"Ron Greenwood faces the harshest, most cruel decision of his career as England manager on Friday. That is when he has to tell ten of his thirty-two players he despatched with high hopes yesterday that their baggage will not be needed on the voyage to Spain for the World Cup Finals. Those 32 were sent in two groups of sixteen players to matches in Iceland tonight and Finland tomorrow. Greenwood made a desperate if unconvincing attempt to reassure the half of the party which was sent to Iceland that they were very much more than make-weights. He has, for instance, insisted to his International Committee that all of those who play should be awarded the velvet reward of a full cap-and that is sure to be agreed. 'A team of such strengths deserves caps,' he said yesterday-and with the weight he can throw behind there wishes he seems little doubt they will get them, if only as consolation prizes." - Frank McGhee, Daily Mirror, Wednesday, 2 June 1982.
    
"Tonight's game is virtually a B international, with 16 players away in Finland, but England manager Ron Greenwood has made it clear he regards it as an important part of his preparation for Spain and has asked for full caps to be awarded." - Liverpool Echo, Wednesday, 2 June 1982.
   

A goal apiece in each half by Paul Mariner and Bryan Robson gave England their sixth victory in six months and sent them into the World Cup finals in a quietly confident mood. The match was staged to celebrate Finland's seventy-fifth anniversary, and the outplayed Finns had the consolation of a penalty goal in the eightieth minute.  It was recalled that in 1966 England beat Finland in Helsinki in their final warm-up match before the World Cup finals. With Kevin Keegan back after injury, England went to Spain in buoyant mood.

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