ENGLAND’S football stars once played a bizarre friendly against eighth-tier minnows – who almost put them to shame.
Sir Bobby Robson’s squad were preparing for the 1988 European Championships when they came up against a non-league side.
AlamyA packed crowd watches the friendly at the Buckingham Road Stadium[/caption]
Gary Lineker had just finished his second season at Barcelona, while the likes of Stuart Pearce and John Barnes were also playing in the top-flight every weekend.
Just a week earlier, Lineker gave England a 1-0 win over Switzerland in Lausanne.
A walkover was was therefore largely expected when they took to the pitch for a friendly against lowly Aylesbury United.
Sir Bobby agreed to take part in the friendly after being convinced it would be good preparation for the upcoming tournament in West Germany.
Little over 6,000 fans packed out their tiny Buckingham Road ground to get up close to their England heroes.
But what was meant to be a one-sided encounter nearly saw the non-league outfit take a humiliating lead.
Cliff Hercules was supposed to be on holiday in Ibiza, but flew back for the game and missed a huge opportunity to score an historic goal.
He made was left free in the penalty area after England’s defenders failed to track his run, but was mortified as his close-range header sailed over Peter Shilton’s goal.
David Brown, 52, was one of the spectators in attendance on June 4, 1988.
He told The Sun: “I have been a fan of the club since 1985 and joined the board to help try and bring it back.
“My grandad used to take me as a kid, then I grew up and moved into a house round the corner from the ground – I was able to cycle there.
“I was there when we played against England. Six thousand people went to the match and today it is still the only time and England team has played a non-league ground.
“We even nearly scored a couple of goals.”
Ultimately England went onto win the friendly 7-0 thanks to four goals from Peter Beardsley and strikes from Lineker and Everton pair Dave Watson and Trevor Steven.
Hercules himself also recalled what could have been a life-changing moment.
He told the BBC: “I was in Ibiza and had to interrupt my holiday to fly home. When I told everyone I was going back to play against England, they were like ‘yeah, whatever’.”
“I had a great chance to score. If it had gone in it would have changed my life.
“We’d first heard about the prospect of facing England a few months earlier, but we put it to the back of our minds because we were concentrating on promotion,” he adds.
“Aylesbury paid to fly me back on the Friday, I played on the Saturday, we had a meal with the England players afterwards, before I flew back to Spain.
He added: “I had a great chance to score. If it had gone in it would have changed my life.”
The friendly did little to help England’s preparations based on their subsequent performance at Euro ’88.
The Three Lions failed to win a single point after losing to Ireland, the Netherlands and the Soviet Union.
Meanwhile, the Buckingham Road site had been left to rot since 2006.
It was intended to be redeveloped into housing, but 17 years later a rotting stand and overgrown pitch still occupies the site.
Damaged walls, cracked seating and shattered fence panel also fill the ground – a far cry from the glory of 1988.
Aylesbury currently have to ply their trade at Chesham FC while attempts are made to bring football back to the town.
David, a marketing director, added: “The owner wanted to build houses on the ground, but it is on a flood plain and there’s not enough access.
“The owners have done nothing with it for 17 years. It would cost several million to get the site up and running.
“We aren’t giving up hope on the ground but there’s enough land around Aylebsury for us to build something new. We want to build a complex with 4G pitches.
“We are currently having to play in Chesham and get 150 to 200 people. If we were playing in the town again then we’d expect that number to be between 500 and 1,000.”
A new planning application to redevelop the stadium into 42 houses and a new public open space was heard by Buckinghamshire Council last month.
Planning documents detailed how the stadium is now “dilapidated, overgrown and has been subject to some anti-social behaviour”, before councillors voted to defer the matter to the Director of Planning and Environment for approval.