England started the early 60’s in great fashion; they thrashed Scotland 9-3 at Wembley, which included a hat trick by Jimmy Greaves, two goals from Johnny Haynes and a double by Bryan Douglas. This was said by many to be England’s best ever attacking team and a month later they thrashed Mexico 8-0 this time without hot shot Jimmy Greaves. Going into the 1962 world cup finals, England were playing great football and they were the only British nation to qualify for the finals. Despite England’s approach to the finals being more organized than before, their build up to the finals was far from brilliant. In England’s first match of the 1962 finals, Hungary’s defense stifled Haynes and England were beaten 2-1. England rediscovered their touch in the following match against Argentina in a 3-1 victory. However a disappointing 0-0 draw against Bulgaria left England second in their group having to face world champions, Brazil. Brazilian forward, Garrincha simply tore the English apart. The English defence had no answer to his penetrating runs and he put Brazil in front after half an hour. Hitchens immediately equalized for England however Garrincha finished England off in the second period with a fierce free kick; he completed his hat trick scoring a swerving long range shot.
The following year, the FA and England faced a new era when Alf Ramsey was appointed to replace Walter Winterbottom as the manager of the national football side. Alf Ramsey’s first match in charge was an abject failure and England was eliminated from the European Nations Cup in the first phase. In February 1963 at Paris, England went 3-0 down to France however they rallied back with goals from Bobby Smith and Bobby Tampling but they eventually lost 5-2, this was the first time England had conceded five goals in a football match in five years. Ramsey faired a little bit better in their next two matches, against Scotland and Brazil, in the summer of 1963 England were outstanding, they thrashed Czechoslovakia 4-2, they thumped Switzerland 8-1 in Basle and beat a strong East Germany side 2-1. England continued their impressive run a few months later as they dispatched Wales 4-0 and they followed that by a splendid 8-3 victory against Northern Ireland. In the summer of 1964, there was a mini tournament between four teams in Rio De Janerio. England came into the tournament on the back of a 2-1 victory against Uruguay, a 4-3 away to Portugal and a 3-1 victory against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin. England played Brazil in what proved to be a bad 5-1 defeat for England against Brazil. England struggled for form in 1965 as they had scrappy draws from so called weaker opposition such as Holland, Belgium, Scotland and Yugoslavia. England were hardly world beaters going in to the year 1966.