2 June 1993, Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo. Norway 2–0 England.
By Hamish McTavish
A Wednesday night in Oslo, twenty-two thousand in a ground that does not owe you a World Cup, and a manager who had already been a turnip for a year. Graham Taylor had changed the side in secret. Three at the back. Gary Pallister drafted in as the third centre-half to look after Jostein Flo, the tall one they had decided was the problem. 3-4-1-2 on the page, a plan for Norway’s direct game, a plan to threaten their defence. So much planning, so much secrecy, so little reward. The Independent, in the morning, would not need a vegetable. Calamity in Oslo. The Sun would. Norse Manure. The campaign had found its Scandinavian sequel.
England still talked as if USA 94 was a collection they had not yet bothered to pick up. Two points from the group already dropped, and a revamped team sent out to put it right against a country of four million that played as if it had read a different briefing. David Platt had the armband. Chris Woods had the gloves. Teddy Sheringham started; Ian Wright waited. Taylor, before the whistle, had the formation he would later have to explain. Egil Olsen had Flo, Øyvind Leonhardsen, Lars Bohinen, Kjetil Rekdal, and the idea that England could be run at.
Ullevaal in June is not Wembley and does not pretend to be. The ones who had travelled were already practising We want Taylor out, which is a song you only learn when a vegetable has been on the back page for a year. Norway had Olsen’s direct game and a midfield that wanted the ball. England had a new shape and the hope that secrecy was a plan.
They kicked off anyway.
Norway ran the first half. Olsen said so afterwards and he was not boasting, only filing. Rekdal’s short free-kick, Flo from twenty-five yards, Woods tipping it over. Jan Åge Fjørtoft at the near post, another save. The master plan was already a man marking a problem that had friends. Then, three minutes before the interval, Erik Mykland put Leonhardsen through on the left, alone, the sort of alone you only get when a new shape has not yet decided who picks him up. He went at the box and slipped it. One-nil, and the Ullevaal making the sound of a room that has been waiting for permission.
Taylor sent Wright on at the break. It did not matter. Six minutes after the restart Mykland played the through-ball again, Leonhardsen drew the last man, and Bohinen came on the overlap, saw Woods on his knees, and lifted it over him into the near corner. Two-nil. The second one surprised the people who had come to see England remember how to play. It did not surprise Olsen. Two minutes into the second half, and the secret formation was a souvenir. Wright had the rest of the night to chase it. Nigel Clough came on for Des Walker just after the hour. Sørloth came on for Fjørtoft and Woods had to make two more. The last ten minutes, Olsen said, were the first time he had ever seen an England team give up. Taylor, asked, nodded. It did look like that. Another aspect of something that leaves one so shocked.
I am shocked by that kind of performance. That is Taylor after, and it is the only honest sentence he had. Way, way below what is expected from an England team in any football game. A performance that will make people back home very angry. I feel exactly the same way as them. He would not resign. You’ll have to ask my employers about that. Peter Swales, on the grim retreat, said the FA were not about to sack him. At the airport a hundred of the ones who had been singing We want Taylor out were still there, and time had not mellowed them. The greatest disappointment I have ever experienced, he called it the next day. Whatever you are going to say, I won’t be able to disagree. He can have the apology. The night is the secrecy, the two goals, and a side that stopped wanting the ball.
Leonhardsen had the first and the run that made the second. Bohinen had the finish over Woods. Mykland had the passes. Flo had the job Pallister had been picked to do, and did it anyway. Olsen had the perfect game, closer to 3-0 than England were to 2-1, his words, not a caption. Woods had the saves that kept it at two. Adams was one of the few who looked as if he had come for a fight. Platt had the armband and a midfield that did not want the ball. Taylor had the formation, the shock, and a week that now had to go to America to rebuild confidence. Foxboro would not rebuild it. The Sun would find planks. Rotterdam, in October, would find a farewell vegetable.
They said a new strategy. They said it would look after the direct game. They said the issue would not be decided until the autumn. They said they were shocked. If you still think it was only a formation, a funeral is only a Tuesday. The formation was the secret. The manure was the morning. The last ten minutes were the bit Olsen had never seen, and Taylor had to agree with him in public.
The film is a 1993 upload of the night: Leonhardsen, Bohinen, the shape that did not live. Thin, but real. Do not review it. Watch the overlap, and Woods on his knees.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_auy0rgppm4
Related reading
- Yanks 2, Planks 0 — Foxboro 1993, the American sequel seven days later
- Swedes 2, Turnips 1 — Råsunda 1992, the vegetable year that started the Sun’s Scandinavia run
If the nights sit right, the shirts and the wall are at /shop.
FAQ
What was the score when Norway beat England in Oslo 1993?
Norway 2–0 England, on 2 June 1993 at Ullevaal Stadion. Leonhardsen and Bohinen scored.
Why “Norse manure”?
The Sun’s morning headline after Taylor’s secret three-at-back plan collapsed; the Independent went with Calamity in Oslo.
Did England change formation secretly?
Yes. Taylor drafted Pallister as a third centre-half to mark Flo; 3-4-1-2 on the page. Olsen said Norway ran the first half; Taylor called the performance way below what is expected.