A Look Into Histories

A LOOK INTO HISTORY TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY EIGHT

SCOTLAND V ENGLAND 1954

With persistent rain from 6am there was no way that 134,554 fans were going to miss the greatest game of the season at Hampden Park. 15,000 had travelled up from the South on 19 special trains, coaches and planes into the old Renfrew Airport. This scenario did its best to dampen spirits without success, Restaurants opened at 6am and fans sheltered in the main Rail Termini including 300 Scots at Central Station to stay under cover from the elements and in the hope that any English could sell them their tickets. This was Saturday April 3rd 1954 and the game coupled up as a World Cup tie to add to the interest. Any ticketless fans could, instead, go to La Scala Cinema instead and see Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Our Match Programme in Red and Blue sported an iconic cover so familiar with big Scottish games over the years and was an 18 pager for 1/-. The editorial covered the significance of the match and its World Cup “seeded” qualification. Page two gave all the previous winners and a short history of Scottish success v England. Excellent pen pictures of both Scotland and England followed including Andy Beattie the Manager. The Men from the South covered the visitors and there was Terracing Teasers with answers on page 18. The middle pages gave not just the players names but their clubs, a most useful addition and had a picture of Lucerne as a World Cup setting in the background. The Prelude and Interval entertainment from the Pipe Band of the Queen Victoria School, Dunblane and Band of the Cameronians was in addition to an invitation 3 mile race. Charles Buchan shared his memories, details of the Officials plus an article on Englands search for a World Cup side and a few facts on Hampden nearly rounded off the excellent Programme except for a full article on World Cup dates and plans and all the Home Nations teams for Internationals in season 1953-54.

As the rain swept in from the West with gales, Allan Brown of Blackpool opened the scoring for Scotland in 7th minute then Ivan Broadis of Newcastle United drew level in the 14th minute for a 1-1 half time scoreline. In the second half a Johnny Nicholls of West Bromwich Albion header made it 2-1 after 51 mins and his teammate Ronnie Allen, also with a header, made it 3-1 in the 67th minute. This way of scoring then found Jimmy Mullen of Wolves making it 4-1 after 82 minutes before Willie Ormond’s 90th minute shot helped on its way by Roger Byrne (so sadly lost at Munich in 1958), completed the scoreline at 4 2 to England. Tom Finney and Ivan Broadis were quoted in the Glasgow Herald as “ A beacon in the midst of mediocrity” which just about sums up the home sides day.

England won the Home International championship.

On that same day West Bromwich Albion were top of the League in England and Hearts in Scotland but only 3 games were played in the A Division and 2 in the B Division. Back at Wembley, England Boys v Scotland Boys was 1-0 with 99,000 attending. There was only one Junior game played, a friendly Shawfield v Rutherglen Glencairn, a goal-less draw, just showing the importance of the Hampden match to the Scots.

As for the 1954 World Cup and the two nations, it was a real mixed bag, Scotland lost 0-1 to Austria and were beaten by Uruguay 7-0 and ended up bottom of group 3. In Group 4, England fared a little better with a 4-4 draw against Belgium and 2-0 win v Switzerland but in the Quarter Finals also lost to Uruguay 2-4. Germany went on to win the World Cup beating Hungary 3-2 in the Final, Austria were third and Uruguay fourth.