Match Summary

Scotland Team

England Team

WEAK ENGLISH ATTACK

Scotland beat England by two goals to none in the annual Association football match at Hampden Park, Glasgow, on Saturday afternoon, and their victory was as well-deserved as it was unlooked for. The Scottish team played much better than anyone thought they could, and the English side, particularly in attack, fell far below what had been expected of them.

Both goals were scored early in the second half and within a couple of minutes of each other. The first half had been poor and tame, and neither side had looked like scoring at all. Scotland had been playing with an icy cold wind from the East at their backs; they were now to face it, and few people thought much of their chances of winning at the interval. But, as so often happens, a side will play better against the wind in the second half than with it in the first. It may rouse them to a bigger effort, or the strain of the earlier play may have told more heavily on their opponents. This was the case with Scotland on Saturday...

A corner forced on the left was disputed by the defenders, but was given at the signal of the linesman. Morton placed his kick well and the ball came right over to Archibald, who shot hard. The ball went straight along the ground to Hibbs, but it came so fiercely at him that he could not hold it. It ran loose. Hibbs was on the ground, and McGrory, Stevenson, and McPhail each had a kick, McPhail touching it  last just on the line...

Almost immediately afterwards Morton made a ring round Goodall, got well up the field, and centred. Hibbs got his hands to the ball, but knocked it down straight to McGrory's foot, and McGrory banged it into the net...

Of the 55 matches now played between the two countries Scotland has won 25, England 16, and 14 have been drawn. - The Times - Monday 30th March, 1931

Football League Division One 28 March 1931
Team	P	Pts
Arsenal	35	54
Aston Villa	36	51
Sheffield Wednesday	35	44
Derby County	34	41
Portsmouth	35	40
Manchester City	36	40
Huddersfield Town	35	39
Liverpool	35	38
Middlesbrough	36	38
Blackburn Rovers	36	36
Newcastle United	35	34
Chelsea	35	34
Sheffield United	35	33
West Ham United	35	32
Grimsby Town	36	32
Leicester City	35	32
Sunderland	35	31
Birmingham	35	29
Bolton Wanderers	35	29
Blackpool	35	28
Leeds United	36	25
Manchester United	36	16

 

Division One matches played on 28 March 1931:

ASTON VILLA 4-1 BLACKPOOL
Waring 3, Houghton (Longden)
27,245 (Villa Park, Birmingham)

BOLTON WANDERERS 1-1 MANCHESTER CITY
Blackmore pen. 36 (Brook 13)
17,398 (Burnden Park, Bolton)

CHELSEA 1-0 LEEDS UNITED
Gallacher 84
25,446 (Stamford Bridge, London)

Chelsea were without Jackie Crawford, who was making his only international appearance, against Scotland in Glasgow.

GRIMSBY TOWN 4-1 BIRMINGHAM
Prior, Coleman 3 (Fillingham)
10,994 (Blundell Park, Cleethorpes)

Birmingham were without Harry HIbbs, who was in goal against Scotland in Glasgow, and Ned Barkas had a second-half penalty saved by Grimsby's Tommy Read.

HUDDERSFIELD TOWN 1-1 BLACKBURN ROVERS
Gorman o.g. 53 (Cunliffe 67)
8,144 (Leeds Road, Huddersfield)

Les Bruton shot wide from a first-half penalty for Blackburn. Huddersfield were without Campbell and Goodall (the captain), who were both playing against Scotland in Glasgow.

LIVERPOOL 3-1 PORTSMOUTH
McDougall 8, Clark 59, Wright 74 (Ross 37)
17,155 (Anfield, Liverpool)

Liverpool were without Gordon Hodgson, who was playing against Scotland in Glasgow, whilst Portsmouth were without Jack Smith, who was a reserve in Glasgow.

MANCHESTER UNITED 1-2 SHEFFIELD UNITED
Hopkinson 75 (Dunne 34, Oxley 46)
5,420 (Old Trafford, Manchester)

Sheffield United goalkeeper, Jack Kendall went off with a twisted knee after half an hour, Harry Hooper went in goal and the ten men pulled off a remarkable victory.

MIDDLESBROUGH 2-5 ARSENAL
Parker o.g. 12, Cameron 24 (Lambert 11, 33, 46, Jack 40, 48)
23,476 (Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough)

Arsenal were without Herbie Roberts, who was making his only international appearance, against Scotland in Glasgow.

NEWCASTLE UNITED 2-0 SUNDERLAND
Bedford 88, 90
33,419 (St James' Park, Newcastle)

SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 4-0 LEICESTER CITY
Rimmer 26, 78, Ball 31, 55
10,525 (Hillsborough, Sheffield)

Wednesday were without Blenkinsop, Burgess and Strange, who were all playing against Scotland in Glasgow.

WEST HAM UNITED 0-1 DERBY COUNTY
(Randall 66)
16,658 (Upton Park, London)

Derby were without Sammy Crooks, who was playing against Scotland in Glasgow.

Manchester United's home defeat left them on the brink of relegation during a wretched season in which they lost all of their first twelve games. Meanwhile, at the other end, Arsenal marched on to win the title with a record 66 points.

