1967 British Home Championship

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 1967 British Home Championship has remained famous in the memories of British Home Nations football fans ever since the dramatic climatic match at Wembley Stadium, where an unfancied Scottish team beat England on the same turf they had won the 1966 FIFA World Cup a year before. England had comfortably desposed of Wales and Northern Ireland in the earlier matches, whilst Scotland had struggled, drawing with Wales and only just beating the Irish. In the final match however, the Scots outplayed their illustrious opponents and claimed a 3-2 victory, thus becoming "World Champions" in the words of many enthusiastic Scottish supporters, who invaded and stole much of the pitch after the game. In contrast to later pitch invasions, this was conducted in a light-hearted spirit and merited no significant police action. The "World Champions" idea has since taken more tangible form in the Unofficial Football World Championships.

The contest was also important as it formed the first half of the qualifying stages for the 1968 UEFA European Football Championship, a competition England would eventually qualify for in the following 1968 British Home Championship and reach the semi-finals, ultimately securing third position overall.

[edit] Table

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

The points system worked as follows:

2 points for a win
1 point for a draw

[edit] Results

October 22, 1966	Northern Ireland	0–2	England	Windsor Park, Belfast
			Roger Hunt, Martin Peters	Windsor Park, Belfast

October 22, 1966	Wales	1–1	Scotland	Ninian Park, Cardiff
	Ron Davies		Denis Law	Ninian Park, Cardiff

November 16, 1966	Scotland	2–1	Northern Ireland	Hampden Park, Glasgow
	Bobby Murdoch, Bobby Lennox		Jimmy Nicholson	Hampden Park, Glasgow

November 16, 1966	England	5–1	Wales	Wembley Stadium, London
	Geoff Hurst 2, Bobby Charlton, Jack Charlton, Own Goal		Wyn Davies	Wembley Stadium, London

April 12, 1967	Northern Ireland	0–0	Wales	Windsor Park, Belfast
				Windsor Park, Belfast

April 15, 1967	England	2–3	Scotland	Wembley Stadium, London
	Jack Charlton, Geoff Hurst		Denis Law, Bobby Lennox, Jim McCalliog	Wembley Stadium, London