when it was realised by Croydon NLR Club that the London New Left Club’s challenge to a game of soccer was to be taken seriously, there was much unexpected enthusiasm from a hitherto ostentatiously sport-despising faction of political dissenters. Consequently the match was arranged to be played in Croydon on Sunday, April 10; and in their first game the Croydon YCND and New Left confounded all expectations by beating the London New Left by five goals to four.
The Croydon team was composed of players of apparently antithetical styles. Basic football skills—such as trapping and dribbling—were displayed by those players educated at grammar schools, whereas the public school clique scorned such proletarian refinements and employed for greater directness in their offensive and defensive methods. The London team appeared to display far greater cohesion and unity—possibly because they all wore shirts of the same colour.