1984 saw the last ever British Championship between the ‘home’ nations of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Billy Bingham’s Irish side proved triumphant, courtesy of finishing ahead of all three other nations on goal difference after identical results of a win, a draw and a defeat apiece.
The competition was disbanded when the English and Scottish FAs both declared they would no longer enter the competition; citing falling attendance figures, extended number of matches against foreign opposition, and increasing incidents of hooliganism among the reasons for their decisions.
Although the Welsh and the Irish were less than amused at their counterparts’ perceived arrogance in calling a halt to proceedings – and despite periodic calls for the competition to be revisited being made over the years -, the truth of the matter is the competition had long passed its sell-by date and is never likely to return. By the time of its pretty much unavoidable demise, the only fixture left grabbing the attention of the public was the traditional final clash of the tournament between the Auld Enemy of England and Scotland.
Every two years, brave-hearted English fans would head north to Glasgow to Hampden Park, while in alternative years their Scottish counterparts would make the return journey south to Wembley in considerably larger numbers and take over London. The fact that the Scottish support travelled in such high numbers was always a matter of concern to the English public, police force and media alike, and tales of their supporters’…ahem… exuberance, are legendary, with the 1977 occasion in particular becoming legendary in its infamy.
Despite the rowdiness of some, the presence of up to 60,000 Scots at Wembley would invariably lead to a magnificent atmosphere and some great games of football were played between the two rivals under the Twin Towers.
Thus, in this article, we will have a glance back at three such battles of the 1970s, all of them pivotal in some sense or another.
1975 and time’s up for Alan Ball
Our first glance back takes us to May 1975 and the culmination of the 1974-75 British Home Championships. The season had been Don Revie’s first in charge of the national side, following the dismissal of Sir Alf Ramsey and the seven-game interim management of Joe Mercer, and results under Revie had been reasonably promising in an unbeaten season.
A morale-inducing 2-0 victory over World Champions, West Germany, at Wembley in March had come in the middle of qualifying matches for the 1976 European Championships where seven points from a possible eight had been scoured from clashes with Czechoslovakia, Portugal and Malta.
Two draws in the Home Championships against Northern Ireland (0-0 in Belfast), and Wales (2-2 at Wembley) had not been entirely satisfactory, but as Scotland had only managed three points themselves coming into the Wembley clash, courtesy of beating the Irish (3-0 at Hampden) and drawing 2-2 with Wales in Cardiff, there was still everything to play for.
The teams lined up at Wembley in front of 98,241 spectators as follows;
England: Ray Clemence, Kevin Beattie, Colin Todd, Dave Watson, Steve Whitworth, Alan Ball (captain), Colin Bell, Gerry Francis, Mick Channon, David Johnson, Kevin Keegan.
Scotland: Stewart Kennedy, Sandy Jardine Defender(captain), Danny McGrain, Gordon McQueen, Frank Munro, Alfie Conn, Arthur Duncan, Bruce Rioch, Kenny Dalglish, Ted MacDougall, Derek Parlane.
The match was David Johnson’s second game for the Three Lions, while captain Ball was making his 72nd runout and looked to have put behind him any reputed bad feelings between him and manager Revie dating back to the days when Revie had allegedly made an illegal approach to sign him as manager of Leeds only to be unceremoniously rebuffed.
Expected to be close, the match was anything but, with England racing into a 2-0 lead within the opening seven minutes, courtesy of goals from Francis and Beattie. Colin Bell got a third after forty minutes, and although Bruce Rioch slotted home a penalty for the Scots on the stroke of half-time, further second-half goals from Francis and David Johnson saw England romp home 5-1 winners, and all looked rosy in the garden for England and Revie.
Making his sixth appearance as captain of England, Alan Ball at the age of 30 felt particularly pleased:
“That’s as good as it gets,” he boldly stated after the game.
Unfortunately for Ball, he was exactly on the button as, mysteriously, not only did he lose the captaincy following the match, but Revie never picked him for the side again in any capacity. It was a baffling end to an England career that had lasted a decade and had, of course, peaked in the World Cup Final victory over West Germany in 1966.
Following the match, as well as Ball being bombed out by Revie, both Whitworth and Bell would only feature another two times each, with injury curtailing Bell’s career completely. Meanwhile, the hapless Stewart Kennedy rather unsurprisingly never got another call-up for the Scots.
1977 and Rod plays Wembley
Two years later Scotland were once again back at Wembley. The intervening years had not been particularly kind to Revie or England, with qualification for the 1976 European Champ[ionships not being achieved following slip-ups in 1975-76 at the hands of Portugal (1-1 away), and Czechoslovakia (1-2, also away). The 1976-77 season had also gone poorly for Revie’s men, with a disastrous 2-0 defeat in Rome already making qualification for the 1978 World Cup unlikely, and equally terrible home defeats to Holland and Wales also added to the scorecard.
