Last Wednesday was the 150th anniversary of Scotland and England’s 0-0 draw at Partick’s West of Scotland Cricket Ground.
It was the first official men’s international football game, and a rivalry between the two sides has persisted ever since.
Given that long-running animosity, many were surprised to see one famous Scot apparently cheering on the English in their match against Senegal on Sunday night.
READ MORE: England stand with LGBTQ+ people at World Cup until it costs them
Who are England?
Founded as a country in 927 AD, England has since provided the world with tutting and James Corden.
And they have a football team?
Just as they shared a draw with Scotland 150 years ago, so the modern English side shares an identical record with their Scottish counterparts. Since records began in 1967, neither country’s national team has won a World Cup.
Why were they playing Senegal?
Despite widespread coverage of the human rights abuses perpetrated in Qatar, England saw fit to not only attend, but actively participate, in a tournament that has been described as ‘sportswashing’.
Scotland, notably, are not in Qatar.
READ MORE: World Cup winner Rose Reilly honoured with National Galleries of Scotland portrait
But a Scot watched the game?
On Sunday night, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves tweeted a picture of Labour leader Keir Starmer watching the match. Despite Starmer being that rare politician who genuinely does enjoy football, his enthusiasm still looked about as convincing as Peep Show’s Mark Corrigan revealing his plan to ‘put one right in their goal hole, but no dice’.
To his left sat Raith Rovers fan and former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, sporting a significantly less exuberant expression than Starmer. One paper ran the headline ‘Gordon Brown looks gutted as England smash Senegal’ and claimed the 71-year-old was “slumped despondently in his chair at a hotel in Leeds surrounded by grinning English colleagues.”
This came as a shock to readers, who were used to seeing Brown as a bubbly, larger-than-life, almost overbearingly flamboyant presence.
Watching the match in Leeds with @lisanandy @TracyBrabin @Keir_Starmer & @GordonBrown
— Rachel Reeves (@RachelReevesMP) December 4, 2022
Go England!! 🏴 pic.twitter.com/rqmSS9zxvW
What was the score?
England won 3-0.
What next?
They’ve qualified for a 3-1 defeat against France on Saturday night.
What will Saturday night’s headline be?
‘Gordon Brown looks gutted as England fall to Mbappe masterclass’.
READ MORE: Qatar World Cup team guide as football celebrates a festival for all heterosexual men
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel