1958–59 British Home Championship

The 1958–59 British Home Championship was a football tournament played between the British Home Nations. It came the year after the notable failure of England and Scotland to impress at the 1958 FIFA World Cup, for which all four nations qualified for the only time. Wales and Northern Ireland were the only achievers, both reaching the quarter-finals after playoffs.

1958–59 British Home Championship

Tournament details
Host country	England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales
Dates	4 October 1958 – 11 April 1959
Teams	4
Final positions
Champions	England  Ireland
Tournament statistics
Matches played	6
Goals scored	23 (3.83 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Bobby Charlton (3)
← 1957–58 1959–60 →

Many of these problems stemmed also from the deaths of a number of international players from some teams in the Munich air disaster the year before. During the Home Championship, the Ireland team took the unusual step of flying to Madrid for a friendly game against Spain between the matches against England and Scotland. The trip was, however, not a success, the Irish losing 2–6 with goals from Billy Bingham and Jimmy McIlroy.

For the second successive year, the tournament was tied between England and Ireland, as both managed a draw and a win against the other two teams in addition to the high-scoring mutual draw which began the competition. Scotland came second after comfortably beating Wales, drawing with the Irish but then narrowly losing to England in London, which cost them a share of first place. Wales recovered from their defeat to the Scots to draw with England in the second match but lost heavily to the Irish in their final game, and so finished last.

Table

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Ireland (C)	3	1	2	0	9	6	+3	4
England (C)	3	1	2	0	6	5	+1	4
Scotland	3	1	1	1	5	3	+2	3
Wales	3	0	1	2	3	9	−6	1

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Rules for classification: 1) points. The points system worked as follows: 2 points for a win and 1 point for a draw.
(C) Co-champions

Results

Ireland	3–3	England
Cush Peacock Casey		Charlton Finney

4 October 1958

Windsor Park, Belfast

---

Wales	0–3	Scotland
		Leggat Law Collins

18 October 1958

Ninian Park, Cardiff

---

Scotland	2–2	Ireland
Collins Herd		McIlroy Caldow (o.g.)

5 November 1958

Hampden Park Glasgow

---

England	2–2	Wales
Broadbent		Tapscott Allchurch

26 November 1958

Villa Park, Birmingham

---

Ireland	4–1	Wales
McParland Peacock McIlroy		Tapscott

22 April 1959

Windsor Park, Belfast

---

England	1–0	Scotland
Charlton

11 April 1959

Wembley Stadium, London

References

• Guy Oliver (1992). The Guinness Record of World Soccer. Guinness. ISBN 0-85112-954-4.