Anxious to get back to winning ways after their humiliating defeat by the Republic of Ireland the previous month, England went to Cardiff to face Wales in front of 61,000 passionate home supporters packed into Ninain Park.

A rousing version of Men of Harlech greeted the two teams and for the first 20 minutes Wales put the England defence under extreme pressure. Bert Mozley and John Aston both made slight errors but quickly recovered before any damage was done.

Neil Franklin and Bert Williams both had treatment after severe buffetings from the powerful Ford, and when Griffiths cut inside Aston to shoot just over, Wales scented victory. However, within the space of 12 hectic minutes, a breathtaking burst by England saw them take a 3-0 lead.

After 22 minutes Jackie Milburn, taking a pass from Billy Wright, brought Sidlow to a full-length save. From the resultant corner, taken by Tom Finney, the ball was brilliantly headed back by Milburn for Stan Mortensen to head into the net.

Seconds later, England were celebrating another goal. This time a clever move between Mortensen and Johnny Hancocks ended with Sidlow clawing away the winger's centre untidily. Finney quickly lobbed the ball back into the middle, where Milburn glided it into the net.

Almost at once it was 3-0. Milburn, who was looking better than any England number-nine since Tommy Lawton, strode through the hesitant Welsh defence to score after a well-timed pass from Len Shackleton. The crowd were well and truly silenced, and although territorially the scoreline was unrepresentative of the play, there was no disputing England's finishing power.

An early second-half injury to Wright upset England's rhythm and the skipper spent much of this half hobbling out on the left wing. This meant several positional changes for the visitors and, as a result, Wales had most of the play. They attacked for long spells. Burgess almost scored with a 30-yard blockbuster and Mozley cleared off the line from Ford.

Yet, amazingly, and ironically it was England who scored again.

Good work by Shackleton and Finney, (who cut out the over-elaboration to produce one of his best games), set up Milburn to once again beat Sidlow with a header. With Williams also now hobbling and only able to throw the ball, it seemed odds-on that Wales would score. But it was not until ten minutes from the end that they did. This time it was Griffiths who finally beat Williams after the goalkeeper had saved brilliantly from Ford.

It was unfortunate that Wright's injury has disrupted the England forward line as their first-half performance had shown considerable promise.
   

The four home countries had agreed to take part in the World Cup for the first time, and FIFA dictated that the Home Championship should be the qualifying stage for the finals in Brazil in the summer of 1950. The first two teams were to qualify, but Scotland announced that they would only go if they won the Home Championship.
This was the first ever World Cup qualifying match in which England or Wales had taken part. Jackie Milburn scored a spectacular hat-trick, and England won comfortably despite having Billy Wright struggling on the wing for most of the second-half with a torn thigh muscle. The game was virtually settled during an England blitz midway through the first-half when they scored three goals in twelve minutes. Milburn made it 4-0 when he completed his hat-trick to puncture an attempted revival by Wales, who had to be content with a late goal by Mal Griffiths after goalkeeper Bert Williams had saved brilliantly from Trevor Ford.  Even though he was a virtual passenger for much of the second half, Wright continued to have an influence on the match with his quiet words of encouragement.
  

Source Notes

TheFA.com
Original newspaper reports
Rothman's Yearbooks
Mike Payne's England: The Complete Post-War Record (Breedon Books Publishing Company, Derby, U.K., 1993).
Clive Leatherdale's England's Quest For The World Cup (Methuen London Ltd, London, 1984).
Norman Giller, Football Author
Wales' Complete Who's Who since 1946 (Sutton Publishing Ltd, Stroud, U.K., 2004)
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CG