1965 British Home Championship

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The 1965 British Home Championship was an outright victory for the English football team in the run up to the 1966 FIFA World Cup which was held in the country. England's preparation for the tournament had included a rare pre-season tour of the Americas, in which they had beaten the USA 10-0 in New York, but crashed to a 1-5 defeat by Brazil in Rio de Janeiro and also lost to Argentina. The Home Championship was a close contest however and an unexpected Welsh defeat of Scotland as well as a drubbing of Northern Ireland in their final game helped them to an impressive second. In the end however, none of the other home nations would qualify for the world cup finals, which England would go on to win.

The tournament opened with a dramatic match between England and Northern Ireland, in which England went 4-0 up in the first half hour, but eventually were forced to hold on in the face of an Irish counter attack which reduced the deficit to 4-3. Fancied Scotland meanwhile began badly with a loss to Wales in Cardiff. In the second games, Northern Ireland again rana favourite close, eventually succumbing 3-2 to the Scots in a close game in which the lead changed several times. The Welsh too played well, only narrowly losing to eventual champions England. In the final match, the already last-placed Irish were demolished by a more driven Welsh team seeking a rare title, going down 5-0. In London, the Scots and the English fought out a 2-2 draw which put the championship out of Wales' reach by giving England five points.

[edit] Table

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
England	5	3	2	1	0	8	6	+2
Wales	4	3	2	0	1	9	4	+5
Scotland	3	3	1	1	1	7	7	0
Northern Ireland	0	3	0	0	3	5	12	-7

The points system worked as follows:

2 points for a win
1 point for a draw

[edit] Results

October 3, 1964	Northern Ireland	3–4	England	Windsor Park, Belfast
	Jimmy McLaughlin 2, Sammy Wilson		Jimmy Greaves 3, Fred Pickering	Windsor Park, Belfast

October 3, 1964	Wales	3–2	Scotland	Ninian Park, Cardiff
	Kenneth Leek 2, Wyn Davies		Stevie Chalmers, Dave Gibson	Ninian Park, Cardiff

November 18, 1964	England	2–1	Wales	Wembley Stadium, London
	Frank Wignall 2		Cliff Jones	Wembley Stadium, London

November 25, 1964	Scotland	3–2	Northern Ireland	Hampden Park, Glasgow
	Davie Wilson 2, Alan Gilzean		George Best, Willie Irvine	Hampden Park, Glasgow

April 7, 1965	Northern Ireland	0–5	Wales	Windsor Park, Belfast
			Roy Vernon 2, Cliff Jones, Graham Williams, Ivor Allchurch	Windsor Park, Belfast