June 1st and I'm going back 38 years to 1983 and the day I turned 20 going to watch England play Scotland at the old Wembley.
The ticket for this game came once again via York City and our group of fans had a great day out in London. I will always remember that the Epsom Derby was run that afternoon and, because a number of other York fans were having a little flutter, I thought I'd give it a go and put a couple of quid on the only jockey I had ever heard of (Lester Piggott) riding Teenoso (perfect for an ex teenager like myself). With an eye for form like that I won of course! Apparently it was Piggott's record ninth and last win in the Derby but it was my first and, so far, last!
London was absolutely rammed with drunken Scotsmen that day but I'd have to say that the York City contingent weren't too far behind in the alcohol consumption stakes! By kick-off time that Wednesday evening I was ready for some football.
The world's first football International had taken place in 1872 with Scotland meeting England in Glasgow and, prior to this game, the two countries had met each other exactly 100 times in total with honours even at 39 wins apiece. English football at this time was at fairly a low ebb but they had reached the final Group Stage at the 1982 World Cup in Spain after having failed to qualify for the World Cups of both 1974 and 1978. Scotland on the other hand were the home nation with the excellent World Cup qualifying record and had reached each of the previous three Finals although they had failed to get past the Group Stage every time. Legend of the Scottish game Jock Stein was the man responsible for seeing if Scotland could go a stage further at the next World Cup but, unfortunately, he never lived to see Scotland in Mexico in 1986 dying immediately following their World Cup qualifier in Cardiff in September 1985.
Peter Shilton was winning his 50th cap of a career that would go on for a further seven years and yield 125 caps overall. At the other end of the scale Tottenham's Graham Roberts was winning just his second cap of an England career that yielded only six caps in total and was finished the following year. After 13 minutes Bobby Robson's England were ahead with a goal from skipper Bryan Robson following a Terry Butcher flick on from a long throw in. It was a carbon copy of Robson's goal against France at the World Cup the previous summer. In what was also to become a pattern, Bryan Robson limped off with a groin injury ten minutes later. Robson's England career was blighted by injury and one wonders how many more caps and goals he would have earned (in addition to the 90 caps and 26 goals that he did achieve) if he hadn't picked up so many injuries along the way.
Ten minutes into the second half and England picked up a second goal courtesy of Aston Villa's highly rated Gordon Cowans who was winning his fourth cap. Cowans is consistently selected by Aston Villa fans as being one of the three best players in their history but this didn't really translate into international honours as Cowans' England career was over after just ten caps and two goals.
There was no further scoring and, as well as beating Scotland 2-0, England had won the Home International Championship. Crucially as far as domestic bragging rights were concerned, England had also edged ahead of Scotland in the all-time head-to-head. Scotland would never retake that particular lead and the Tartan Army headed homewards to think again.
CRB Match No. 254
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