1958–59 British Home Championship

The 1958–59 British Home Championship was a football tournament played between the British Home Nations. It came the year after the notable failure of England and Scotland to impress at the 1958 FIFA World Cup, for which all four nations qualified for the only time. Wales and Northern Ireland were the only achievers, both reaching the quarter-finals after playoffs.

Many of these problems stemmed also from the deaths of a number of international players from some teams in the Munich Air Disaster the year before. During the Home Championship, the Ireland team took the unusual step of flying to Madrid for a friendly game against Spain between the matches against England and Scotland. The trip was, however, not a success, the Irish losing 2–6 with goals from Billy Bingham and Jimmy McIlroy.

For the second successive year, the tournament was tied between England and Ireland, as both managed a draw and a win against the other two teams in addition to the high-scoring mutual draw which began the competition. Scotland came second after comfortably beating Wales, drawing with the Irish but then narrowly losing to England in London, which cost them a share of first place. Wales recovered from their defeat to the Scots to draw with England in the second match but lost heavily to the Irish in their final game, and so finished last.

Table

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Ireland	4	3	1	2	0	9	6	+3
England	4	3	1	2	0	6	5	+1
Scotland	3	3	1	1	1	5	3	+2
Wales	1	3	0	1	2	3	9	−6

The points system worked as follows:

2 points for a win
1 point for a draw

Results

4 October 1958

Ireland	3 – 3	England
Wilbur Cush, Bertie Peacock, Tommy Casey		Bobby Charlton 2, Tom Finney

Windsor Park, Belfast

18 October 1958

Wales	0 – 3	Scotland
		Graham Leggat, Denis Law, Bobby Collins

Ninian Park, Cardiff

5 November 1958

Scotland	2 – 2	Ireland
Bobby Collins, David Herd		Jimmy McIlroy, Eric Caldow (own goal)

Hampden Park, Glasgow

26 November 1958

England	2 – 2	Wales
Peter Broadbent 2		Derek Tapscott, Ivor Allchurch

Villa Park, Birmingham

22 April 1959

Wales	1 – 4	Ireland
Derek Tapscott		Peter McParland 2, Bertie Peacock, Jimmy McIlroy

Racecourse Ground, Wrexham

11 April 1959

England	1 – 0	Scotland
Bobby Charlton

Wembley Stadium, London

References

Guy Oliver (1992). The Guinness Record of World Soccer. Guinness. ISBN 0-85112-954-4.

v t e British Home Championship
Football in the United Kingdom: England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales
Competitors	England Ireland / Northern Ireland Scotland Wales
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Rous Cup Nations Cup Matches outside the British Home Championship