Following Japan’s 8-0 win over Tajikistan, our look at the highest scoring matches in UFWC history culminates with this 15-goal Victorian classic.

England 13-2 Ireland
18 February 1899
British Home Championships
Roker Park, Sunderland
Scorers: Frank Forman, Fred Forman (2), Athersmith, Smith (4), Bloomer (2), Settle (3) (England); Campbell, McAllen (pen) (Ireland)

Another England versus Ireland UFWC match, another rout, and another brace of goals for the great Steve Bloomer. But Bloomer’s feat was surpassed on the day by the goalscoring achievements of two of his team-mates.

The venue for this defence of the title was Roker Park, with 14,000 spectators turning up. Sunderland full-back Philip Bach was drafted in to play in front of his home crowd for his first and only England international.

Those in attendance could have been forgiven for initially failing to realise how spectacular this match was going to be – a full quarter of an hour was played before the avalanche of goals began.

Frank Forman, then of Sheffield United, got England’s first, and his brother Fred, of Nottingham Forest, netted the second. It was Fred’s debut, and the pair became the first professional footballer brothers to play for England. (Amateurs Arthur and Edward Bambridge played together for England in 1883, and scored in the same England match in 1884). William Athersmith of Aston Villa hit the third goal, before captain Gilbert Smith and striker Bloomer both netted to make the score 5-0 at half-time.

Fred Forman grabbed his second goal of the game in the second half, as did Bloomer. Skipper Smith, the old-school Corinthians forward, ended up with four goals, including three in four mad second-half minutes. (Smith, one of the greatest amateur footballers ever to play for England, scored 11 goals in 20 games for his country, and was also a first class cricketer – a high-scoring right-hand batsman for Oxford University and Surrey.) Debutant James Settle of Bury also hit a second half hat-trick – he ended up scoring six goals in six games for England.

James Campbell and Joseph McAllen, of Cliftonville and Linfield respectively, scored consolation goals for the sorry Irish. The fact that Irish goalkeeper James Lewis only had eight full fingers (he lost two fingertips in an accident) may have had some bearing on the final result, although Lewis did manage to limit the rout by saving a James Crabtree penalty.

This was England’s second biggest victory ever (after a 13-0 non-UFWC triumph over Ireland in 1882) and, taking into account goals for, the biggest ever win in UFWC history. (It was the first of two UFWC games to be won by an 11-goal margin.) 15 goals represents the most ever scored in a UFWC match, and 13 goals is the most ever scored in a UFWC match by one team.

Unsurprisingly, England went on to win the 1899 British Home Championships, beating Wales 4-0 and Scotland 2-1 along the way. The English then took the UFWC title into the 20th century, before losing 4-1 to Scotland in April 1900.

This is an edited extract from the book Unofficial Football World Champions, which tells the full story of the UFWC via more than 100 classic matches.

Classic Matches England, ireland

Following the Japan 8-0 Tajikistan game, we’re taking a look at some of the highest scoring matches in UFWC history, continuing with this Scottish goal-fest.

Scotland 11-0 Ireland
23 February 1901
British Home Championships
Celtic Park, Glasgow
Scorers: McMahon (4), Russell, John Campbell (Celtic) (2), Bob Hamilton (4)

This was Scotland’s biggest ever victory, and the biggest clean-sheet win in UFWC history.

The match was remarkable for several other reasons, one of which was that the Scotland 11 featured two players called John Campbell – one from Rangers, and the other from Celtic. The Glasgow sides were already dominating Scottish football, and the national side overall contained five Rangers players and four from Celtic (Queen’s Park and Kilmarnock provided the other two).

Among the Celtic contingent was Sandy ‘Duke’ McMahon, ‘the prince of dribblers’, and a very handy goalscorer. (The Duke’s nickname was a reference to the then-famous French President Patrice de Mac-Mahon, the Duke of Magenta.) The moustachioed McMahon was said to play football with ‘arms held high, spread out like ostrich wings, head down, back slightly bent forward, enormous feet’.

Despite (or perhaps on account of) his unique playing style, McMahon netted a first half hat-trick, with Celtic club mates Campbell and David Russell also scoring, to give Scotland a 5-0 half-time lead.

There were 15,000 fans inside Celtic Park, and they must have been rubbing their eyes in disbelief. And there was more for Celtic fans in particular to enjoy when McMahon scored his fourth, and Scotland’s sixth, just after half-time.

There was plenty for Rangers fans to cheer as well. Scotland skipper Bob Hamilton was the darling of the ‘Gers, and the Scottish league’s top scorer in 1901. Not to be outdone by Celtic’s McMahon, Hamilton also scored four goals – even quicker than McMahon had managed. Inside-forward Hamilton scored 11 goals in six UFWC title matches, and topped the Scottish league’s goalscorer chart six times.

