Eight- year-old boy in the company of his father and grandfather watched England beat West Germany at Wembley, spread out in the sun, the waving flags, the delirious, joy-of-all-joys moment of the final whistle, the trophy sparkling in the late afternoon light. The boy now Duncan Hamilton  after seeing the whole game again during the misery of the first Covid lockdown, finally made him realize what Alf Ramsey and his players had no inkling of, which was what came next for them. After England beat West Germany to win the 1966 World Cup, the victors struggled to access their emotions.

 Duncan Hamilton recounts, full back George Cohen, holding the only medal he could ever win, remarked “It’s bloody ridiculous. I don’t feel anything”. Forward Roger Hunt thought the World Cup was “too big”; Alf Ramsey, the manager felt “ a little flat, wondering if it was really true and if we had really done it”. The day later, Geoff Hurst scorer of a hat-trick “ washed his car in soapy water and cut the lawn”.

How the ’66 was not a beginning , a guaranteed path towards more success, but a slow decline and fall, and also a disproportionate number of disappointments, as expectations ran high. And how the triumph of ’66 was dulled through constant repetition , the same images always flashed before us.

Hamilton recognized, too, how many myths and misconceptions had grown around the match. He decided to revisit ’66 tracing the very roots of a story- as well as hidden figures within it – that really began the era of post-war austerity.

Have you heard expression failure is the stepping stone to success, but is success followed by several failures, may be due to institutional inability to appreciate Ransey and his players, who were taken for granted, the political machinations of the blazered fools who ran the Football Association, the short-sighted blunderers of the Football League.

Hamilton, three-times winner of Britain’s William Hill prize for sport book of the year – for studies of the cricket writer Neville Cardus, the Cricketer Harold Larwood and Football manager Brian Clough,  tells history afresh and reveals to us, for the first time, the scale of what was won and what was lost. Until the England’s women’s team battled their way through to this  Sunday’s final, 1966 stood alone as the only time an England team has reached a football World Cup final. Over the following six decades  the Wembley game achieved near mythical status in the national consciousness.

Later as journalist, he interviewed Ramsey, and 10 of the 11 players, and Answered Prayers, he now realizes  was “40-odd years in the making”. Its main character Ramsey, forever ashamed of his impoverished east London origins. Asked where his parent lived, he once replied “ Dagenham, I think” – the last two words a characteristically awkward attempt to deflect an intruder. He played for England as a full-back, then became a manager and led Ipswich from the third division to English championship. Appointed by England in 1962, he immediately said they could win the World Cup, although it did set a helpful target.

What Ramsey told his players before extra time. Legend has it that his words were , “You’ve beaten them once. Now go out there and beat them again” and went on to say “ you’ve let it slip once, Don’t let it slip again”.

Full back Ray Wilson, who became an undertaker, phoned the cancer-stricken Cohen years later  and joked: “ I was ringing to offer you a deal”. The players’ victory bonus paid in brown envelopes was £1, 000 each – less , Keeper Gordon Banks discovered than a T-shirt seller outside Wembley made from the tournament. Five players never won another trophy again. Six suffered dementia, possibly from heading heavy leather balls. Banks lost an eye in a car accident, but was still keeping brilliantly for Fort Lauderdale aged nearly 40. Just only two of the 11 are still alive. Bobby Charlton has dementia, but Hurst, 84, is the team’s unofficial spokesman spokesman.

Answered Prayers , a full account of English football’s greatest achievement and the failures that followed it.