THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL

Can't wait until tomorrow which will be a day for a major historic marker of England international football. Everyone will know that this the 1000th international match played by England since the original fixture against the old foe, Scotland in 1870.

This was a first "unofficial" international played at the Kennington Oval in London on March 5th 1870. AJ Baker (played for a club called No Names) scored for England  in the dying minute and REW Crawford of Harrow, for Scotland had scored first. It was a 1-1 draw, JUST. This game was postponed originally on February 19th due to a heavy frost. The weather on the day as fine having had some rain beforehand to make the pitch slippery. The visitors won the choice of ends at 3pm and England had kick off.

On November 19th 1870, the second unofficial international occurred at The Oval again, England winning 1-0 with six new players from the first fixture. The Scots had 7 new players and in the first game included JW Malcolm of the London Scottish Rifles (obviously a soldier) as a forward and in the second game chose WH Bailey as a forward from the Civil Service team. Just an indulgence!!
 The two teams were observed in 1872 by William Ralston from "The Graphic",  a weekly pictorial, depicted in this drawing; relaxed, casual, smoking cheroots and pipes. There was a photographer on site who eventually shoved off because the players would not guarantee to buy his prints once produced. This was an official international played on November 30 at the West of Scotland Cricket.

The English had height and weight advantage for this game, whereas the Scots, mainly from Queen's Park-then the major club, made up the whole Scottish team. R Barker was in goal but then became a forward. F Chappell of Oxford University played at "fly kick" and W J Maynard went in goal after being a forward. It was a 0-0 draw. The teams had dinner at Carrick's Royal Hotel, George Square.
The next fixture between the two was in March 1873 at The Oval, England winning 4-2. After that the Scottish FA was founded.