Football League Division Two 28 March 1931
Team	P	Pts
Everton	35	54
Tottenham Hotspur	35	46
West Bromwich Albion	34	43
Bradford	35	38
Southampton	35	38
Wolverhampton Wanderers	35	38
Port Vale	35	38
Preston North End	35	37
Burnley	35	37
Bradford City	35	37
Stoke City	35	36
Oldham Athletic	36	35
Millwall	35	34
Bury	35	33
Charlton Athletic	35	33
Bristol City	35	31
Nottingham Forest	35	29
Swansea Town	35	29
Barnsley	35	29
Plymouth Argyle	35	27
Reading	35	27
Cardiff City	35	21

 

Division Two matches played on 28 March 1931:

BRADFORD 3-0 CARDIFF CITY
Spooner, Crayston 2
6,557 (Park Avenue, Bradford)

BURNLEY 1-1 BRADFORD CITY
Jenkins (Hallows)
7,082 (Turf Moor, Burnley)

MILLWALL 1-0 BURY
Landells
15,490 (The Den, London)

NOTTINGHAM FOREST 3-0 SWANSEA TOWN
Dickinson 2, Stocks
6,609 (City Ground, Nottingham)

An incredible three first-half penalties were missed. Swansea's Alex Ferguson saved the first from Billy Simpson, before Johnny Dent missed Forest's second penalty, and then Forest's Arthur Dexter stopped Billy Easton's twice-taken kick for Swansea.

OLDHAM ATHLETIC 2-1 PLYMOUTH ARGYLE
Johnstone, Dyson (Bowden)
8,458 (Boundary Park, Oldham)

PRESTON NORTH END 1-3 PORT VALE
Tremelling (Griffiths 2, Littlewood)
7,696 (Deepdale, Preston)

READING 6-1 BARNSLEY
McNeil, Bacon 2, Allan, Davies 2 (Dixon)
7,320 (Elm Park, Reading)

SOUTHAMPTON 3-0 CHARLTON ATHLETIC
Watson, Morgan o.g., Haines
8,700 (The Dell, Southampton)

STOKE CITY 2-0 EVERTON
Liddle, Bussey
12,300 (Victoria Ground, Stoke)

Everton were without Bill Dean, who was playing against Scotland in Glasgow.

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 2-2 WEST BROMWICH ALBION
O'Callaghan, Smailes (Sandford, Glidden)
49,921 (White Hart Lane, London)

WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 0-1 BRISTOL CITY
(Vials)
9,596 (Molineux, Wolverhampton)

The biggest English crowd of the day saw an entertaining duel between two promotion candidates. Tottenham maintained their three-point lead over West Brom, but it was the Baggies who were to finish runners-up to Everton to end their run of four seasons in the second division. They ended it with a historic FA Cup victory, as well, the first team to win the trophy and promotion in the same season.

Selected Division Three matches played on 28 March 1931:

GILLINGHAM 3-2 FULHAM
Bethell, Loasby, White (Haley 2)
4,898 (Priestfield Stadium, Gillingham)

Fulham were without Len Oliver, who was a reserve against Scotland in Glasgow.

NORTHAMPTON TOWN 0-0 NOTTS COUNTY
14,284 (County Ground, Northampton)

TRANMERE ROVERS 3-3 LINCOLN CITY
Urmson, Watts, Meston (Halliday 2, Lax)
15,402 (Prenton Park, Birkenhead)

Notts County were eight points clear of Southend United at the top of the southern section and comfortably strolled to promotion straight back to the second division. Lincoln were three goals down at the interval at Tranmere, but fought back to maintain their goal-average advantage over the Merseysiders at the top, as well as a game in hand. Chesterfield were lying four points behind them in third place, and looked to be out of it when Tranmere beat them on Good Friday, but it was the Derbyshire club that won their last six matches to pip Lincoln to the title and record their first ever promotion, clinching it with a stunning 8-1 thrashing of Gateshead.

IN OTHER NEWS...

It was on 29 March 1931 that the body of a thirty-year-old school bus driver, Carl Miller was found in a field in Colorado. He had been stranded in his bus with twenty children aged 7-14 in an unexpected blizzard, three days earlier, and he had set off to find help. Visibility was so bad that he did not know that they were only a mile away from a rancher's house and he had walked for three miles in another direction. His hands were cut from trying to use a barbed-wire fence to guide him. The surviving children, dressed for a warm spring day, were all suffering from hypothermia by the time that they were found after 33 hours in the bus which was woefully inadequate for the conditions, with broken windows and no heating. Three of them had died and two more, including Miller's daughter, died that night.

Source Notes

"At a conference in Liverpool on 7 January 1931 of the four national associations and the Football League, the following concessions was agreed:-
     "All International matches, apart from those between England and Scotland, in which the services of a League player would be required, would have to be played before the 14 December each year.
     "Any national association wishing to select a Football League player who was registered with a different association would have to apply for clearance from the Management Committee twenty-one days in advance. This applied, for example, if Scotland wished to pick a man based in England, or Ireland wished to pick a Welsh club's player. The Football League retained the right to refuse permission if the player was needed for an important League match.
    "All League players taking part in international matches had to be properly insured by the national association.
    "If a national association selected a League player for a Saturday international, it would have to pay the player's wages for that week.
This was accepted unanimously by the clubs in March 1931."

The Scottish Football Association paid Queen's Park FC the sum of £2339 for the use of their ground.

Scottish Football Association
Scotland - The Complete International Record: Richard Keir
London Hearts
original newspaper reports
Mandy Blair
FA Yearbooks 1950-60
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CG