1973 British Home Championship

The 1973 British Home Championship international Home Nations football tournament was, like its predecessor in 1972, a victim of The Troubles in Northern Ireland which had erupted following Bloody Sunday the previous year. As with the previous year in the rugby union 1972 Five Nations Championship, threats were made by Republican activists against visiting British teams, which in this year meant England and Wales. To prevent violence but keep the tournament running, Northern Ireland's "home" games were transferred to Goodison Park, the home of Everton F.C. in Liverpool in England. This step meant that Ireland played just a short ferry ride from Belfast (where the match was originally scheduled) in a city with a substantial Irish population, but where the police were able to exercise a greater measure of control over who was able to attend.

The shift to England did not substantially hinder the Irish, who claimed a rare and respectable second place behind England, who achieved yet another whitewash of their near neighbours. Beating the Irish in Liverpool to match Scotland's win over Wales, England then inflicted defeat on the same team at Wembley, whilst the Irish recovered from their first game to beat the Scots in Scotland. In the final two games, Northern Ireland beat Wales, setting up a close encounter in the final game, in which the winner would take the tournament but a draw would benefit the Irish. The game was a close encounter, made more interesting by an English 5-0 thrashing of Scotland two months earlier in a testimonial match celebrating one hundred years of international football. England however, eventually triumphed by a single goal from Martin Peters, winning the trophy for another year.

Table

The points system worked as follows:
* 2 points for a win
* 1 point for a draw

Results

footballbox
date = May 12, 1973
team1 = fb-rt|WAL
score = 0–2
team2 = fb|SCO
goals1 =
goals2 = George Graham 2
stadium = Racecourse Ground, Wrexham----footballbox
date = May 12, 1973
team1 = fb-rt|NIR
score = 1–2
team2 = fb|ENG
goals1 = Dave Clements
goals2 = Martin Chivers 2
stadium = Goodison Park, Liverpool----footballbox
date = May 15, 1973
team1 = fb-rt|ENG
score = 3–0
team2 = fb|WAL
goals1 = Martin Chivers, Mick Channon, Martin Peters
goals2 =
stadium = Wembley Stadium, London----footballbox
date = May 16, 1973
team1 = fb-rt|SCO
score = 1–2
team2 = fb|NIR
goals1 = Kenny Dalglish
goals2 = Martin O'Neill, Trevor Anderson
stadium = Hampden Park, Glasgow----footballbox
date = May 19, 1973
team1 = fb-rt|NIR
score = 1–0
team2 = fb|WAL
goals1 = Bryan Hamilton
goals2 =
stadium = Goodison Park, Liverpool----footballbox
date = May 19, 1973
team1 = fb-rt|ENG
score = 1–0
team2 = fb|SCO
goals1 = Martin Peters
goals2 =
stadium = Wembley Stadium, London

References

*cite book
author= Guy Oliver| title=The Guinness Record of World Soccer
date=1992
publisher=Guinness
id=ISBN 0-851129-54-4