England lost their first Home International since the war in a game watched by nearly 100,000 people. Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh joined the spectators under blue skies and a warm April sun.

For the first 25 minutes England tore into the Scottish defence with some brilliant football. Unfortunately, they found Cowan in unbeatable form and the goalkeeper virtually too England on single-handedly in this spell. Two saves from Stan Mortensen will live long in the memory as he continually kept Scotland in the match.

At the end of that period of England pressure, Cowan blocked Stan Pearson's shot after Tom Finney had centred. Mortensen followed up to flash the rebound towards the empty net, only to see Cox come from nowhere to clear from the goal-line. Twice Jackie Milburn went close and Cowan then saved brilliantly again, this time from Mortensen.

That final save brought England's superiority to an end and the Scots then hit back hard. On 29 minutes they took the lead. A throw-in by Houliston found Steel, who gave Reilly a clever pass which took John Aston out of the game. Reilly's cross was met by Mason and it was 1-0 as the ball went in off the far post.

After the interval Scotland inspired by the goal, were a changed side. Now moving quickly and effectively they were winning all of the loose balls and most of the tackles. Only Neil Franklin stood firm for England as Steel and Mason took control of the game.

In the first 15 minutes of the second-half, Scotland scored two more goals to virtually settle the result. Swift inter-passing between Mason and Steel found Houliston. The centre-forward back-heeled out of a ruck of English defenders and Steel was left with the easy task of walking the ball into the net. When Reilly headed home Waddell's perfect cross a few minutes later, the England defence was again caught flat-footed.

The home side, devastated by these two goals, manfully tried to fight back and in the last quarter of an hour came close to sensationally saving the game. Milburn pulled one goal back when he diverted a Mortensen shot and then Stanley Matthews saw a goalbound shot blocked by Milburn. Finally, in a rousing finish, a Pearson header hit the bar.

Over all, Scotland had deserved their win, but had it not been for the superb early work of Cowan, then it might have been a different story.
  

The selectors decided to make five changes in the team that beat Switzerland 6-0. With Derby County dynamo Billy Steel at his most potent, Scotland tore into England after Scottish goalkeeper Jimmy Cowan had almost played England on his own in the opening twenty minutes. Jimmy Mason, Steel and Lawrie Reilly put the Scots on the way to the Home Championship before Milburn snatched a consolation goal. Scotland's goalkeeper Jimmy Cowan was rightly hailed as the hero because of a string of wonderful saves in the first twenty minutes, but the real match winner for the Scots was their left-back Sammy Cox. He usually played as a wing-half and everybody expected Stanley Matthews to give him a roasting. But Sammy cleverly cut Stanley out of the game by intercepting many of the passes meant for the Maestro.
 

Both England, the reigning British Champions, and Scotland had won both their previous matches. For England a point would give them their fifth successive peacetime Championship. Scotland had not beaten England since 1938 and had not won the Championship outright since 1936.

For the first 25 minutes it was all England, but the Scotland goalkeeper Jimmy Cowan made save after save to keep them out. Then Scotland struck. Reilly crossed and Jimmy Mason flicked the ball just wide of Swift to give the Scots a surprise lead. With an hour's play gone Scotland were, incredibly, three goals up. First. Billy Steel put Houliston through. Swift was slow in coming off his line but Aston managed to stab the ball away from the attacker before he could shoot only for Steel to net the attempted clearance. Then a Waddell cross was headed in by Lawrie Reilly. England finally got a goal back in the last 15 minutes when Finney laid the ball back for Mortensen whose shot was turned in by Jackie Milburn.

England regained the Championship the following year and qualified for their first World Cup in the process. Scotland finished runners-up after losing 1-0 to England at Hampden Park.
 

Source Notes

TheFA.com
London Hearts.com
Original newspaper reports
Rothman's Yearbooks
Mike Payne's England: The Complete Post-War Record (Breedon Books Publishing Company, Derby, U.K., 1993)
Glen Isherwood's Wembley: The Complete Record (SportsBooks Limited, Cheltenham, U.K., 2006)
Norman Giller, Football Author
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CG