Bucharest on a cold, grey and damp November afternoon is not exactly the most inspiring place and it was no real surprise that these sides produced a dreary international which gave the crowd precious little to cheer.

Romania, an 'up and coming' side, began well and in the first 20 minutes should have scored at least one goal, such was their pressure. Pârcălab missed one fine chance and Gordon Banks had to be on his toes on several other occasions. However, once Bobby Moore had found his feet, the England defence settled down and gradually took the 'steam' out of the home side's initial burst.

Brian Labone had a superb game at the heart of the defence and England did remarkably well to overcome a very unfortunate early injury to Tommy Wright. Arsenal's Bob McNab came on as substitute and made an immediate impact when given his unexpected chance.

England 'soaked up the pressure' from Romania and then counter-attacked at great speed. Unfortunately, the twin strike-force of Geoff Hurst and Roger Hunt were strangely subdued and, as a result, England lacked penetration.

The game was almost entirely confined to the midfield area and made watching it a real struggle for the spectators. Straight after the interval, though, England created two good chances. Both came from swift breaks from the back as first Hunt and then Alan Ball missed the target when well-positioned. These were their best openings and they should have been taken.

Romania continued to work hard with Gergely giving Pârcălab fine support from midfield. However, Banks rarely had a direct shot to deal with and only a few dangerous crosses kept him alert. Labone shone brightest for England, whilst Ball worked tirelessly covering every blade of grass in an effort to inspire the weak English attack. The distinct lack of goals lately was a worrying trend with some very important games coming up.
  

Tommy Wright, who had partnered his Everton team-mate Ray Wilson at full-back against the Soviets, now had Blackburn's Keith Newton playing with him at left-back. England's World Cup heroes Cohen and Wilson had both had their international careers ended by injuries after playing together in twenty-seven matches. Wright and Newton, who would later continue their partnership at club level with Everton, hardly had time to get to know each other before Wright went off injured in the tenth minute to be replaced by Arsenal's Bob McNab who, despite playing out of position, gave a sound debut performance in a dreary, defence-dominated match.
  

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)
Norman Giller, Football Author
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CG