in the final match of the 1951–52 British Home Championship, the first post-war match held away from Cardiff or Wrexham. It was seen as a homecoming for a side with a number of players from the area, including Ford, Ivor Allchurch and Ray Daniel, and Allchurch contributed a goal to the 3–0 victory. Wales met Austria at the Racecourse in November 1955, after playing the side in Vienna the previous year. Austria were taken by surprise in the first match by the rough play of Welsh forwards Ford and Derek Tapscott, a style of play uncommon in Europe. The Austrian side wanted to match Wales physically in the return match, which was called "The Battle of Wrexham". They claimed a 2–1 victory, with Wales's Roy Paul later describing the team's dressing room after the game: "Our goalkeeper, Jack Kelsey, had scars on both legs. Derek Tapscott [...] had a six-inch gash on his knee. [...] John Charles leaned over his brother Melvyn with tears in his eyes. Melvyn lay silent, still dazed by a tackle which had sent him crashing to the ground". The Western Mail described the match as "a disgrace", and one Austrian player called it "more like a boxing and kicking match than football". Despite a positive start to their qualifying campaign for the 1958 FIFA World Cup, defeating Czechoslovakia at Ninian Park during their opening game, Wales finished second in their group. When Israel's political status prompted several sides to refuse to play against the nation, however, Wales received another chance to qualify; according to FIFA rules, a team could not qualify for a World Cup without playing a match. A two-legged play-off against a European nation was arranged with Wales being drawn second after Belgium also refused the tie. Wales defeated Israel 4–0 on aggregate, with the home tie held at Ninian Park, to qualify for the tournament finals. Wales reached the quarter-finals, where they were defeated by Brazil. The team's World Cup success attracted more interest in the side, and in October 1959, a year after the tournament, a crowd of 62,634 watched a 1–1 draw with England at Ninian Park. The attendance set a record for a Wales home international which stood for more than 40 years, and was the highest attendance ever recorded at Ninian Park. High attendance figures continued into the early 1960s, with the next visit by England in 1961