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ENGLAND'S DREAM TEAM

Player Profiles: Right Backs

PLAYER:ALF RAMSEY

BORN:Dagenham, 1920

TEAMS:Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur

CAPS:32, 3 goals

Sir Alf is so well known as manager of the England World Cup-winning team that it's hard to appreciate him as a player. You can see him playing while wearing that England blazer, shouting with the clipped tones of James Mason: 'I say old thing, there appears to be a man, as it were, on you.' However, he was a quick thinking, creative full back for whom Spurs paid a record �21,000 in 1949.

PLAYER:DON HOWE

BORN:Wolverhampton, 1935

TEAMS:West Bromwich Albion, Arsenal

CAPS:23

Don Howe's career ended with a broken leg in 1966, or who knows, he might have been part of England's most famous team. Like Sir Alf, he has attained more fame since retiring as a player, as a coach with Arsenal and England, but he too was an intelligent, ball-playing defender. Considered one of the greatest coaching brains in football we've ever produced he was also an accomplished and disciplined defender, already a student of the game before he lost his hair.

PLAYER:GEORGE COHEN

POSITION:Right back

BORN:Kensington, 1939

TEAMS:Fulham

CAPS:37

A war baby whose career climaxed that sunny Wembley day in 1966, this solid, dependable Fulham legend was an outstanding defender, praised by the legendary George Best as 'the best full back I ever played against'. He was an old-fashioned, unfussy full back who gave the ball the full humpty when required. He was brought in to defend and did so with the understated decorum of a priest or a particularly good waiter.

PLAYER:GARY NEVILLE

POSITION:Right back

BORN:1975

TEAMS:Manchester United

CAPS:58

Gary Neville's strength has been his consistency, his positional sense and the experience he has amassed through Manchester United's annual campaigns in Europe. Non-Man Utd fans will argue he would be in a Nightmare Team rather than a Dream Team but he has won an awful lot of stuff, including more England caps than George Cohen and Sir Alf. And that's despite once growing one of the feeblest moustaches in football history.

PLAYER:JIMMY ARMFIELD

POSITION:Right Back

BORN:Denton, 1935

TEAMS:Blackpool

CAPS:43

Still hugely respected throughout the game, for 17 years Jimmy Armfield was a stalwart for Blackpool, playing in the same team as Alan Ball and Stanley Matthews and making a record 569 league appearances for the club. Jimmy was fast and a tough tackler, and was voted best right back in the world by the Chilean press after the 1962 World Cup. He also played at wing-back before Glenn Hoddle even invented the position.

PLAYER:VIV ANDERSON

BORN:Nottingham, 1956

TEAMS:Nottingham Forest, Arsenal, Manchester United, Sheffield Wednesday

CAPS:30

He looked so gangly and awkward that you wouldn't trust him near porcelain china, but Viv Anderson was a bit tasty on the football field. Anderson became England's first black international at the age of 22, and is probably tired of hearing about it. A tough defender, he was also excellent in the air and a force to be reckoned with going forward. Will always be associated with the 'Tricky Trees', with whom he won 2 European Cups.

PLAYER:PHIL NEAL

BORN:Irchester, 1951

TEAMS:Northampton Town, Liverpool, Bolton Wanderers

CAPS:50, 5 goals

Despite being a defender, Phil Neal scored an astonishing 94 goals for Liverpool, including one in the 1977 European Cup Final. In a hugely successful Liverpool side he was a dependable full back, but it was his excellent passing and support play that marked him out as special. Sadly, despite having been such a good player he may never live down his TV documentary appearance as sidekick to Graham 'Do I not like that?' Taylor.

PLAYER:LEE DIXON

BORN:Manchester, 1964

TEAMS:Burnley, Chester, Bury, Stoke City, Arsenal

CAPS:21, 1 goal

Non-Gooners may shudder at the thought of Dixon representing the pinnacle of English full-backery, but as part of Arsenal's back four he practised the art of defence for many dependable years. Dixon had a reputation for doing the simple things right and not trying any of the tricky things. As loved by his own fans as he was derided by opposing ones, he was a committed and whole-hearted player who left many a winger clattered and sore.

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