June 15th and today I'm going back 25 years to 1996 and that iconic match up between "the Auld Enemy" at Wembley Stadium.
I've been to a few big games in my life and few came bigger than this one did. What was different however was that this game lived up to the pre-match hype and established England in a tournament that they came so close to winning. Yet they could so easily have lost this one and we (allegedly) needed all the magical powers of Uri Geller before overcoming the Scots. 25 years later and we have another England v Scotland fixture to contemplate, also at Wembley and also in the European Championships, this coming Friday.
This programme cost me £4 on the day and you can get it from a dealer these days for no more than £5 which suggests that plenty of copies were printed. Interestingly the cover describes the game as Scotland versus England rather than the other way around which implies that Scotland were regarded by UEFA as being the home side. Given that the game was played at England's national stadium and that both sides wore their usual home kit, I can't imagine what home status gave to Scotland that day but perhaps they got the choice of dressing rooms or preference over which direction to play at kick off? The photo on the cover is clearly of a game at Hampden and I'm looking forward to revisiting Hampden for the fifth time this coming Friday after a gap of 32 years. Last time I was there it was 1989 and the stadium was largely terraced and uncovered unlike today's all seater bowl. This coming Friday it's Croatia against the Czech Republic for me followed by England v Scotland on the radio on the road back south.
The game in 1996 was all about a minute during which time Gary McAllister missed a potential equalising penalty for Scotland and then Gazza went up the other end and scored what is surely one of the most replayed and famous goals English football has ever seen. In fact Gazza's goal is so monumental, can you even remember England's opener scored, early in the second half, by Alan Shearer? Can you? It's on the video attached to my blog if you need to remind yourself.
As McAllister ran up to take his penalty there is no doubt that the ball moved ever so slightly on the spot. Whether it was this that led to his spot kick being saved will never be known. The celebrity spoon bender and publicity whore Uri Geller claimed that it was all down to the power of his mind. Maybe it was the effectiveness of such dark arts that led Glenn Hoddle to appoint faith healer Eileen Drewery to England's backroom team a couple of years later leaving no stone unturned in their quest for the World Cup?
A minute after Seaman's dramatic save, Gazza was bearing down on the Scotland goal with only Rangers team mate Colin Hendrie to beat. His chip over Hendrie's head and half volley past keeper Andy Goram and into the net is now legendary as was the celebration immediately afterwards. The England team had closed ranks against the tabloid press following terrible adverse publicity arising from their pre-tournament bonding trip to Hong Kong. Media coverage had been of a disgraceful binge drinking session involving "the dentist's chair" and Gazza wanted to re-enact it as part of his pre-planned goal celebration. It was a fabulous slap in the face for the tabloids who were being made to look petty and ridiculous. Their criticism melted away in that moment as they finally got behind the team.
CRB Match No. 1043
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