England v Scotland: Football's oldest enemies renew their rivalry

The game, part of the Football Association's 150th anniversary celebrations, is the 111th meeting between the two nations, who contested the first official international in 1872 and met on an annual basis until 1989.

England v Scotland - the stats

Games: 110 (between 1872 and 1999)

England wins: 45 Goals scored: 193

Scotland wins: 41 Goals scored: 170

Draws: 24

The first goal: England's Alexander Bonsor for England (England 4-2 Scotland at The Oval on 8 March 1873)

Biggest England win: 9-3 (1961)

Biggest Scotland win: 7-2 (1878)

The first hat-trick: Scotland's John McDougall (Scotland 7-2 England at Hampden Park on 2 March 1878)

Their most recent encounter, in the second leg of a qualifying play-off for Euro 2000, took place at the old Wembley in November 1999.

That ended in a 1-0 Scotland win, but it was England who went to the finals in Belgium and the Netherlands the following summer, thanks to a 2-1 aggregate victory.

Down the years, both nations have had many moments to remember.

Scotland's successes, over opposition they traditionally refer to as "the Auld Enemy", include the "Wembley Wizards" winning 5-1 in 1928, Jim Baxter juggling the ball down the touchline during a famous triumph in 1967 and the invasion of the Tartan Army in 1977 - when fans celebrated victory by digging up the Wembley pitch and breaking the goalposts.

For England, not much can match their devastating 9-3 rout in 1961 or the glory of Paul Gascoigne's spectacular goal and "dentist's chair" celebration during England's win in a vital Euro 96 group game.

Only national pride will be at stake this time but it would be missing the point entirely to term this week's game a 'friendly'.

The rivalry

England captain Bobby Moore shakes hands with Scotland captain John Greig at Wembley in 1967

For many years the perception, in England at least, appeared to be that Scotland cared more. Germany and Argentina were England's rivals, while the Scots only measured themselves against their neighbours. While Scotland were patriotic, the English were patronising. Or so the theory went.

Writing in his 1968 autobiography, England World Cup winner Nobby Stiles, whom Baxter had toyed with in 1967, said: "There are always plenty of vituperative (bitter) comments by the Scots before an international, and if they do win it is played up out of all proportion and we never hear the last of it.
"Sometimes it goes beyond the bounds of partisanship and only points to one thing: an inferiority complex that can only be sated by reviling the English."
The Scots, however, would argue that antagonism and antipathy always existed in equal measure south of the border too.

Kenny Dalglish holds off a flying Dave Watson challenge in 1977

Scotland's record-cap winner Kenny Dalglish, who joined Liverpool from Celtic shortly after scoring the winner in the famous Anglo-Scottish Wembley clash of 1977, said: "I couldn't understand anyone saying these matches meant less to the English than to the Scots. The English players enjoyed winning every bit as much as the Jocks. That was confirmed when I came south."

The relationship was made more complicated by the fact that, long before imports became the norm in British club football, these international games tended to pitch club-mate against club-mate.

Scottish players and managers have always been entwined in English club success, and talent continues to travel south - Manchester United midfielder Darren Fletcher and Sunderland striker Steven Fletcher are absent through illness and injury but 22 of Gordon Strachan's 29-man Scotland squad for Wednesday's game play for English clubs and only two players - Celtic duo Scott Brown and James Forrest - have spent their entire careers north of the border.
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Paul Gascoigne's sublime Euro 96 goal against Scotland

The movement has not always been in one direction, however. Gascoigne was a Rangers player and Scotland's player of the year when he scored THAT goal at Euro 96. A decade earlier, the Gers had signed a wave of England players including captain Terry Butcher, who won three Scottish titles in four seasons as skipper at Ibrox.

That was not Butcher's only involvement in Scottish football. In 2008, he was interviewed by the Sunday Times after being appointed as Scotland's assistant manager under his old Ipswich team-mate George Burley and said: "I never hide away from the fact that when Scotland got knocked out of World Cups in the past, like in 1982, 1986 and 1990, we cheered the roof off.

"That's what the England team did. But George has asked me to do a job and it's something I want to do."

Butcher, now Inverness manager, did not get an easy ride during the year he spent in the job and later recalled: "The English, especially old team-mates like Viv Anderson, Tony Woodcock and Stuart Pearce, they slaughtered me, so I tried to avoid them. I sat next to Stuart at a Wolves game. He whispered to me, 'Next time you're there, big man, take a look in the mirror. How's your conscience?'"

Passions still run high, despite - or perhaps because of - the long wait for a rematch. Former Scotland striker Kevin Gallacher, who played in England for Coventry, Blackburn and Newcastle, is relishing Wednesday's showdown and feels regular meetings between the two sides should resume.

Terry Butcher went from being England captain to Scotland assistant boss

"The longer you keep the teams apart the more feisty it will become," Gallagher explained. "I think possibly the big difference between the countries is that the English FA doesn't need it as much as the Scottish FA does.
"I know both sets of fans want it, they would love it back. These games are brilliant because in the build-up you are having some real banter. It started for me on Twitter weeks ago."
The history

After four unofficial meetings between England and Scotland from 1870 onwards that are not recognised by Fifa because the English FA picked both teams, the first official match took place on 30 November 1872 in front of 4,000 fans at Hamilton Crescent, a cricket ground in Glasgow.

25 people died and more than 500 were injured when a stand collapsed at Ibrox in 1902

That first meeting ended in a goalless draw. It was 98 years and 85 matches before the scoreline was repeated.
Usually taking place each spring, the game was played as part of the Home Championship from 1884 until 1984, and then in the form of the Rous Cup until 1989, when the regular meetings ceased because of fears over escalating crowd trouble.

There has been tragedy too: at Ibrox in 1902, 25 people died and more than 500 were injured when heavy rainfall caused the back of the Tribune Stand to collapse.

Scotland next hosted England at Celtic Park in 1904 but, since 1906, the game has only ever been played at Hampden Park when it has taken place north of the border. The fixture's record attendance of 149,415 was recorded there on 17 April 1937.

England v Scotland - the English grounds

Grounds to host England v Scotland: The Oval (1873-89), Bramall Lane (1883-1903), Leamington Road (1887), Ewood Park (1891), Richmond Athletic Ground (1893), Goodison Park (1895-1911), Villa Park (1899-1922), Crystal Palace (1897-1909), St James' Park (1907), Stamford Bridge (1913), Hillsborough (1920), Wembley (1924-99), Old Trafford (1926), Wembley (2013)

Scotland's record at the old Wembley 1924-99: P30 W9 D5 L16 F41 A68

On Wednesday, the new Wembley stadium will become the 20th ground in Britain (including the three incarnations of Hampden Park) and the 14th in England to host the fixture, which Scotland dominated in its early years.

The Scots won 11 of the first 18 games, losing just three and, when football was suspended following the outbreak of World War II, they led the series 29-19, with 15 draws.

Since World War II, England have dominated, winning 26 of the 47 games and losing just 12, remaining unbeaten in 10 meetings between 1952 and 1961.

They won seven of those games, scoring 33 goals in all, and it took Scottish goalkeepers years to recover their reputation afterwards.

But Scotland led the head-to-head record in number of wins from the fifth encounter until the 97th, when England clinched their 39th victory in 1980.

Source: BBC NEWS