1982: Iceland v England

England are about to take on Iceland in the UEFA Nations League. The first time the two countries met was under unusual circumstances.

As the World Cup finals neared in May 1982, England manager Ron Greenwood named a squad of 30 players from which he was expected to choose his final 22 for the tournament in Spain. A further ten players were placed on a standby list, yet realistically none of these players were expected to feature in the preparation matches prior to England's first World Cup finals appearance since 1970.

Initially Greenwood had his hands full trying to pick teams for the friendly against the Netherlands and the Home International match in Scotland. With players of Tottenham and Aston Villa preparing for cup finals, and injuries at the end of a long season hampering selection, England's supremo must have been delighted when victories over the Dutch and Scots extended England's winning run to five matches since the embarrassment of the Norway defeat in September 1981.

England's final warm-up fixture was pencilled in for Thursday June 3, a match in Helsinki to mark the 75th anniversary of the Finnish FA. A B international match in Iceland had also been arranged for the night before the Finland friendly, but it was assumed the majority of those taking part in this fixture would not be boarding the plane to Spain.

Adding standby players Gary Bailey and Steve Perryman to his original 30, Greenwood divided the party into two squads of 16 for the trips to Reykjavik and Helsinki. "It should not be taken as read that the 16 players going to Finland can assume they are automatically in the final squad of 22," Greenwood declared, although it was hard not to arrive at this conclusion.

Greenwood was determined that the Iceland match would not be dismissed as a pointless exercise. In fact, he even made an appeal to the FA International Committee that the fixture be awarded full international status. "A team of such strength deserves caps," Greenwood said, even though the match would be widely reported as a B international or Iceland v England XI.

"The chance is there for the taking for all 32 players in action this week," B team manager Bobby Robson stated prior to the Iceland and Finland matches. Robson, who was the hot favourite to replace Greenwood after the World Cup, would take charge of the match in Iceland. As things transpired, Robson would be managing his first match as England manager a few months before he officially landed the role.

Robson did have a point about members of his 16-man squad. Joe Corrigan was expected to go to Spain as third-choice keeper behind Peter Shilton and Ray Clemence, but opportunity knocked for the likes of captain Phil Neal, Viv Anderson, Dave Watson, Steve Foster, Russell Osman, Glenn Hoddle, Terry McDermott, Tony Morley, Peter Withe and Cyrille Regis.

The evening match in Iceland would in fact prove significant for Regis, Withe, Perryman and Paul Goddard, despite very little hype or fuss surrounding the fixture. Played in blustery conditions after a day of rain, the poor playing surface did little to encourage free-flowing football. But the quality of one man shone through.

Glenn Hoddle, fresh from scoring the winner in the FA Cup final replay against QPR, was the standout player on a difficult night for the visitors. "This is the first time I have worked with Glenn at close quarters and I was very impressed," Robson said. "He was our most creative player. He made the game talk at certain stages. He's got everything it takes to develop into a world-class player." 

Hoddle may have rubber stamped his place in Ron's 22. Yet for Regis the dream was over. Pulling his hamstring shortly before half-time, the West Brom forward was ruled out of the World Cup. Withe would later clinch a place in the squad, but it was Regis' replacement on the night that made his mark in Iceland.

Iceland, a country that had held Wales and Czechoslovakia to draws in World Cup qualifying, stretched England throughout, with Corrigan saving well from Arnor Gudjohnsen and Trausti Haraldsson. Gudjohnsen gave Iceland the lead in the 23rd minute, as the crowd of 11,110 sensed a shock. 

Inevitably it would be Hoddle that provided the opportunity for England to level matters, as the uncapped Goddard equalised in the 69th minute. Shortly afterwards, Perryman replaced Alan Devonshire, the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year coming on for what would later prove to be an important 20 minutes of his career.

Very few words were dedicated to England's 1-1 draw in Reykjavik. After all, the Guardian had labelled the situation as "Possibles tonight, Probables tomorrow" in their preview of the Iceland fixture. "Goddard saves England's face" declared the headline in the same paper, as the tabloids waxed lyrical about Hoddle.

Corrigan, Anderson, Neal, McDermott, Hoddle and Withe did make Greenwood's squad for the World Cup. As did Steve Foster, strangely jumping the queue ahead of Watson and Osman even though he was an unused substitute in Iceland. 

Morley missed out, even after a stellar season for Aston Villa, his displays in the European Cup particularly impressive. He had failed to perform in Iceland, yet leaving a man of his quality out of the squad seemed brave. "I hope Mr Greenwood didn't judge me on the midweek match in Iceland. That was a bit of a joke," Morley would state, unable to hide his disappointment.

The fixture may have been viewed as less than serious by Morley. But when news broke in August that the match would be given full international status, for Perryman and Goddard the upgrade was significant. Both would claim their only cap, with Goddard becoming a member of the played one scored one club, including the likes of Danny Wallace, Francis Jeffers and David Nugent.

At the time, the 30-year-old Perryman seemed understandably pleased at the announcement. "I never thought of the game in Iceland as anything but a 'B' international, so getting a full cap for it now is nice - especially as it will probably be my one and only." But Perryman would later reveal that the whole experience had left him cold.

In a FourFourTwo article in March 2020, Perryman recalls the event. "I'm annoyed that I accepted it [a cap]. I was Football Writers' Association Player of the Year in '82, and Ron Greenwood said I'd get a cap - but only as a favour to him. I was there to make up the numbers and wished I hadn't done it; either I was good enough or I wasn't."

"I went to Iceland and Bobby Robson led the team, but I think he said about four words to me over three days and I played about eight minutes. It was back-handed, disrespectful and not done right. I should have just said no."

However, it would have been difficult for Perryman to have turned down the chance to represent England at any level. And when the pressure from Greenwood and then the Icelandic FA eventually led to the decision, at least the Tottenham stalwart was forever erased from the list of the best players never to have gained a cap for their country.