1979 British Home Championship

The 1979 British Home Championship was a British Home Nations competition, won by the English football side and notable for seeing marked increases in hooliganism and falling attendance which would result in its cancellation in 1984. The English started well, beating Northern Ireland to match the heavy Welsh victory over Scotland on the same day, which featured a hat trick by John Toshack. Scotland recovered by beating the Irish in their next match while England and Wales played out a goaless draw, leaving three sides theoretically capable of winning the Championship in the final round. Wales could only manage a draw with the Irish and so in the deciding match between England and Scotland, a 1-0 half time lead gave the Scots some hope but a strong second half performance from England was rewarded with a deserved 3-1 win. This result gave England the Championship, with Wales in second place. The tournament also saw the introduction of goal difference to separate teams, although it had no effect on the eventual outcome.

Table

The points system worked as follows:
* 2 points for a win
* 1 point for a drawFor the first time, goal difference was used to divide the teams, although it made no difference to the final outcome at this tournament.

Results

footballbox
date = May 19, 1979
team1 = fb-rt|WAL
score = 3–0
team2 = fb|SCO
goals1 = John Toshack 3
goals2 =
stadium = Ninian Park, Cardiff----footballbox
date = May 19, 1979
team1 = fb-rt|NIR
score = 0–2
team2 = fb|ENG
goals1 =
goals2 = David Watson, Steve Coppell
stadium = Windsor Park, Belfast----footballbox
date = May 22, 1979
team1 = fb-rt|SCO
score = 1–0
team2 = fb|NIR
goals1 = Arthur Graham
goals2 =
stadium = Hampden Park, Glasgow----footballbox
date = May 23, 1979
team1 = fb-rt|ENG
score = 0–0
team2 = fb|WAL
goals1 =
goals2 =
stadium = Wembley Stadium, London----footballbox
date = May 26, 1979
team1 = fb-rt|NIR
score = 1–1
team2 = fb|WAL
goals1 = Derek Spence
goals2 = Robbie James
stadium = Windsor Park, Belfast----footballbox
date = May 26, 1979
team1 = fb-rt|ENG
score = 3–1
team2 = fb|SCO
goals1 = Peter Barnes, Ray Wilkins, Kevin Keegan
goals2 = John Wark
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