The scorer of England’s second goal in the 1966 World Cup Final victory over West Germany, Martin Peters, who died yesterday at the age of 76, was one of the most sublime midfield players ever produced by the English game. There is a handful who boasted superior technical ability – but none blessed with a more astute football brain.
Through a nigh-on twenty year professional career that began with West Ham United in 1962, Peters was a standout footballer of his generation, an accomplished, clever player, whose range of passing, work rate and eye for a goal greatly enhanced any team he played for.
Born in Plaistow, East London, Peters, like future World Cup winning team-mates Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst, was a product of the flourishing youth development scheme implemented at West Ham in the late 50s.
Largely the creation of established first team-players Malcolm Allison and John Bond, the plan was further nurtured when Ron Greenwood became manager at Upton Park – Greenwood giving the teenage Peters his first team debut against Cardiff City on Good Friday 1962.
During the next three seasons he would make over a hundred senior appearances and, although an established member of the team, did not play in the 3-2 FA Cup Final victory over Preston North End in 1964 – but was in the side when West Ham returned to Wembley the following year, beating 1860 Munich 2-0 in lifting the European Cup Winners Cup.
In 1965-66 Peters reached double figures in league goals for the first time, (going onto do so in the next four seasons, scoring 19 in 1968/69), his all-round prowess earning a first England cap in the pre-World Cup friendly against Yugoslavia in May 1966, doing much to impress in the 2-0 victory.
The first of his 20 international goals came in the next match, a 3-0 win in Finland and when England manager Alf Ramsey selected his final tournament party of 22, Peters was named as squad member 16.
After not featuring in the opening match when England were held to a goalless draw by Uruguay, a tactical re-think brought Peters into the team, Ramsey sacrificing his wingers and the natural width they provided for a more compact formation – the hard-running, adaptable Peters, who could serve the team in both defence and attack, ideally suited to the new plan.
Picked for the second group game, a 2-0 win over Mexico, Peters retained his place as the ‘wingless wonders‘ progressed through the tournament, Ramsey able to take advantage of the well-honed intuition of his West Ham triumierate. Not only seen to great effect in the final when captain Moore twice provides Hurst with goals in his match-winning hat-trick, it had previously been evident when England won through a tempestuous quarter-final with Argentina – Hurst heading home the only goal from an instinctive Peters centre.
Martin Peters puts England 2-1 up in the 1966
World Cup Final
Thus at 22 years of age Peters had scored in a World Cup Final – collecting a winners medal in only his eighth international appearance.
Remaining cornerstones of the post-1966 era England team, the trio were unable to win anymore silverware with West Ham, but such was the imperious form of Peters, Tottenham Hotspur paid a then British record transfer fee of £200,000 to sign him in March 1970.
By the time of the 1970 Mexico World Cup, Peters had been a Spurs player for four months – and although England exited at the quarter-final stage by virtue of a 3-2 extra-time defeat against West Germany, Peters had a fine tournament. Scoring to give England a 2-0 lead over the Germans, Ramsey then made the error of substituting Peters and Bobby Charlton on the premise of keeping them fresh for the semi-final – West Germany taking advantage to score three times and advance to the last four.
As part of an attractive, if somewhat erratic early-70s Tottenham side, Peters won a League Cup winners medal in 1971 when Spurs beat Aston Villa and was captain when they regained the trophy by defeating Norwich City two years later. In between they had beaten Wolves over two legs to win the 1972 UEFA Cup, but had to settle for being runners-up when losing a two-leg final to Feyenoord in May 1974.
During the same period Peters was appointed England captain by Ramsey, taking over after Moore had been dropped following a 2-0 World Cup qualifying reversal against Poland in June 1973.
In the Wembley return four months later, Peters led out the team for a match England needed to win in order to secure qualification for the 1974 World Cup Finals – but despite dominating the game, they were thwarted by some fine, if occasionally unorthodox, goalkeeping by Jan Tomaszewski, a 1-1 draw sending Poland through as the Ramsey reign drew near to an end.
By the time Peters won his 67th and last cap in a 2-0 Hampden Park defeat to Scotland seven months later, World Cup winning manager Ramsey had been sacked, with former Manchester City boss Joe Mercer in temporary charge of the national team.
In March 1975 his five year White Hart Lane tenure came to a close, Peters joining up with former West Ham team-mate John Bond, by now manager of Norwich City, who paid Spurs a fee of £40,000. Signing in time to help ensure promotion from Division Two, Peters was then instrumental in helping the Canaries become an established top-flight team.
During a five year stay at Carrow Road, Peters enjoyed a late-career renaissance, barely missing a competitive game in that time. Twice Peters won Club Player of the Year, received an MBE for services to football (1978) and such was his impact, named in 2002 as an inaugural member of the Norwich City Hall of Fame.
In the summer of 1980 at the age of 36 Peters joined third division Sheffield United as player-coach. Retiring from playing in January 1981 to take the post of manager, he resigned at the end of the season when the Blades were relegated.
As a player, the most oft-quoted remark about Peters came from Ramsey who described him as ‘ten years ahead of his time.’ If he was indeed looking into the future and a time when midfield players would mirror Peters in being highly-skilled, quick-thinking and tactically disciplined, then Sir Alf could not have been more prophetic.
Present day purveyors of the role maybe fitter and faster as befits the modern game, but Martin Peters was sufficiently gifted to be eye-catching in any period of football.
Sometimes referred to as ‘The Ghost‘ for his ability to find room in the most crowded of penalty areas, it was a knack very few players are blessed with – Kenny Dalglish one of the rare breed possessing such a gift.
On opposing sides at Wembley in 1973, Dalglish was looking on from up the pitch as Peters reads the flight of a cross, sees space and glides into the Scotland penalty area. At the far post he heads home the only goal of the game – the 20th and final of his England career, it emphasises the true footballing greatness of Martin Peters.
This article was first published on 22/12/2019.
NEIL SAMBROOK is the author of ‘MONTY’S DOUBLE‘ – an acclaimed thriller available now as an Amazon Kindle Book.