv Anderson would have been 4th years at this time.

The stand-out name is Martin Jol on the Dutch team. For England, only Brian Bason (Chelsea, Argyle, Palace) and Steve Powell (Derby) had notable league careers.

This was still the era of community singing as you'll see from the songsheet cover. We must have joined in, whistled or remained sullenly silent for Congratulations, Boom Bang-a-Bang, Lily the Pink, The End of the Road, John Brown's Body, She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain and Clementine.

Oh, and not forgetting Rupert the Bear who must have been in his heyday. Scroll down and you'll see Rupert, recast as Rupture, acting out a contemporary football scene. This is taken from Foul, an alternative and often scurrilous football magazine of the day.