1965 British Home Championship

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.

Table

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

Results

footballbox
date = October 3, 1964
team1 = fb-rt|NIR
score = 3–4
team2 = fb|ENG
goals1 = Jimmy McLaughlin 2, Sammy Wilson
goals2 = Jimmy Greaves 3, Fred Pickering
stadium = Windsor Park, Belfast----footballbox
date = October 3, 1964
team1 = fb-rt|WAL
score = 3–2
team2 = fb|SCO
goals1 = Kenneth Leek 2, Wyn Davies
goals2 = Stevie Chalmers, Dave Gibson
stadium = Ninian Park, Cardiff----footballbox
date = November 18, 1964
team1 = fb-rt|ENG
score = 2–1
team2 = fb|WAL
goals1 = Frank Wignall 2
goals2 = Cliff Jones
stadium = Wembley Stadium, London----footballbox
date = November 25, 1964
team1 = fb-rt|SCO
score = 3–2
team2 = fb|NIR
goals1 = Davie Wilson 2, Alan Gilzean
goals2 = George Best, Willie Irvine
stadium = Hampden Park, Glasgow----footballbox
date = April 7, 1965
team1 = fb-rt|NIR
score = 0–5
team2 = fb|WAL
goals1 =
goals2 = Roy Vernon 2, Cliff Jones, Graham Williams, Ivor Allchurch
stadium = Windsor Park, Belfast----footballbox
date = April 10, 1965
team1 = fb-rt|ENG
score = 2–2
team2 = fb|SCO
goals1 = Bobby Charlton, Jimmy Greaves
goals2 = Denis Law, Ian St John
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