Today I'm going back 38 years to 1984 and England's British Championship (usually referred to as the "Home International Championship") match against Northern Ireland played at the old Wembley (the one with the twin towers) with an attendance of just 24,000.
This was England's 586th international match ever but was only the fifth time that I had seen England play. The 1984 edition of the Home Internationals was the last of an annual series that dated back exactly a century to 1884. The Championship was usually competed for as an end-of-season contest between England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland (or Northern Ireland since the late 1950's). The terrible attendance at the featured game provides one reason as to why the decision was taken to abandon the Home Internationals. Additionally there was an increasing tendency towards hooliganism at some of these matches (especially England v Scotland) and it was also felt that the players (of England mainly) would benefit from end of season games against foreign opponents rather than against players who they were likely to meet domestically in Football League action during the season anyway.
England won the game 1-0 thanks to a Tony Woodcock header following a save by Irish keeper Jim Platt from a Viv Anderson shot. Making his debut for England that day was Liverpool left-back Alan Kennedy who was earning the first of only two caps for England. It's hard to think of a more decorated Englishman who won less caps than "Barney" (nicknamed after the Flintstones character). Kennedy won five Football League titles, four League Cups and two European Cups with Liverpool so his return of two appearances for England is surprisingly few. Winning his 17th and last cap for England in the same game was Arsenal midfielder Graham Rix. Sadly, shame and controversy followed Rix around during his career. In addition to playing for Arsenal, Rix was convicted of having sex with an underage girl and was also accused of racism and bullying whilst coaching at Chelsea for which the club made out of court settlements to the complainants.
The front cover of today's featured programme shows Glenn Hoddle fending off a challenge from Northern Ireland's Gerry Mullen at the previous match between the two sides played at Windsor Park in Belfast in 1983. Neither player appeared in today's featured game. In all, Hoddle appeared 53 times for England scoring eight goals and, perhaps famously, he is usually the player picked out by pundits and former players as being the man who would have earned a century of caps or more but for the fact that "the English don't like that kind of player". That said, I saw a lot of Hoddle in his prime and, whilst he could be brilliant at times, he could also disappear when the going got tough. I have to say that I preferred the silky skills of Ray Wilkins at the time, as did more than one England manager and I'd like to doff my metaphorical cap to Ray Wilkins today in recognition of his passing, the result of a heart attack at the age of just 61 and exactly four years ago today. Ciao Raymundo!
CRB Match No. 302
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