John Campbell of Celtic’s second goal, squeezed into the middle of Hamilton’s four, brought Scotland’s remarkable tally to 11. So Scotland retained the UFWC title in fine style. But for Ireland it was another crushing UFWC defeat. The Irish had now played 18 UFWC title matches, lost 17 of them, and drawn one, each time failing to take the title. Ireland’s time would eventually come, although they would have to wait another two years for UFWC glory.

This is an edited extract from the book Unofficial Football World Champions, which tells the full story of the UFWC via more than 100 classic matches.

Classic Matches ireland, Scotland

80 years ago this month, international football resumed after the horrors of the Great War. We take a look back through the UFWC archives.

IRELAND 1-1 ENGLAND, 25 October 1919
British Home Championships, Windsor Park, Belfast
Scorers: Ferris (Ireland); Cock (England)

The first proper international match played after the Great War was this game between UFWC champions Ireland and challengers England. The war had put an end to international football fixtures for five and a half years, and stole the lives and careers of many of the era’s best footballers.

Lord Kitchener’s recruitment drive saw more than 500,000 men enlist by the end of September, but initially there were few footballers among them. However, after an appeal led by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and with more volunteers needed to replace the casualties lost in early battles, footballers began to sign up. ‘There was a time for games,’ said Conan Doyle, ‘but there is only time for one thing now, and that thing is war. If a footballer had strength of limb let them serve and march in the field of battle.’

At first, only amateurs were allowed to sign up but, under pressure to allow all footballers to fight for their country, the Football Association eventually called for professionals to be released by their clubs.

England centre-half Frank Buckley, who played in his country’s 1914 UFWC match against Ireland, was one of the first footballers to sign up, and he was charged with leading the 17th Service Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, which became known as the Football Battalion. Almost a quarter of the battalion’s 600 men were footballers. Among them were former England captain and centre forward Vivian Woodward, and right-half Evelyn Lintott, both of whom played in the 1909 UFWC win over Hungary.

Woodward was one of the Football Battalion’s first casualties, being hit by a grenade and suffering a serious leg injury. Lintott was transferred to the West Yorkshire Regiment, and was killed leading his platoon ‘over the top’ at the Somme. Then Frank Buckley was hit in the chest by shrapnel, suffering lung damage. Comrades doubted their critically injured Major would make it to the casualty station, but he recovered, and returned to the front line six months later, only to suffer further lung damage in a poison gas attack. Another England player from the 1914 Ireland match, Edwin Latherton of Blackburn Rovers, was killed while serving with the Royal Field Artillery on the Western Front. Latherton had scored 94 goals in 258 games for Rovers.

Finally, at 11am on 11 November 1918, Armistice was declared. Many footballers had lost their lives or suffered career-ending injuries. Major Buckley estimated that 500 of the original 600 members of the Football Battalion had been killed.

A series of ‘Victory Internationals’ were played after Armistice was declared, but none of them stand in the record books as full internationals. These morale-boosting games offered a chance for football to rebuild itself after the sport had been dismantled by the war.

Ireland had played two Victory Internationals against Scotland, losing the first and drawing the second, but the UFWC title was not at stake. Although most friendly matches can count as a UFWC title matches, games in which National Associations do not field their first national representative team do not count. So the first full international did not take place until October 1919, as part of the first post-war football season.

Both Ireland and England fielded much-changed line-ups for this game, with only two players remaining in each side from their last pre-war UFWC matches. Michael Hamill and Bill Lacey remained for Ireland, and Sam Hardy and Bill Watson for England. While some stars had been killed or injured, others simply had their international careers cut short by the five and a half year war interruption. Ireland forward Frank Thompson and England captain Bob Crompton, who had won 41 caps, were among the pre-war stars who never played for their countries again.

New players had emerged, some having starred in the Victory Internationals, and the mood was one of excitement for a new beginning for international football. 30,000 spectators packed Windsor Park to see the two sides play out a 1-1 draw.

It was a decorated World War hero who opened the scoring – Jack Cock putting England ahead after just 30 seconds. Prolific striker Cock had just signed for Chelsea from Huddersfield Town, going on to score 47 goals in 99 appearances for the Blues.

Jimmy Ferris equalised for Ireland after 70 minutes. Ferris was with Belfast Celtic, but he signed for Chelsea in 1920, and played alongside Cock. His career was cut short by a heart condition, and he died in 1932 aged just 37.

Ireland retained the UFWC title, but soccer was the real winner. After a period of terrible darkness, international football was back.

Classic Matches England, ireland