German World Cup star recalls 1966 stay in 'friendly' Ashbourne

German World Cup star recalls 'friendly' English town

"We were guests in the town. We really liked being there, we felt very good there and the people were very friendly."

A member of the West Germany football team beaten by England in the 1966 World Cup final says he has fond memories of staying in Derbyshire during the tournament.

Sigfried Held and his team-mates were based at the Peveril in the Peak Hotel in Thorpe, near Ashbourne, so they could be close to group games in Birmingham and Sheffield.

And while the England men's team has repeatedly fallen short in its bid to emulate that 1966 win - including Wednesday's semi-final defeat to Argentina - the 84-year-old former midfielder said they had been the victim of fine margins and bad luck.

Reflecting on spending the summer of 1966 in Derbyshire, Held recalls how players would chat freely on the streets with locals and training sessions were held in full public view in Ashbourne's recreational area.

It is a far cry from when the England national side stayed in the historic spa town of Baden-Baden in Germany during the 2006 Word Cup, as the side was joined by an army of wives and girlfriends, journalists and fans who took over the town.

For Held, it was a case of fitting in and carefully preparing for big games in the quiet Derbyshire countryside.

"I was a young player, I was just about to turn 24, and I was very excited but also nervous," he said.

"I didn't really have time to look around. I was just concentrating on trying to win."

Speaking through interpreter Sophie Bailey, who is Derby's envoy in its twin city of Osnabruck, Held admitted his memories of 1966 were fading.

However he still remembers Geoff Hurst's controversial goal in the final, which saw the ball cannon downwards off the crossbar before being judged to have crossed the German goal-line.

Held described the linesman's decision to allow the goal as "strange" and added "it is much disputed because it it didn't look like it crossed the line".

Despite this decision costing his side dear, he was pragmatic about the defeat and said he simply had "new tasks" to get on with afterwards.

Held played 41 times for Germany up until 1973 and also won the UEFA Cup Winners Cup with Borussia Dortmund in 1966.

Since losing the 1966 final, Germany's World Cup record has been much better than England's, with tournament wins in 1974, 1990 and 2014.

When asked why England's second World Cup victory had proved so elusive Held diplomatically said they had lost games by small margins, and refereeing decisions and luck were both important too.

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