1951 British Home Championship

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The 1951 British Home Championship football tournament was the Home Nations follow-up to England's disastrous appearance at their first World Cup, the 1950 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. There the much vaunted English had been beaten by the USA and Spain. The Scots had refused to go, and the Welsh and the Northern Irish had failed to qualify. The Scots went on to capitalise on the demoralised English by taking the Home Championship away from them too.

The tournament began with wins for the favourites away from home, England beating the Irish and Scotland the Welsh. In the second matches, this dominance was emphasised with powerful wins by England in Sunderland over the Welsh and Scotland who beat the Northern Irish 6-1 including four goals from Billy Steel. In the final game at Wembley Stadium, a tense and furious game brought the trophy to Scotland, who finished 3-2 winners. Wales had already beaten Northern Ireland to claim third spot.

[edit] Table

Team	Pts	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD
Scotland	6	3	3	0	12	4	+8
England	4	3	2	1	10	6	+4
Wales	2	3	1	2	5	8	-3
Northern Ireland	0	3	0	3	3	12	-9

The points system worked as follows:

2 points for a win
1 point for a draw

[edit] Results

October 7, 1950	Northern Ireland	1–4	England	Windsor Park, Belfast
	Edward McMorran		Eddie Baily 2, Jackie Lee, Billy Wright	Windsor Park, Belfast

October 21, 1950	Wales	1–3	Scotland	Ninian Park, Cardiff
	Aubrey Powell		Lawrie Reilly 2, Billy Liddell	Ninian Park, Cardiff

November 1, 1950	Scotland	6–1	Northern Ireland	Hampden Park, Glasgow
	Billy Steel 4, John McPhail 2		Kevin McGarry	Hampden Park, Glasgow

November 15, 1950	England	4–2	Wales	Roker Park, Sunderland
	Eddie Baily 2, Stan Mortensen, Jackie Milburn		Trevor Ford 2	Roker Park, Sunderland

March 7, 1951	Northern Ireland	1–2	Wales	Windsor Park, Belfast
	Billy Simpson		Roy Clarke 2	Windsor Park, Belfast

April 14, 1951	England	2–3	Scotland	Wembley Stadium, London
	Harold Hassall, Tom Finney		Bobby Johnstone, Lawrie Reilly, Billy Liddell	Wembley Stadium, London