MARCH 27th-Day late

Well Happy Birthday to footballers; Paul Hendrie-Glasgow 1954, John Adshead-Fleetwood 1942, George Bytheway-Chesterfield 1908, Gary Stevens-Barrow 1963, John Peacock-Leeds 1956, Terry Yorath -Cardiff 1950, Paul Hendrie-Glasgow1954, James Baillie-Warrington 1996, Ann-Marie Heatherson-Hackney 1984; some you may know well, others may be a mystery.

I could have gone through the players above and produced a pen picture of each but was distracted by Kevin Keegan's presence in the management of England's international side 21 years ago. Named as the new manager on February 18th 1999, he prepared for a European Championship Qualifier at the "old" Wembley, on March 27th, against the "old enemy" Poland. 73,836 in the stadium watched Paul Scholes score a hat trick in a 3-1 win. A new beginning?
You may not have lived through the perils of the earlier qualifiers, but I did; it went like this:
1998 England had just lost to Argentina, on pens, in the French World Cup Finals; Second Round.

EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS QUALIFIERS: 1998
Sept 5th v Sweden in Stockholm lost 1-2 Shearer (35394)
Oct 10th v Bulgaria at Wembley drew 0-0 (72,836)
Oct 14th v Luxembourg away 3-0 (8,000)
1999
March 27th v Poland at Wembley 3-1 Scholes 3 (73,836)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V2OvoG-o7k
June 5th v Sweden at Wembley 0-0 (75,824)
June 9th v Bulgaria Sofia 1-1 (22,000)
Sep 4th v Lux at home 6-0 Shearer 3 (68,772)
Sep 8th v Poland in Warsaw 0-0 (17,000)and so to play offs...
PLAY OFFS
Nov 13th v Scotland at Hampden won 2-0 Scholes 2 (50,132)
Nov 17th v Scotland at Wembley lost 0-1 (75,848)

Well, we did qualify and in the June 2000 Finals in Benelux:
England then met Portugal 2-3, Germany 1-0 (Shearer) and Romania 2-3.
Portugal topped the group, we came 3rd and Germany 4th! Where did it all go wrong?

Following the stability of Bobby Robson's management in 95 games, from 1990 England managers came and went:
1990-3 Graham "Turnip Head" Taylor 38 games: 1994-6 El Tel 23 games: 1996-9 Glen "Eileen" Hoddle 28 games: caretaker Howard Wilkinson 1 game; 1999 Kevin Keegan- "a little short at this level" 18 games: 2000 Howard Wilkinson caretaker again, 1 game; Peter Taylor caretaker 1 game; Then Sven?????!!!!!! and Tord Grip.