England’s overall record reads like this: played 96, won 74, drew 16, lost 6, goals for 319, goals against 80.

The series began in 1882, when the teams clashed at the Bloomfield Ground in Belfast before a crowd of 2,500. Howard Vaughton, a silversmith, put England on the road to a colossal 13-0 win with a goal after just three minutes. He finished with five.

It remains England’s biggest margin of victory in an official international. A year later the teams met again, at Aigburth Cricket Ground in Liverpool, and this time England triumphed 7-0. William Cobbold, the Michael Owen of his day, netted twice and once again the crowd was an estimated 2,500.

Those first two internationals were friendlies. England won the first British Championship (aka Home International Championship) fixture 8-1 at Belfast’s Ulster Ground in 1884.

Ireland finally beat England at the 32nd attempt, winning 2-1 in front of 20,000 inside Belfast’s Windsor Park in 1913. England had taken a tenth-minute lead through Sunderland legend Charlie Buchan.

43 post-Second World War meetings have included four World Cup qualifiers, six European Championship qualifiers (we’ve never been drawn together in a final tournament) and 18 matches at Wembley Stadium.

To help celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Irish FA, England elected to play Northern Ireland at Wembley for the first time in 1955. The one shining light on a grey afternoon was the youthful Johnny Haynes, his superb passing the main feature of a match England won 3-0 before 62,000 fans.

With Alf Ramsey in his second season at the helm, England crushed the Irish 8-3 at Wembley in 1963.

Terry Paine (below) scored the first goal of a hat-trick in only the second minute, Jimmy Greaves weighed in with four and Bobby Smith got the other. It was the first England home match played entirely under floodlight.

Northern Ireland achieved just one victory in the last 30 years of internationals against England and that came at Wembley in 1972. It was a deserved and historic win and delighted the large contingent of Irish fans present.

An England side captained by Colin Bell, in the absence of the injured Bobby Moore, had more of the play but Terry Neill struck the decisive goal.

The most recent England v Northern Ireland match was a European Championship qualifier at Windsor Park on 1st April 1987. Bryan Robson and Chris Waddle notched first-half goals in England’s 2-0 win in front of 23,000.