"SOCCER FESTIVAL IN MAY, 1951
"A Festival of Soccer is to be arranged by the Football Association as part of the Festival of Britain in 1951, and the F.A.'s of Scotland, Ireland and Wales are being asked to support the plan. Preliminary discussions began yesterday in Glasgow between officials of the four Associations, before the international between Scotland and Wales at Hampden Park. The Football Association stated that it was proposed to extend the 1950-51 season for two weeks in May in order that international matches could be staged between England and overseas countries. The fixtures would take the place of a close-season tour. After the international programme the F.A. hope that League teams will play against Continental clubs. The F.A. have no intention of clashing with summer sport, and all games will be played in the evening. It is expected that many clubs who have entertained British sides abroad will be invited to the Festival" - Thursday, 10 November 1949, The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Mercury.
    
"SOCCER'S BIG PLANS FOR 1951 FESTIVAL OF BRITAIN
"These are the 1951 Festival of Britain dates as far as we have got:- May 9, England v. Argentina ; May 12, England v. France; May 12 or 19, Scotland v. Italy (provisional); May 12 or 19, Wales v. Portugal (provisional); May 16, England v. Portugal; Scotland v. France (prov); Wales v. Italy (prov); Ireland v. Belgium (prov); May 19, England v. Belgium." - Thursday, 9 March 1950, The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Mercury.
          

Goals in the last ten minutes from Stan Mortensen and Jackie Milburn (following the two he had scored for Newcastle on the same pitch in the FA Cup final four days earlier) gave England a scrambled victory. Eccentric Argentinean goalkeeper Rugilo, nicknamed 'Tarzan', had the crowd roaring with laughter as he swung on the crossbar and clowned his way through the match, which was staged as part of the Festival of Britain celebrations. Fulham centre-half Jim Taylor won the first of two caps at the age of thirty-three. Argentina were only the second country other than Scotland to play England at Wembley.
  

England were facing foreign opposition at Wembley in an official international for the first time. Argentina had not competed in the previous year's World Cup but had won the South American Championship three years in succession in the mid-1940's and had the best record in the history of the competition. They were coached by Guillermo Stabile, the top scorer in the 1930 World Cup, and this was their first meeting with England.
The home side, wearing red shirts at Wembley for the first time were a goal down when Lostau lured Williams from his goal and chipped the ball up for Mario Boye to head in.
England were heading for defeat but they finally drew level when Stan Mortensen headed in a Finney corner. With four minutes to go they snatched victory when Mortensen headed on a Ramsey free-kick for Jackie Milburn to drive home the winner.
England went to Buenos Aires the following year, but the game was abandoned after 21 minutes without a goal because of torrential rain. Argentina returned to Wembley in 1966 for the World Cup.
    

A crowd of 100,000 saw England beat Argentina by 2 goals to 1 at Wembley on May 9th - the first of the Festival of Britain Internationals. Argentina held a lead of 1-0 until 11 minutes of the end, but in fact England had most of the play. It was mainly the skill of Rugilo, the Argentine goalkeeper, and England's inability to cope with the unfamiliar 'funnelled' defence used by Argentina, that prevented them from winning by a wide margin.
England attacked for most of the first half, except for a short phase at about the 18th minute when Argentina took the lead, with a fine goal headed by Boye. England were playing good enterprising football, but somehow things seemed to go wrong at the critical moment. Once Milburn went clean through the Argentine defence from Mortensen's pass, only to be robbed of a certain goal by Rugilo's miraculous save; Hassall also had several near misses. But in general the English attack found itself baffled by the massed defence tactics of their opponents, and the interval found Argentina one goal up.
For the first quarter of an hour of the second half the Argentine goalmouth was under continuous siege, and there several exciting incidents. Milburn narrowly failing to score no less than three times. England kept on hammering away at the Argentine defence, with growing desperation. Then suddenly, with only 11 minutes left, Mortensen headed home a corner-kick by Finney. Four minutes from the end, Mortensen headed a fine centre from Ramsey's free-kick, and gave England victory.

Festival of Britain Football Results (9 May 1951) Three England players on duty were absent from their club's festival celebration match.

Huddersfield Town 4 PSV Eindhoven [Netherlands] 1 Huddersfield were without Harold Hassall and Vic Metcalfe   Preston North End 2 Crvena Zvezda [Yugoslavia] 1 Preston were without Tom Finney

          

TheFA.com Original newspaper reports Glen Isherwood's Wembley: The Complete Record

Rothman's Yearbooks Mike Payne's England: The Complete Post-War Record Norman Giller, Football Author British Pathé