1896 British Home Championship

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The 1896 British Home Championship was an edition of the annual international football tournament played between the British Home Nations. Despite England achieving an almost record 9-1 victory over Wales, the trophy was won by Scotland who won two and drew one of their matches, the draw coming in a hard-fought duel with Ireland.

Wales and Ireland kicked off the tournament with the Welsh heavily defeating the Irish in Wrexham. England too beat the Irish in their opening game, although by a smaller scoreline and England then achieved their 9-1 victory over Wales with Steve Bloomer scoring five, an England record. Scotland too beat Wales, scoring four without reply before being held by the Irish in an exciting and close match. In the final game at Celtic Park, England and Scotland played for the trophy, England only needing adraw whilst the Scots required a win to take the tournament. In a close and dramatic game, Scotland narrowly beat the English 2-1 and won the championship.

[edit] Table

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Scotland	5	3	2	1	0	9	4	+5
England	4	3	2	0	1	12	3	+9
Wales	2	3	1	0	2	7	14	-7
Ireland	1	3	0	1	2	4	11	-7

The points system worked as follows:

2 points for a win
1 point for a draw

[edit] Results

February 29, 1896	Wales	6–1	Ireland	Racecourse Ground, Wrexham
	William Lewis 2, Billy Meredith 2, David Pugh, Grenville Morris		A. Turner	Racecourse Ground, Wrexham

March 7, 1896	Ireland	0–2	England	Solitude Ground, Belfast
			Gilbert Smith, Steve Bloomer	Solitude Ground, Belfast

March 15, 1896	Wales	1–9	England	Racecourse Ground, Wrexham
	Thomas Chapman		Steve Bloomer 5, Gilbert Smith 2, Billy Bassett, Johnny Goodall	Racecourse Ground, Wrexham

March 21, 1896	Scotland	4–0	Wales	Carolina Port, Dundee
	Robert Neil 2, Alexander Keillor, Daniel Paton			Carolina Port, Dundee

March 28, 1896	Ireland	3–3	Scotland	Solitude Ground, Belfast
	James Barron 2, Robert Milne (P)		Bob McColl 2, Patrick Murray	Solitude Ground, Belfast