Gareth Southgate and his team have brought this Northumberland family even closer together, even if the youngest sleeps through the games
John Coward was 39 years old when England faced West Germany in the 1966 World Cup final at Wembley. A seaman in the merchant navy, he watched the match on a black-and-white TV at home in Alnwick, Northumberland, with his three children, Christine, Denny and John, aged 11, 10 and six.
Coward just about kept his emotions in check until Geoff Hurst galloped down the pitch in extra time and lashed the ball in the top corner, securing his hat-trick, England’s 4-2 victory and the country’s first, and only, Jules Rimet trophy. “When he scored the goal,” Coward recalls, “I had John sitting on my knee and I got that excited that I threw him up in the air and his head nearly touched the ceiling!”
