England (14-08-2013)

England 3 – 2 Scotland, International Friendly (14^th August 2013)

Coach travel: £34

Ticket: £32-50
Tea (£1, £2): £3
Taxi (Sheffield centre-home): £15 (approx)
Total: £84-50

Officially, this game perhaps shouldn’t make it onto this blog. I’ve been to Wembley Stadium a few times before, so this wasn’t a new ground, and of course purists may argue this isn’t really ground-hopping. However, I’ve decided to include it for posterity, and as it juxtaposes neatly with non-league games, in terms of cost, atmosphere and attendance.

I’d taken a few days off work before we flew off to sunnier climes for our holidays, and made the coach trip down to London on the National Express service. Setting off at just before 2pm, the coach arrived at about 5.30pm. I’ve used this service a couple of previous times, and have found it a convenient and inexpensive route to Wembley – at £34 for a return it represented good value for money. England had not played Scotland since 1999 in a Euro 2000 play-off when a Scholes double had won the game at Hampden, while a Hutchison strike at Wembley was not enough to stop England progressing. Back then, Scotland had only recently played in the World Cup, and on June 10^th 1998, had put on a plucky performance against Brazil, only to lose on an unfortunate own-goal. This was one of the games that first piqued my interest in football.

Wembley is a complete contrast to the grounds I usually visit, and maybe that’s why I like it. I love the atmosphere at England games there, and particularly enjoy how close you feel to the pitch. By all accounts, the old Wembley (which I never visited) had a pitch which was too far from the spectators. It’s definitely enjoyable to go to more major games like this, perhaps because it isn’t very often. Maybe that’s why many England fans also follow non-league teams – along with the lower costs of weekly matches, they have the enjoyment of going to a bigger game in a bigger stadium once in a while.

Although some England games can disappoint for atmosphere and results, this one was an entertaining and open game. Scotland opened the scoring early on to put the cat among the pigeons, with Joe Hart making a mistake with James Morrison’s long-range effort. I was intrigued by the Scottish tactics in the lead-up to the goal, when four players had stood within a yard of each other on the edge of the box in response to a corner. If it was meant to cause confusion as the players dispersed it certainly worked. England were behind for about 20 minutes, before Theo Walcott slid in a superb angled shot to make it 1-1. Walcott has come on leaps and bounds over the last couple of years, and is really delivering on the big-stage now.

We made it to half-time at parity, and then fell behind again when Kenny Miller took advantage of a poor defence to make it 2-1. Within 4 minutes, we were back on level terms again, this time Danny Welbeck heading in from a Gerrard free kick. Scotland were certainly giving us a game tonight! They were strong in midfield, and were doing everything to stop us getting the ball into their half, as well as making some neat passes of their own. Rooney went off on 67 minutes for Rickie Lambert, and made way for a comic-book finish to the game. With what must have been his first touch in international football, Lambert headed perfectly past the Scottish keeper on 70 minutes, putting us into the lead for the first time that evening. Quite a meteoric rise from a beetroot factory! Scotland bravely continued, but England’s superior quality finally told in the final quarter of the match, as we held on for the 3-2 win. This was a great game to start the new ‘international season’, and a good one to catch before our early-season break to Morocco.