November 13 – Scholes Sinks Scotland

THANKS to the much lamented demise of the home international tournament the world’s oldest international fixture is something of a rarity these days.

The last time England and Scotland met on the football field was a two-legged play-off game in 1999 with the prize a place at Euro 2000. It was on this day that year that Hampden Park hosted the first stage of this fixture.

At the time England were being led by Kevin Keegan, while Craig Brown was in the dug out for the Scots. Although England were slight favourites over the two legs, there was no doubt they faced a daunting task at Hampden in front of a full house of Scottish fans.

Ginger wizard Paul Scholes was the man to silence them with two first half strikes that gave England a 2-0 win. At 1-0 David Seaman saved brilliantly to deny Kevin Gallacher and the Scots a way back into the game, before Scholes scored his second to give the Three Lions some breathing space.

The second half would prove frustrating for the hosts who had a lot of possession without really creating much, while England were happy to sit back in their own half and defend their lead.

“We’ve started, under my reign, to play the way I want to play,” said a delighted England coach Kevin Keegan. “We played fantastic today. I couldn’t have asked for more.”

But Scotland coach Craig Brown refused to give in. “We can still go to Wembley with hope. We’ve always scored away from home when we need to and we came do it in London,” he said.

And we was spot on. A week later Scotland went to Wembley and a Don Hutchison goal gave them a battling 1-0 win. England were through, but Scotland had beaten them at Wembley and proved their point.

After being beaten at home by a team that didn’t even make the finals, Keegan was at his best. “I know you’ll laugh,” he said after the lacklustre display against the Scots, “But we have a chance to win it.”

It’s the way you tell ‘em Kev. We did laugh, a lot. Until Phil Neville conceded a late penalty against Romania meaning KK’s charges didn’t even make it out of the group stage.

Right, tomorrow’s story features another international match from yesteryear so come back for a bit of midweek relief from us here at OTFD.