Grainy television images of Gordon Banks, the Charlton brothers, Geoff Hurst and captain Bobby Moore lifting the Jules Rimet Trophy will serve as a reminder to the current England squad of the standards required if they are to emulate the 1966 success.

Sir Alf Ramsey's wingless wonders remain the benchmark for any England side, but who were the unsung heroes of that famous triumph? Who were the players whose unselfish work allowed the others to flourish?

The central defensive partnership between Moore and Jack Charlton is well documented in front of the immaculate goalkeeping skills of Banks, but full-backs George Cohen and Ray Wilson go largely unnoticed despite being key members of Ramsey's line-up.

Left-back Wilson was already an England veteran by 1966 having been an ever-present during the disappointing World Cup campaign in Chile four years earlier, which ended with a quarter-final exit to eventual winners Brazil.

Wilson fought off competition from Liverpool's Gerry Byrne to establish himself in Ramsey's England line-up despite playing for unfancied Huddersfield, where he developed into a strong and pacy overlapping full-back under manager Bill Shankly. He remains Huddersfield's most-capped player even to this day after earning 30 caps there prior to a move to Everton in 1964, and he warmed up for World Cup year in 1966 by winning the FA Cup at Wembley against Sheffield Wednesday.

Everton lifted the cup that year despite Wilson deflecting an early shot past his goalkeeper and he suffered a similar mishap in the World Cup final when his weak early header enabled striker Helmut Haller to give West Germany an early lead.

Fortunately for Wilson, the oldest member of the squad at 32, Hurst memorably struck a hat-trick to clinch England's victory and their place in soccer history, but he lost his place to Terry Cooper for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico and retired the following year to set up an undertaker's business in Huddersfield.

Wilson's status as the World Cup winner with perhaps the lowest profile was underlined by the fact he was one of only five members of England's historic side - Cohen, Nobby Stiles, Alan Ball and Roger Hunt were the others - to have missed out on official recognition of the 1966 triumph. That was rectified in 2000 when England's unsung five received an MBE for services to football - many years after the rest of the team and Ramsey had received their gongs - following a high-profile media campaign.

Fellow full-back Cohen made a late run into England's successful World Cup line-up having played the role of understudy to the highly-rated Jimmy Armfield for many years. Cohen, who spent his whole career at Fulham, was given his chance in 1964 as a reaction to England's embarrassing defeat to Scotland at Hampden Park. Ramsey reacted to that setback by giving Cohen his debut later that year against Uruguay and he retained his place for 21 of the next 23 internationals after Armfield suffered a long-standing injury.