Match Summary

Scotland Team

England Team

The victory of Scotland by two goals to one on Saturday at Glasgow has occurred in a season when the English football public held high hopes of a reduction in the lead of wins established by Scotland in the 25 years of the match. But England on Saturday were beaten on their merits, and the secret of their loss was to be found in the important position of half-back. Here England were weak, and the Scottish in the same line were fast and strong. The half is the first line of defence and a second line of attack, so it will be easily understood that when the Scottish forwards were often unchecked, and the English forwards waited in vain for the ball to be sent up, England's chances of success were much prejudiced. These things were most palpable in the first period, but subsequently the Englishmen mended their ways and had more of the game than the Scots. Forward the Scottish executed a lot of sound work, in which their quickness in kicking was a characteristic, and, as already stated, the home halves not only broke up the English combination but placed the ball well for the forwards...

Scotland's forwards again broke away, and Lambie on the left gave Raikes a swift shot which the latter failed to clear, and Lambie, closing up, got Scotland's first goal rather less than half an hour from the start. Some fine kicking by the Scottish backs kept the play generally up in the visitors' quarters, and pretty passing soon yielded a goal by King...

...However, Doig was at last beaten by Bassett, to whom Goodall had passed...

This was Scotland's 12th victory to England's seven. Six matches have been drawn. The goal aggregate is : --Scotland 60 ; England 52. - The Times - Monday 6th April, 1896

 

Football League Division One 4 April 1896
Team	P	Pts
Aston Villa	29	43
Derby County	28	38
Everton	27	36
Sunderland	29	35
Bolton Wanderers	27	34
Stoke	29	30
Blackburn Rovers	26	28
Preston North End	29	28
The Wednesday	27	27
Bury	27	25
Burnley	29	25
Sheffield United	28	24
Nottingham Forest	29	23
Wolverhampton Wanderers	27	17
Small Heath	27	17
West Bromwich Albion	28	16

 

Division One matches played on 4 April 1896:

BOLTON WANDERERS 2-1 WEST BROMWICH ALBION
Cassidy, Jack (Banks)
 7,000 (Burnden Park, Bolton)

West Brom were without Billy Bassett, who scored for England in Glasgow.

BURNLEY 2-2 DERBY COUNTY
Nicol, Place jnr. (Paul, nk)
 6,000 (Turf Moor, Burnley)

Derby were without John Goodall, who was playing for England in Glasgow.

NOTTINGHAM FOREST 3-2 WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS
McInnes, Carnelly, Smellie (Scott o.g., Fleming)
 4,000 (Town Ground, Nottingham)

Wolves were without Harry Wood, who was playing for England in Glasgow.

PRESTON NORTH END 1-1 BURY
Smith (Barr)
 7,000 (Deepdale, Preston)

STOKE 3-0 BLACKBURN ROVERS
Johnson, W.Maxwell 2
 6,000 (Victoria Ground, Stoke)

Stoke were without Tommy Hyslop, who was playing for Scotland against England in Glasgow, as was Blackburn's Tom Brandon.

THE WEDNESDAY 3-0 SMALL HEATH
Davis, Bell, Spiksley
 6,000 (Olive Grove, Sheffield)

Wednesday were without Tom Crawshaw, who was playing for England in Glasgow.

 

Although they recovered from being two goals down, Derby's draw at Burnley stretched their run without a win to four games and meant that Aston Villa were League Champions for the second time in three years.

Football League Division Two 4 April 1896
Team	P	Pts
Liverpool	30	46
Manchester City	29	44
Burton Wanderers	29	42
Grimsby Town	28	38
Newcastle United	27	34
Newton Heath	28	31
Leicester Fosse	27	30
Woolwich Arsenal	28	30
Darwen	28	26
Notts County	28	24
Burton Swifts	29	24
Lincoln City	28	18
Rotherham Town	29	17
Loughborough	26	16
Burslem Port Vale	25	15
Crewe Alexandra	29	13

 

Division Two matches played on 4 April 1896:

BURTON WANDERERS 4-1 LINCOLN CITY
Garfield 3, A.J.Capes (Frettingham)
2,000 (Derby Turn, Burton)

GRIMSBY TOWN 1-1 WOOLWICH ARSENAL
Higgins (Boyd)
 5,000 (Abbey Park, Grimsby)

LEICESTER FOSSE 1-2 MANCHESTER CITY
McArthur (Meredith, Robson)
 5,000 (Filbert Street, Leicester)

NEWCASTLE UNITED 5-0 BURTON SWIFTS
Stott, Wardrope 2, Thompson 2
 7,000 (St. James' Park, Newcastle)

NEWTON HEATH 2-0 LOUGHBOROUGH
Smith, Donaldson
 6,000 (Bank Street, Manchester)

NOTTS COUNTY 6-0 CREWE ALEXANDRA
Chadburn, Bull 2, McCallum, Kiddier, Shelton
 1,000 (Trent Bridge, Nottingham)

 

 

 

 

Although Manchester City could still mathematically catch Liverpool, they would have to beat Notts County by 63 goals in their last match to clinch the title on goal average. This would mean equalling their goals tally of the other 29 games in just one match! Of more concern, was Burton Wanderers pipping them to the second test match place, but Burton were to lose at home to Notts County, just two days later, and City won 2-0, two days after that, but only Liverpool were to gain promotion.

IN OTHER NEWS...

It was on 4 April 1896 that Whitechapel, scene of the Jack the Ripper murders, eight years earlier, was once again witness to a horrific double murder. A wealthy retired 75-year-old, John Levy and his 37-year-old housekeeper, Annie Gale were both butchered by William Seaman, who had a history of violent crimes. Seaman claimed that Levy had tried to avoid paying him the £70 that he was owed from a deal relating to stolen goods and ransacked the house after murdering the couple, but a neighbour arrived and called the police before Seaman could escape. He climbed up onto the roof and then jumped about forty feet into a crowd of people that had gathered on the street. The police arrested him and he was hanged for the crimes, two months later, after willingly accepting his fate.

Source Notes

England Football Factbook: Cris Freddi
Scottish Football Association
Scotland - The Complete International Record: Richard Keir
London Hearts
original newspaper reports
FA Yearbooks 1950-60
England Expects: James Corbett, [2006] p28.
Cris Freddi for the team pic
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CG