ENGLAND IN NOVEMBER

So Harry Kane of Spurs, scored 4 last night for England;  not quite a record; read on.....

On 16 November 1938, England recorded a memorable 7-0 victory over Northern Ireland in a Home International Championship match at Old Trafford. Tottenham's Willie Hall, of Spurs (below) stole the show scoring 5 goals - equalling what is still the record for England* - including a hat-trick in under 4 minutes (34th, 36th, 38th minutes), which is also an England record. The other goals came from Tommy Lawton and Stanley Matthews, while Joe Mercer made his England debut. Those were the days! 

*Howard Vaughton of Aston Villa (below), scored the first 5 goals against Ireland on February 18th 1882 in  a 13-0 win. (Receipts for this match amounted to £9.19 shillings and 7 pence! He later became the director of a Birmingham firm which manufactured the second FA Cup trophy.

Steve Bloomer (v Wales 16th March 1896 Cardiff), Willie Hall (v Ireland 16th November 1938 Old Trafford) and Malcolm MacDonald (16th April 1975 Wembley) have done the same since. Bloomer between 1895 and 1899 scored in TEN consecutive England matches, totalling 19 goals.

Willie Hall played 10 times for England and made 205 League appearances for Spurs – scoring 27 times - before the Second World War effectively ended his playing career. Tragically after the war he suffered the part amputation of both his legs. He was a very popular personality which was highlighted when Eamonn Andrews (in dark suit) highlighted his life story in TVs famous programme, ‘This Is Your Life’ in February 1959.

England first played an international on November 30th v Scotland in 1872 in Glasgow. However, after that, international matches were held at the "end of the season"; February, March and April and only between the Home International countries. Summer tours took England into Europe in April, May and June.

In 1923, the first England "November" international was in Belgium on the 1st, a 2-2 draw in Antwerp. In 1927 the next November game for England was against  Wales in Burnley on the 28th, losing 1-2.

The first international on November 16th (today's anniversary) was in 1932 in Wrexham, a 0-0 draw.

Matches on either the 15th or the 16th November happened firstly in 1949. On the 16th November 1949,England played a Home Championship match which acted as a FIFA World Cup qualifier; they beat Ireland 9-2 at Maine Rd, Manchester. Arthur Rowley scored 4, but did not get picked for the World Cup team the following year in the USA.

From this game (1949) England did not lose any match played in November through to 2000. They won 8, drew 2 and lost eventually in Italy 1-0 in a friendly on November 15th 2000. 

Between 2004 and 2021, England have played ten games either on the 15th or the 16th November, winning 5, including last night's 0-10 v San Marino, when Harry Kane scored 4 as you know.

Wins were: Austria away 0-1 in 2007: Sweden home 1-0 in 2011: Slovenia home 3-1 UEFA Euro. 2014

England drew twice (to Netherlands 1-1 in 2006 and  2-2 to Spain in 2016) and 

losses 3, (to Denmark 2-3 in 2004 in a home friendly, to Chile 0-2 in a friendly in 2013, and away in Belgium 2-0 in the Nations' League).