For all his long, successful career as player and manager with Arsenal, Everton, Blackpool and Southampton, as manager of Portsmouth, Southampton and Manchester City, Alan Ball, who died today of a suspected heart attack, will surely be remembered above all for his superb display for England in the World Cup Final of 1966 at Wembley against West Germany. Well might his manager, Sir Alf Ramsey, tell him afterwards that he would never play a better game for England. And it is arguable that England would not have won that match without him.

The irony of it was that his original instructions from Ramsey, as essentially in the parlance of the time an inside forward, was to try to exploit the lack of pace of the German left-back, Karl Heinz Schnellinger by drawing him into the middle. This he did to considerable purpose in the first half, tirelessly pulling "Schnelli" across the whole face of the forward line. Ball, indeed, had looked effective from the very first. Once in that first half he had whipped the ball across an empty, tempting goal. On that occasion, England didn't profit from it.

It was, however, in extra time that Ball would do his best and most damaging work ironically enough not in the centre of the field but on the right flank. Ironic because these were Ramsey's so-called Wingless Wonders, in which he had controversially dispensed with orthodox wingers. Ball, in fact, had showed his undoubted skill with two fine, intricate pieces of control out on the right early in the second half. But it was in extra time that he would function as a classical winger, running Schnellinger ragged in the process.

Within 90 seconds of the start of extra time he was tearing down the right wing, yet again a miracle of perpetual motion, far too much for Schnellinger, finishing with a shot that the uncertain Tillkowski, the West German goalkeeper, turned over the bar.

After 100 minutes, a long, excellent pass to the right wing to the red-haired Ball by Nobby Stiles, England's combative right half, invited Ball to chase for it again. Later on, Ball would write that he thought, "oh no, I can't get that one! I am finished! I've already died twice!" but somehow he found the energy to leave Schnellinger standing yet again and to centre on the run.

It was now that one of the most controversial moments of World Cup history ensued. Geoff Hurst met the ball on the near post with a fulminating right-footed shot. Tillkowski was utterly beaten but the ball, whizzing past him, struck the underside of the bar and bounced down. Did it or did it not cross the line? Perhaps we shall never know. What we do know is that Tofik Bakhramov, the tall, silver-haired linesman from Azerbaijan pointed his flag to the middle, giving a goal, and putting England ahead at 3-2. That was the turning point of the World Cup and it could never have happened without Alan Ball.

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