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England Team

Scotland Team

The Association match of the year maintained its high traditions of excellence, and it was only after a great demonstration of the finer arts of football that England beat Scotland, at Birmingham, on Saturday, by two goals to one. To the average spectator perhaps the game was lacking in some of the picturesqueness which is expected in fixtures of this international kind, but to those of practical experience in the game Saturday's  match was full of excellence. And the thing that must have been most appreciated by those keener judges of the play was the work of the English half-backs, with whom lay really the secret of England's success. For some years now the development of the duties of half-back in Association football has made this line in the game as vital as it is in Rugby Union ; and that this is so was well illustrated on Saturday...England scored their two goals in the first half of the game at periods of 25 minutes and 40 minutes from the start. The first was by G. O. Smith, to whom fortune was kind ; he lofted the ball at a 20 yards range over the heads of the halves and full backs, and the shot took effect in the top angle of the left post, the ball rebounding into the net off the post. But the second goal was a masterpiece. Athersmith got down on the right, and, with his opponents closing in on him, he middled to Settle, who had the goal at his mercy. The Scotsmen played a tremendous game at the beginning of the second half, and in seven or eight minutes the ball was bullied through after the goalkeeper had fallen... Their large ground at Aston was thronged by a company 40,000 strong, and the methods for dealing with such a company were perfectly carried out. - The Times - Monday 10th April, 1899

Source Notes

England Football Factbook: Cris Freddi
Scottish Football Association
Scotland - The Complete International Record: Richard Keir
London Hearts
LFCHistory
original newspaper reports
FA Yearbooks 1950-60
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