17 November 1999, Wembley. Scotland 1–0 England. England go through 2–1 on aggregate.
By Hamish McTavish
A Wednesday night at the old Wembley, seventy-five thousand in, and a two-goal lead already in the bag from Hampden. Paul Scholes had scored twice on Saturday. Kevin Keegan had a side that only needed not to be complacent, which is the one sin he had vowed they would avoid. Craig Brown, six years in the job that day, had a side that had to throw caution at the thing and did. The English week was about Brussels in December and the finals in the Low Countries. The Scottish week was about Wembley, a first win here since 1981, and whether two goals in Glasgow were a mountain or a dare. They were a dare.
Keegan had David Seaman, Tony Adams, Sol Campbell, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Alan Shearer with the armband, Michael Owen. Brown had Neil Sullivan, Colin Hendry, Christian Dailly, Barry Ferguson, John Collins, Neil McCann, Don Hutchison, Billy Dodds. Pierluigi Collina in the middle. The Tartan Army had the corner and the noise. England had the aggregate and the idea that a 2-0 is a night you see out. Two-nil, Hutchison said later, was a dangerous scoreline for a Keegan side, because their instinct was to go and kill it and instead they sat. Scotland had no inferiority. They played these men on Saturdays. The play-off second leg was supposed to be a formality. Formalities are how Wembley gets its Scottish nights.
They kicked off anyway.
England could not get going. Scholes, from twenty metres, went fractionally wide. Campbell broke and Shearer miscued. Then the visitors took the grass. Hutchison hung one in and Campbell had to clear. Dodds turned on the six-yard line. Six minutes before the interval McCann slipped Campbell on the left and crossed, and Hutchison glanced it past Seaman. One-nil on the night, 2-1 on the tie, and Wembley, apart from one corner, going quiet the way a favourite goes quiet when the sum has changed. Owen had already had one chalked off for a foul on Sullivan. The header was the one that counted. Hutchison’s last act of the half, and the first Scottish goal against England in thirteen years.
The second half is Scotland pouring, England hanging, Keegan’s first defeat as manager unfolding in his own house. Craig Burley left the field with a bloodied nose and they played a stretch with ten; while he was off, Owen ran onto Ince and Collins took him out with the tackle of the night. Keegan sent Emile Heskey on for Owen with twenty-five minutes left, muscle instead of the other finish. Mark Burchill came on for McCann. Hutchison drilled a free-kick that Seaman spilled and gathered at the second ask. Beckham bent one past Sullivan’s post. Adams timed a tackle on Dodds that Keegan later said had the bench gasping. From the corner Seaman, point-blank, put Dailly’s header off the line. Flower of Scotland went up from the corner in the last minutes, a last ask. Collina blew. Scotland had won the night and lost the tie. England had the scrape. The Record, in the morning, did not wait for the aggregate. BE PROUD. The Night We Won Back Our Self-Respect. The Sun had The Jocky Horror Show, Kev’s Fainthearts just scrape through, and inside, Tarts 0 Tartan 1. The Mail had What A Sham. The Times had Lucky England take low road. Jeff Powell wrote that honest Englishmen should be cringing. They can have the cringe. The night is the header, the hang, and a two-goal lead that nearly died in their own ground.
Keegan said they would be the first to admit they did not play well. Maybe it was a bit too much for the players psychologically, having a 2-0 lead. A poor performance, and you have to give credit to Scotland and Craig Brown. They took a chance, they had to, and we could not get the ball off them. I have never been as glad to hear a final whistle. If that had gone to extra time, we were done. Later he would say they were the luckiest team in the world to get through. On the night he also said, I know you’ll laugh, but we have a chance to win it. The laugh is the correct response. Brown said they deserved more than one goal and that he had never lost two in a row and was not going to against England. He didn’t. He lost the sum.
Hutchison had the glance and a Wembley goal he still puts above the one against Germany. McCann had the slip and the cross. Collins had the tackle. Dailly had the header Seaman had to make. Hendry and Dailly had Shearer and Owen in their pockets for long stretches. Ferguson and Collins had Ince and Scholes. Seaman had the line and the spill. Adams had the tackle. Beckham had the work-rate Keegan praised because there was not much else to praise. Shearer had the armband and a quiet night. Owen had the one that was pulled back. Keegan had the vow about complacency, and then the night that was made of it. Scholes had the two at Hampden that nearly became a footnote.
They said don’t be complacent. They said a two-goal lead. They said I know you’ll laugh. They said a chance to win it. If you still think it was only a scrape, a funeral is only a Tuesday. The scrape put them in Belgium. The night put a Scottish header in the old Wembley net, and a paper at home that did not need the aggregate to know how to speak.
The header is still in the BBC’s Battle of Britain file from that week: McCann, Hutchison, the quiet, Seaman on the line. Do not review it. Watch the two-nil shrink.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1999/11/99/battle_of_britain/525287.stm
Related reading
- Auld Enemy: a short history — the rivalry spine this night still sits inside
- The night they took the crossbar — Wembley 1977, another Scottish night the English end still remembers wrong
If the nights sit right, the shirts and the wall are at /shop.
FAQ
What was the score when Scotland beat England at Wembley in 1999?
Scotland 1–0 England on the night (17 November 1999); England went through 2–1 on aggregate after Scholes’s two at Hampden. Hutchison scored the Wembley header.
Why “Be proud”?
The Daily Record’s morning front — Be Proud / The Night We Won Back Our Self-Respect — ignoring the aggregate for the night that mattered at home.
Did Scotland qualify?
No. They won the second leg and lost the tie. England scraped into Euro 2000; Keegan called them the luckiest team in the world to get through.