1954 British Home Championship
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The 1954 British Home Championship was an international football tournament played between the British Home Nations during the 1953/54 season which also provided the home nations qualifying tournament for the 1954 FIFA World Cup. Both England and Scotland qualified as first and second placed teams repectively, but both were subsequently knocked out by Uruguay. Scotland lost 7-0 to the South Americans in a rout during the group stages whilst England went down 4-2 to them in a hard-fough quarter final. The eventual world cup finalists, Hungary also shocked the British Isles during the season with two victories over England. The first was England's first home defeat to a foreign football team ever when Hungary won 6-3 at Wembley in November. The game was witnessed by a crowd of 100,000 amid much media attention and the scale of the defeat had long-reaching effects on football throughout Britain. Six months later and less than a month before the World Cup in Switzerland, the England team attempted to restore lost pride with a return match in Budapest. The resulting defeat remains the worst in English footballing history, as the team crashed 7-1 to their skilled opponents.
The scale of these defeats is evidenced by England's dominance of the Home Championship, winning victories over the other three nations easily and taking first place. Scotland struggled against Wales following early victory in Northern Ireland and then lost to England, benefitting from an Irish victory over Wales in Wrexham to take second.
[edit] Table
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 England |
6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 4 | +7 |
 Scotland |
3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 8 | 0 |
 Northern Ireland |
2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 7 | -3 |
 Wales |
1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 9 | -4 |
The points system worked as follows:
- 2 points for a win
- 1 point for a draw
[edit] Results
| October 3, 1953 | Northern Ireland |
1–3 | Scotland |
Windsor Park, Belfast |
| Norman Lockhart (P) | Charlie Fleming 2, Jackie Henderson |
| October 10, 1953 | Wales |
1–4 | England |
Ninian Park, Cardiff |
| Ivor Allchurch | Nat Lofthouse 2, Dennis Wilshaw 2 |
| November 4, 1953 | Scotland |
3–3 | Wales |
Hampden Park, Glasgow |
| Allan Brown, Bobby Johnstone, Lawrence Reilly | John Charles 2, Ivor Allchurch |
| November 11, 1953 | England |
3–1 | Northern Ireland |
Goodison Park, Liverpool |
| Harold Hassall 2, Nat Lofthouse | Eddie McMorran |
| March 31, 1954 | Wales |
1–2 | Northern Ireland |
Racecourse Ground, Wrexham |
| John Charles | Peter McParland 2 |
| April 2, 1954 | Scotland |
2–4 | England |
Hampden Park, Glasgow |
| Willie Ormond, Allan Brown | Ivor Broadis, Johnny Nicholls, Ronnie Allen, Jimmy Mullen |
[edit] References
- Guy Oliver (1992). The Guinness Record of World Soccer. Guinness. ISBN 0-851129-54-4.
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Competitors: |
| Football in the United Kingdom: England | Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales |
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| Rous Cup | Home Nation matches since 1984 |