Scotland, on the other hand, were in fine form and were well on the way to qualification for the World Cup from a group containing Czechoslovakia and Wales. In the Home Championships, England had just two points to show, courtesy of a 2-1 victory in Belfast where Dennis Tueart had scored a last-gasp winner as England came from behind to win. Scotland, meanwhile, had drawn 0-0 in Cardiff before hammering the Irish 3-0 at Hampden and so only needed a draw against England to secure at least a share of the spoils in terms of winning the tournament.
Kicking off on 4th June 1977 in front of 98,103 spectators, the teams lined up as follows;
England: Ray Clemence, Mick Mills, Phil Neal, Dave Watson, Brian Greenhoff, Emlyn Hughes (captain), Brian Talbot, Ray Kennedy, Mick Channon, Trevor Francis, Stuart Pearson.
Scotland: Alan Rough, Willie Donachie, Tom Forsyth, Danny McGrain, Gordon McQueen, Asa Hartford, Willie Johnston, Don Masson, Bruce Rioch(captain), Kenny Dalglish, Joe Jordan.
From the kick-off, the Scots were the more powerful and aggressive and playing in front of an estimated 60,000 countrymen, it was no surprise when they took an early lead through Gordon McQueen. A second-half strike from the soon-to-be Liverpool-bound Kenny Dalglish made the game safe and a late consolation penalty strike from Mick Channon was irrelevant as Scotland ran out comfortable 2-1 winners and consigned England to their first-ever series of successive home defeats.
For Don Revie, it was almost the end as he would quit in controversial circumstances just a couple of weeks later to take up a position in the Middle East. It was also the last game to be played at Wembley without fencing for twelve years, as hoards of Scottish fans piled onto the pitch at the final whistle and proceeded to tear the pitch up and the goalposts down.
Among the ranks of the marauding Scots was none other than the ‘Professional Scotsman’ that is Rod Stewart. The North London born-and-bred, teenage Arsenal-supporter, decided to get a piece of the action and was carried across the pitch shoulder high by fellow supporters.
In 2004, at the age of almost 50, Rod became a Celtic fan.
1979 and Keegan takes charge
Two years flashed by in the blink of an eye, and in May 1979 Scotland were back in North London once again. Both sides by now were under different management from two years previously, with Ron Greenwood replacing the much-maligned and little-missed Revie on the England bench, while the legendary Jock Stein had taken over from Ally McLeod after a dismal showing in the 1978 World Cup had seen Scotland dispatched in the first round.
As usual, the clash between the two rivals was the final match in the Home Championships and England came into the game with three points following a victory over Northern Ireland (2-0 in Belfast) and a goalless home draw against Wales. Scotland, meanwhile had beaten Northern Ireland in Glasgow by a solitary goal but had been thumped 3-0 in Cardiff where a John Toshack hat trick had done the business.
A sell-out 100,000 crowd saw the sides line up thus;
England: Ray Clemence, Mick Mills, Phil Neal, Phil Thompson, Dave Watson, Peter Barnes, Trevor Brooking, Steve Coppell, Ray Wilkins, Kevin Keegan (captain), Bob Latchford.
Scotland: George Wood, George Burley, Frank Gray, Paul Hegarty, Gordon McQueen, Arthur Graham, Asa Hartford, Graeme Souness, John Wark, Kenny Dalglish Forward(captain), Joe Jordan.
Scotland started much stronger and for long periods of the first half, England looked strangely subdued for a team playing at home as Scotland took a grip on early proceedings. On twenty-six minutes, Ipswich Town’s John Wark put Scotland ahead. Scotland continued to make the early running and would have scored a second but for a remarkable save from Ray Clemence who twisted in mid-air to save a deflected shot spinning off the head of Dave Watson.
With fans – and Jock Stein – on their way out for a half-time cuppa, Peter Barnes tried a speculative shot from twenty-five yards out that seemed to bounce a half dozen times on its way past a distraught Alan Rough in goal and England were, somewhat undeservedly, level.
The second half saw England come to life and play much better. In a total turnaround from their first-half performance, England controlled the midfield a lot better but it took another mistake from Rough in the Scotland goal to give England the advantage. This time, he was unable to hold a speculative Ray Wilkins shot and Steve Coppell was on hand to prod home the rebound from three yards.
Now England took control and Kevin Keegan, the European Footballer of the Year, added a superlative third with twenty minutes to go to give England the victory and the Home Championship.
So, the final match between the two rivals of the 1970s ended in another England win, and although the Home International Championships would limp on for another five seasons, England and Scotland would only meet at Wembley another two times in the competition. In 1981, a John Robertson penalty was the only goal of the game in a Scotland victory, and two years later Bryan Robson and Gordon Cowans scored the goals in a 2-0 home victory.
