England finally made their exit ftom the 1954 World Cup when they lost to the current holders of the trophy, Uruguay, in the sweltering heat of the St. Jakob Stadium in Basle. Ironically, though, the crowd witnessed England's best performance of the tournament by far and the players could leave Switzerland with their heads held high.

Courage and determination has never been a characteristic lacking in an Englishman and the players had to draw on their experience to do battle against the intimidating South Americans. Led by their captain, Billy Wright, England pushed forward at every opportunity, feeding the mercurial Stanley Matthews as often as possible. The winger was used in a roving role and always seemed available when his fierce-tackling defenders fed the ball out of defence.

The histrionics of the Uruguyans quickly turned the crowd against them, so England enjoyed valuable support, but there was no disputing Uruguay's skill and after only five minutes they took the lead.

Superb interpassing between Abbadie, Schiaffino and Borges ended with the latter brilliantly shooting past Gil Merrick. At that moment visions of Uruguay's 7-0 thrashing of Scotland earlier in the tournament came flooding back. But England were made of sterner stuff and they quickly got back into the game.

Fifteen minutes had gone when Matthews picked the ball up in midfield and brilliantly sent Dennis Wilshaw clear. In turn, the inside-left gave Nat Lofthouse the perfect pass and the Bolton player did the rest. From then on the game boiled up into a frenzy as the excitement reached fever pitch. Lofthouse was denied only by the fingertips of Máspoli as the goalkeeper produced a dazzling save following a good pass by Ivor Broadis.

Wright then sent Wilshaw away again and when Lofthouse received another pass from the number-ten he was once more thwarted by Máspoli. This time the ball ran loose though and Wilshaw followed up to flick it agonisingly the wrong side of the post.

Ironically, after all those narrow escapes, it was Uruguay who stole the lead again with six minutes of the half remaining. Roger Byrne, who had a torrid time throughout, up-ended Abbadie and from the free-kick by Santamaría, Varela hit a tremendous a 25-yarder wide of Merrick's right hand. The 'keeper might have done better but there was no denying the power of the shot. By half-time Uruguay had Varela, Abbadie and Andrade all struggling with injuries.

The last thing England wanted straight after the break was an early goal against them. Unfortunately that is exactly what happened. Yet another foul by Byrne, one of many by him, gave Uruguay a free-kick. The ball was quickly moved between Ambrois and Míguez before the superb Schiaffino came through a gap to shoot past Merrick, who again was slow to react.

The goal stunned England but they refused to surrender. Urged on by Wright, Matthews, Dickinson, Staniforth and Wilshaw, they tried evrything they knew to break down the clever defending by the Uruguayans. Ever-watchful of the danger of the breakaway, Ambrois once hit the bar from such an attack, they pushed forward relentlessly. With 25 minutes remaining, the game was once more put into the melting pot.

Yet another purposeful attack again saw Lofthouse shoot at goal. This time, when the ball bounced out, Tom Finney was on the spot to push it over the line. Suddenly it was 3-2 and everything to play for.

England gave everything n those last mnutes and twice came within a whisker of equalizing, once when his shot struck the back stanchion and again when Máspoli produced another excellent save.

With the crowd willing for an equalizer. Uruguay then did what was least expected of them by breaking away and scoring a fourth, killer, goal. Lovely passing between Martínez and Míguez set up the chance for Ambrois to fire a diagonal shot from the right beating Merrick again, although this time the goalkeeper may have been unsighted.

The goal came ten minutes from the end and was a cruel blow and poor reward for England's sterling efforts. The end of England's World Cup campaign had at least given them a share of respect from all who saw the game.
    

Two mistakes by goalkeeper Gil Merrick let defending world champions Uruguay in for goals that turned this quarter-final match in their favour after Nat Lofthouse and Tom Finney had each scored to give England hope of causing an upset. Shuffling Stanley Matthews, the undisputed man of the match, hit a post and had a shot pushed off target before Uruguay clinched victory with their fourth goal in the eighty-fourth minute when Merrick failed to save a speculative shot from Ambrois. It was shell-shocked Merrick's final match for England. He had let in thirty goals in his last ten games after conceding only fifteen in his first thirteen internationals. The Uruguayans had beaten Scotland 7-0 in a qualifying round match, but were never allowed to show that sort of superiority by an England team that performed with pride and purpose.
  

On Friday, 15 November 1952, The New Musical Express published the first ever singles chart in the UK. However, over eighteen months later, when England left the World Cup Finals, Doris Day's Secret Love was still the best selling single, and she now equals Frankie Laine's record of five weeks at the top. When the chart of Friday, 25 June 1954 was published, there were ten surviving songs from the last chart when England played:-

Source Notes

TheFA.com
FIFA match report
Original newspaper reports
Rothman's Yearbooks
Mike Payne's England: The Complete Post-War Record (Breedon Books Publishing Company, Derby, U.K., 1993)
Norman Giller, Football Author
officialcharts.com singles chart
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CG