1886 British Home Championship

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The 1886 British Home Championship was the third annual international football tournament played between the British Home Nations. As common for the time, the matches were punctuated by some high scorelines and for the first time two teams finished level on points at the top of the table, thus sharing the championship as goal difference would not be introduced to separate teams for over nearly 90 years.

England and Scotland were the joint winners, with Wales third and Ireland last with zero points. The tournament began in February 1886 with a match between Wales and Ireland which Wales won comfortably 5-0. Ireland next played against England and Scotland, suffering two heavy defeats in which they conceded 13 goals for three in reply. With the three leaders therefore equal on points, England and Scotland played their match, sharing points in a 1-1 draw. Wales then played against England and Scotland in the final games but lost both, resulting in England and Scotland sharing the title.

[edit] Table

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Scotland	5	3	2	1	0	13	4	+9
England	5	3	2	1	0	10	3	+7
Wales	2	3	1	0	2	7	7	0
Ireland	0	3	0	0	3	3	18	-15

The points system worked as follows:

2 points for a win
1 point for a draw

[edit] Results

February 27, 1886	Wales	5–0	Ireland	Racecourse Ground, Wrexham
	William Roberts, Job Wilding, Richard Hersee, Thomas Bryan, Herbert Sisson			Racecourse Ground, Wrexham

March 13, 1886	Ireland	1–6	England	Ulster Ground, Belfast
	Jimmy Williams		Benjamin Spilsbury 4, Tinsley Lindley 2, Fred Dewhurst	Ulster Ground, Belfast

March 20, 1886	Ireland	2–7	Scotland	Ulster Ground, Belfast
	John Condy, Sam Johnson		Charles Heggie 4, John Lambie, Michael Dunbar, James Gourlay	Ulster Ground, Belfast

March 27, 1886	Scotland	1–1	England	Cathkin Park, Glasgow
	George Somerville		Tinsley Lindley	Cathkin Park, Glasgow

March 29, 1886	Wales	1–3	England	Racecourse Ground, Wrexham
	William Lewis		George Brann, Fred Dewhurst, Andrew Amos	Racecourse Ground, Wrexham

April 10, 1886	Scotland	4–1	Wales	Cathkin Park, Glasgow
	Robert McCormick, James McCall, David Allan, William Harrower		John Owen Vaughn	Cathkin Park, Glasgow