10 Things: Scotland v England

Scotland are playing England at Celtic Park tonight in what is the oldest fixture in world football.

The game first took place in November 1872 at the West of Scotland Cricket Club ground at Hamilton Crescent in Partick. It finished 0-0 in front of a crowd of 4,000.

Here are 10 other facts from Scotland v England meetings:

1 Queen’s Park supplied all 11 players for that first ever national side. The Glasgow club also provided the strips, as they wore blue colours at that time before moving to their black-and-white hooped jerseys the following year.

2 A badge from a Scottish jersey from that first ever game was recently discovered by the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden. It is the only badge from the game to remain and is ‘priceless’ according to museum curator Richard McBrearty.

3 Queen’s Park’s William Gibb and Henry W Renny-Taylor of the Royal Engineers scored Scotland’s first ever goals against England in a 4-2 defeat in 1873. The game was played at Kennington in London at another cricket ground – The Oval.

4 Robert Smyth McColl scored a hat-trick in a 4-1 Scotland win over England in 1900 at Celtic Park. The following year he set up a newspaper chain with his brother Tom and the name RS McColl is still seen on shops today.

5 Cathkin Park, which sits in the shadow of the National Stadium at Hampden, hosted the 1884, 1886, 1888 and 1890 matches between Scotland and England. At that time the ground was known as the second Hampden and was used by Queen’s Park. Third Lanark moved into the ground in 1903 when Queen’s moved to the third Hampden and it was their home until the club left the Scottish Football league in 1967. Parts of the terracing remain to this day.

6 Derby County striker Steve Bloomer, who also played baseball for the Derby County Baseball Club, scored the only goal of the game when England defeated Scotland 110 years ago at Celtic Park.
       
7 Jim McCalliog scored on his international debut when Scotland defeated England 3-2 at Wembley in 1967, less than a year after their hosts had been crowned world champions.

8 The Scottish FA organised a game between Scotland and England to mark their centenary in 1973 but it was not a cause for celebration as England romped to a 5-0 win on a frost-covered Hampden pitch.

9 Scotland won the Rous Cup when they defeated England in 1-0 in 1985 thanks to a headed goal from Richard Gough. The cup was named after a former Secretary at the FA, Sir Stanley Rous, and it was played over a five-year period. For the first two years it was a Scotland versus England affair then Brazil, Colombia and Chile were added to make it a three-team event.

10 The last time Scotland hosted England was back in November 1999 in a Euro 2000 play-off. The 15-year gap between that game and tonight’s one is the longest period the fixture has not been played in Scotland since it started in 1872.

Craig Stewart