THE FROGGATTS AND LIONS

Football on 8th June 1953 England played their first international tour outside Europe and the first game under floodlights, at New York’s Yankee (baseball) Stadium against USA. Two goals apiece from Tom Finney and Nat Lofthouse and two from Ivor Broadis and Redfern Froggatt, helped England to a 6-3 victory. 

Redfern Froggatt and his cousin Jack, both played for Sheffield Wednesday, with Redfern racking up 434 games for The Owls, scoring 140 goals. 

Coming from a footballing family, Jack Froggatt started his football career in 1945, whilst in the RAF. Redfern's fourth and last England cap was awarded this game. Redfern was the son of former Wednesday captain and Notts County centre-half, Frank and the cousin of England international Jack.

7,271 spectators turned up to watch SOCCER! This game was tacked on to the end of an England tour that took in Argentina in Buenos Aries, a 0-0 abandoned match after 25 minutes, due to rain, refereed by Englishman Arthur Ellis, on May 17th; then on May 24th, there was a "cheering" 2-1 win over Chile in Santiago (goals from Tommy Taylor and Lofthouse). A week later in Montevideo there was a 1-2 defeat by Uruguay. Chile was also the only nation that England had beaten in their 1950 World Cup group.

Controversally, FA Cup winners, Stanley Matthews and Stan Mortenson, with Blackpool, were not included in the tour.

On the 8th June 1990
The opening match at the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy produced one of the shock results in the history of the competition and confirmed that success in the footballing world was no longer confined to European and South American sides. Reigning world champions Argentina were beaten 1-0 by Cameroon at the San Siro stadium in Milan despite the winners finishing the match with only nine players on the pitch. Cameroon (Les Lions Indomptables)

became the first African nation, south of the Sahara, to win a match at a World Cup finals and then they went on to become the first African nation to reach the quarter finals where they suffered a narrow loss to England. 

By contrast the country Cameroon defeated in that opening match, Argentina, only progressed to the knock-out stages as the best third-place side in a group but then went on to reach the final again where they were beaten by West Germany.