There are those that say the Welsh national team of the mid 1930’s could have been, under a different set of circumstances, the champions of the world. From the early 1920’s to the late 1930’s, Wales had a top quality that side who proved themselves to be a force to be reckoned with in the British Home Championship. Like the rest of the home nations, they did not enter the early World Cups, but had they done so, could it feasible that they could have won the 1934 edition? Wales took top honours in three editions of the Home Championship, a competition traditionally dominated by England and Scotland, during the 1920’s. This led to a golden age for the team throughout the 1930’s, which took place parallel to Welsh club Cardiff City causing a great stir in the English league by becoming the only non-English team to win the FA Cup. Fred Keenor was the man at the forefront of both teams, and his final contribution to the Welsh national team marked a new uprising for them. By now a grizzled veteran, Keenor’s last game was Wales’ opener of the 1932 Home Nations Championship against Scotland. Wales hammered the Scots 5-2, even more remarkable considering they played the last 20 minutes with 10 men.

One of the star players for this Welsh team was Aston Villas Dail Astley who would go on to coach across Europe. Alongside Astley was more talent like Tottenham forward “Taffy” O’Callaghan and Arsenal ‘s exceptional goalkeeper Roy John. The second game of the following edition of the Home Nations Championship saw Wales tackle the formindable and all-conquering England at the famous Racecourse ground in Wrexham. It was a similar Wales team to that which demolished Scotland the year before, but West Brom’s legendary Jimmy Murphy stepped in for the now retired Keenor. In the future, Murphy would become assistant manager to Matt Busby at Manchester United, and would be given the task of gathering new players following the 1958 Munich Air Disaster. England were feared and respected for their reputation as the fathers of the game, and had recently vapourized Spain 7-1 at Highbury, in a revenge match for being the only non-British team to win on British soil at the time. Wales managed to hold England to a scoreless draw, who would then go on to defeat Austria’s famed “Wunderteam” 3-2 in their next fixture. Wales meanwhile, handed Ireland a comprehensive 4-1 loss in their next Home Championship game. Following an England defeat to Scotland, Wales were crowned champions of the 1933 British Home Championship.

With Spurs’ Willie Evans added to the Welsh attack, their defence began in 1934 at Ninian Park, a 3-2 win over Scotland. Coincidentally, a young Scotsman named Matt Busby made his debut in this match.  A depleted  Welsh side then drew with Northern Ireland, but back to full strength they once again took on England, still in the clouds over their Wunderteam win, recently drawing with 1934 World Cup champions Italy and defeating Ireland and Switzerland 3-0 and 4-0. The match took place in Newcastle and once again, Wales defeated the mighty England on their own turf, 2-1. With this victory, Wales proved that they were the undisputed best home nation team in this era. In addition, they had just beaten the team who, in turn, had just drawn with the World Champions. The home nation teams did not enter any World Cup prior to 1950 as they saw the competition as not worth entering, arrogantly believing that foreign talent would be far inferior to their own.

Had Wales made themselves available for the 1934 World Cup, they would have easily qualified and if they were there in Italy, it’s highly plausible that they could have gone all the way. Many of the nations who did participate were still in awe of the British game so, before even kicking a ball, this Welsh team could have had their opponents trembling at the knees simply because they were British. That said, some of their opponents would have been no easy beats – the superb Czechoslovakians were there, as were the technically gifted Hungarians, the incredible Austrian Wunderteam who were favorites to win the tournament and of course the eventual champions Italy.

There are many variables. Some say Austria had begun to run out of steam by that point, which proved to be the case due to their premature exit, so a Welsh win is entirely possible there. Italy were playing under the dictator Bennito Mussolini and their militant manager Vittorio Pozzo, and led by the extraordinary Giuseppe Meazza. Against Italy, Wales would have found themselves facing the same underhanded tactics many of their opponents had to deal with in the competition. Jules Rimet once stated, “FIFA isn’t organising this World Cup. Mussolini is.” The dictator was even able to select the referees for Italy’s games. Could Wales have defeated them? Their confidence was through the roof at the time, and it was the perfect opportunity to make an impact on football’s biggest stage. They feared no-one, and on the day, and on paper, they could have defeated anybody. Although Italy were an outstanding team, the political pressure, their alien (to the Welsh) tactical style and the refs who favorated them would have made it a difficult task, perhaps we could have seen Wales as World Champions.

Achievements: British Home Championships – Champions x 5

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Star player: Len Davies DoB 28 April 1899, PoB Cardiff, Wales

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Davies made his Cardiff City debut in 1919 and went on to become the clubs record goal scorer with 179 goals between that year and 1931. While a member of the club, Cardiff consolidated their position at the forefront of the English first division and frequently enjoyed strong runs in the FA Cup . A 6-1 victory over Bradford in Cardiff’s first ever season in the Football League included a Len Davies hat-trick. He first reperesented Wales in 2-1 victory over Scotland in 1922. Unfortunately, his footballing career was blighted when he missed a penalty on the final day of the 1923/24 season which resulted in Cardiff City losing the title in the closest finish in the history of the Football league. He somewhat made up for this by playing a part in the 1927 FA Cup final, a Cardiff City victory over Arsenal thus taking the FA Cup out of England for the first, and to this day the only, time. In 1931 he left Cardiff to join Thames AFC, a club who were created in 1928 for the sole purpose of generating additional income for West Ham Stadium. This club failed to attract the intrest of spectators, and despite playing in a new stadium with a capacity of 120,000, just 469 fans turned up to watch them play Luton Town in December, 1930, the record for the lowest attendance to a Football League match in history. If all of the fans who paid to see Thames play in their entire existence, came to one game, it still would not be enough to fill their stadium. Thames AFC were unable to compete with nearby clubs such as West Ham, Charlton and Millwall. They were relegated from the Football League and did not apply for re-entry. Davies managed Bangor City, eventually became a school sports coach and worked on an aircraft production line during WWII. He died of pneumonia in 1945. During his career he had collected an FA Cup, an FA Community Shield and 5 Welsh Cups.