Under overcast skies and with one or two sharp downpours of rain, England continued their tour by beating Norway easily. However, although it was a clear win, it was far from convincing.

It only took six minutes for England to take the lead. Billy Wright sent a crossfield pass towards Johnny Morris, who guided it on to Jimmy Mullen for the winger to score with a crisp left-foot shot.

After taking command so early it seemed only a question of how many goals England would score. Unfortunately, for most of the rest of the first half all the visiting players tended to overdo the ball skills and as a result showed little finishing power. Morris was making an enterprising debut, though, and quickly struck up a good partnership with Wilf Mannion. Tom Finney and Mullen however were not at their best and they were both guilty of dallying too long before shooting.

Norway worked hard and after 30 minutes produced their best move of the match. It gave the England defence a few awkward moments before they eventually cleared the danger. With seven minutes of the half remaining. England produced a thrilling goal.

A superb move involving Wright, Morris, Mannion, Stan Mortensen and Finney ended with the latter shooting home to score a beauty. From then on it was largely an exhibition game for England, although there were still a few question-marks over certain positions. Both Frank Swift and Bill Ellerington looked uncomfortable and some felt that they had seen the last of 'Big Swifty', who had graced the goalkeeping position for so long.

Wright, Neil Franklin and Jimmy Dickinson looked powerful enough, though, and Dickinson certainly seemed the perfect foil for Wright in the midfield.

With eight minutes of the second half gone, W.Andresen headed a centre from Arnesen on to the bar but quickly latched on to the rebound to shoot past Swift. This opened the game up considerably for a few minutes and England were forced back as Norway pressed for an equaliser. Twice Thorsen caused Swift to fumble the ball but England escaped and the fight-back was short-lived. In fact the visitors soon increased their lead when Spydevold had the misfortune to divert a long job by Mannion wide of his own goalkeeper.

With 20 minutes of the game remaining, man of the match Morris gained his reward for a fine display with a piece of high speed thinking as he shot home over a crowd of players into the unguarded net.
  

Frank Swift, one of the all-time great goalkeepers, made his farewell appearance in a comfortable canter against the amateurs of Norway. Derby inside-right Johnny Morris scored on his England debut. Much of England's play was of the exhibition variety, with Finney and Mannion parading their skill. Southampton right-back Billy Ellerington won the first of his two caps, and Jimmy Dickinson, Pompey's Mr. Consistent, started his run of 48 England appearances. Wright, Franklin and Dickinson constituted as solid a looking half-back line as has appeared in England jerseys since the days of Britton, Cullis and Mercer. They had an iron grip on the Norwegian forwards, and Wright found time to prompt the attack with penetrating passes.
 

Typically English weather greeted the arrival of the 'A' team in Oslo, as it was raining in torrents when the aircraft touched down. The match against Norway took place on May 18th. Several changes were made from the side that lost to Sweden.
England's first goal came in the fifth minute from Mullen's left foot on a pass from Mannion. Finney got the second goal after a beautiful movement. Wright began it, putting through to Mannion who transferred the ball to Finney who rattled the net with a stinging drive.
The Norwegians reduced the deficit five minutes after the interval, centre-forward Willy Andersen netting from the rebound after the inside-right had hit the crossbar. There was now a struggle for ascendancy, although England were obviously masters of the situation. England got her third goal as a result of a defensive error. The goalkeeper slipped as the right-back, Spydevold, pushed the ball back to him and it travelled on into the net.
England's fourth goal was also purely the result of a defensive error. The Norwegian goalkeeper came out of his goal too soon and allowed Morris to put the ball neatly wide of his reach into the net.

IN OTHER NEWS...

It was on 18 May 1949 that the House of Lords approved the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty and the creation of NATO, acknowledging that the lack of cooperation of the Soviet Union since the war and its insistence in furthering its own influence to the detriment of other nations had led inevitably to this new collective defence organisation of twelve states to maintain the future peace.