Drewry played a significant role in the 1950 game between England and the United States in which the English lost 1–0 to the rank outsiders in the 1950 FIFA World Cup in Belo Horizonte. The English national coach, Walter Winterbottom, had wanted to rest some players for the next game against Spain, but was over-ruled by Drewry, acting as sole selector, who chose an unchanged team from their last game, a 2–0 win against Chile. Stanley Rous, Drewry's secretary at the FA, visited him and urged him to include Stanley Matthews and make other changes to the team, but Drewry was adamant in his desire to keep an unchanged team. After the loss against the United States, Drewry acquiesced to four changes to the team, but England lost their next game to Spain 1–0, and as a result were eliminated from the tournament.