England V Scotland Representative Football Matches (1870–1872)
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Between 1870 and 1872,
the Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the ...
(FA) organised five representative
association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
matches between teams representing
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
, all held in
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
. The first of these matches was held at
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on 5 March 1870, and the fifth was on 21 February 1872.The Scotsman Newspaper Monday 27 February 1871 page 7 The matches, which were organised by
Charles W. Alcock Charles William Alcock (2 December 1842 – 26 February 1907) was an English sportsman, administrator, author and editor. He was a major instigator in the development of both international football and cricket, as well as being the creator of ...
, are the precursors to modern international football and were referred to as internationals at the time. They are not recognised, however, as full internationals by
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as the players competing in the Scotland team were drawn only from London-based Scottish players. They were followed by the 1872 match in Glasgow between
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
and
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
which is recognised as the first international match.


The first match

The 1870 match was initiated by
Charles W. Alcock Charles William Alcock (2 December 1842 – 26 February 1907) was an English sportsman, administrator, author and editor. He was a major instigator in the development of both international football and cricket, as well as being the creator of ...
who placed advertisements in Scottish newspapers, including the following letter in the ''
Glasgow Herald ''The Herald'' is a Scottish broadsheet newspaper founded in 1783. ''The Herald'' is the longest running national newspaper in the world and is the eighth oldest daily paper in the world. The title was simplified from ''The Glasgow Herald'' in ...
'' on 3 November 1870 regarding the second of the five fixtures: The first match, then, was organised by the FAGlasgow Herald (Glasgow, Scotland), Monday, 7 March 1870; Issue 9415 and resulted in a 1–1 draw. The match was delayed two weeks from its advertised date due to excessive frost which had made the ground "dangerously unfit for play". Alcock captained the England team whilst Scotland were led by James Kirkpatrick. The match was 0–0 when the teams changed end at
half-time In several team sports, matches are played in two halves. Half-time (also written halftime or half time) is the name given to the interval between the two halves of the match. Typically, after half-time, teams swap ends of the field of play in or ...
– a rule that ''The Sporting Gazette'' of Saturday 12 March 1870 described as new – but Scotland took a lead through a goal by Robert Crawford after England had moved their
goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...
upfield. England fought back to score through
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to salvage a
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before the end of the game. W. H. Gladstone, an MP and son of the sitting Prime Minister W. E. Gladstone, appeared for Scotland and, according to the ''
Manchester Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', "did good service on the part of the Scottish team".


Subsequent matches

The following four matches were held on: 19 November 1870, 25 February 1871, 17 November 1871 and 24 February 1872. All matches were advertised in Scottish newspapers, but the players were drawn from those who played by Football Association rules – still limited at the time and largely consisting of only London-based Scottish players. England were victorious 1–0 in the November 1870 match, 2–1 in the November 1871 match and 1–0 in the February 1872 match; the February 1871 match was drawn 1–1. The only recorded attendance figure known is 650, from the second match.
Formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...
data does not exist from three of the matches, but it is known that in the third and fifth matches both teams lined up with a '1–1–8' formation.


Results


Player appearances

The following players appeared in the five matches:


Reaction and the creation of international football

Following the games, there was resentment in Scotland that their team did not contain more home grown players. Alcock himself was categorical about where he felt responsibility for this fact lay, writing in the Scotsman newspaper:
"I must join issue with your correspondent in some instances. First, I assert that of whatever the Scotch eleven may have been composed the right to play was ''open to every Scotchman'' lcock's italicswhether his lines were cast North or South of the Tweed and that if in the face of the invitations publicly given through the columns of leading journals of Scotland the representative eleven consisted chiefly of Anglo-Scotians ... the fault lies on the heads of the players of the north, not on the management who sought the services of all alike impartially. To call the team London Scotchmen contributes nothing. The match was, as announced, to all intents and purposes between England and Scotland".
Many of the players in Scotland did not play to the FA's rules at the time, inhibiting the possibility of a truly representative match between the two countries. Eventually, the FA decided in its minutes of 3 October 1872 note that: The challenge was eventually taken up by Queen's Park and this match, in 1872 is the earliest international football match recognised by FIFA, though at the time it was considered as a continuation of the previous internationals. In March 1873 the
Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (also known as the SFA and the Scottish FA; sco, Scots Fitba Association; Scottish Gaelic: ''Comann Ball-coise na h-Alba'') is the Sport governing body, governing body of association football, football in Scot ...
was created to support the coordination of football in Scotland, taking on responsibility for selecting Scottish teams, and the Football Association began to take the role as an English only organisation.


See also

* :England v Scotland representative footballers (1870–1872) *
England national football team results (unofficial matches) This is a list of the England national football team's results from 1870 to the present day that, for various reasons, are ''not'' accorded the status of official International A Matches. 1870s 1890s The Football Association (FA) instiga ...
*
Scotland national football team results (unofficial matches) From 1870 to the present day, the Scotland national football team have played various matches that are not accorded the status of official (FIFA) internationals by the governing body, the Scottish Football Association. These include early matches ...


References


External links


Matches on RSSSF website
{{DEFAULTSORT:England v Scotland representative football matches (1870-1872) 1870 Unofficial Scotland national football team matches Unofficial England national football team matches 1870–71 in English football 1871–72 in English football 1870–71 in Scottish football 1871–72 in Scottish football 1870 sports events in London 1871 sports events in London 1872 sports events in London March 1870 sports events November 1870 sports events February 1871 sports events November 1871 sports events February 1872 sports events