Geoff Hurst predicts that it could boo well if England are BOOED at the World Cup, after starting the 1966 campaign victorious by being booed after a dull draw with Uruguay!
Geoff Hurst has said a poor World Cup start for England shouldn’t deter fans
He recalled being booed after the first match of his 1966 World Cup campaign.
England won the tournament after a Hurst hat-trick in the final.
The 80-year-old is “hopeful” for England in Qatar ahead of their opener.
Hurst felt Harry Kane would need teammates to ‘share the burden of goal’
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If England are booed by their own supporters after a dull goalless draw with Iran on Monday, it may bode well, according to World Cup-winning hero Sir Geoff Hurst.
Gareth Southgate’s side were booed earlier this year after losing twice to Hungary and a dull draw with Italy, but Hurst says the same was true for Sir Alf Ramsey’s side at the start of their successful run to win the final. in 1966.
Hurst, now 80, has just appeared in a film about his life and says few people remember the reaction to England’s opening game, when an unadventurous Uruguay held them to a goalless draw at Wembley.
Geoff Hurst has recalled that England were booed after the opening match of the 1966 World Cup.
A more recent England team received a similar reaction when they lost 4-0 to Hungary in June.
“I was sitting on the bench against Uruguay, who were not interested in coming out and playing, and what surprised me a few months ago, when I was looking at old footage of this film, was that we were booed off the pitch after a boring 0-0 draw. 0.
“It just goes to show that you’re never really sure what’s going to happen, and we weren’t even sure in the final that we would win it.” Only when the final goal came in and the whistle blew did we know we had won.’
Ramsey had said before the tournament that he thought England would win it, a surprisingly bold prediction from a cautious manager, and Hurst reveals that the players did not share his confidence.
Hurst felt Harry Kane will need his teammates to “share the burden of goals” in Qatar
“I don’t think you go into any competition at the highest level thinking you’re going to win the league, cup or even the World Cup, so it was remarkable that Sir Alf said that.” He normally wasn’t the type of coach to say something like that, so he was very surprising.”
But he adds: “We were unbeaten the year before the tournament, and for three years I had built a successful side of tough professionals and some of the best players we’ve ever had in this country.”
And while Hurst is confident Southgate’s side can emulate the success of the Boys of ’66, he says Harry Kane’s teammates must share the England captain’s scoring burden.
Kane has scored 51 goals for England, three more than the combined total of 48 scored by the other 13 forwards and midfielders in the current squad.
He pointed to the scorers of the entire 1966 team as the reason for his success
“We have to be careful about over-reliance on Harry Kane. In our time, apart from the three strikers myself, Roger Hunt and Jimmy Greaves, we had goals from midfielders like Alan Ball, Martin Peters and Bobby Charlton.
“So I think now we need to see more goals coming from other areas and players, like Mason Mount, Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham, who scores goals for his club.” We need them to start scoring goals, not just Harry.
But he adds: ‘I am very hopeful that we will do well, with the best group of young players for a long time and a real sense of unity. I am very optimistic.