England completed a century-long rivalry with Scotland on this day.

England had played their first international against Scotland in Glasgow in 1872 and a hundred years of matches against the ‘Auld Enemy’ were completed on this day.

It was actually their 89th meeting, no official matches having been played in the war years, and Manchester City’s Colin Bell scored the 28th-minute goal that proved to be the winner.

Four days earlier England had surprisingly lost to Northern Ireland at Wembley and a crowd of nearly 120,000 saw a bad-tempered affair at Hampden Park.

Sir Alf brought the hard-tackling Peter Storey and Norman Hunter into England’s midfield and some of their challenges had the Scottish players itching to retaliate.

When the teams tried to play football, England looked the more enterprising. They soaked up early Scottish pressure, broke forward whenever it was feasible, and took the lead just before the half-hour. Bell received the ball back from Martin Chivers and stabbed a shot wide of ‘keeper Clark.

Things cooled down a little in the second half and England impressed with the non-stop running of Bell, Chivers and Alan Ball.

On balance England did enough to deserve their narrow victory, one which gave them a share of the Home International Championship.