1876 Scotland v Wales football match

1876 Scotland v Wales
football match

Scotland Wales 4 0
Date	25 March 1876
Venue	Hamilton Crescent, Partick
Referee	Robert Gardner (Scotland)
Attendance	Over 17,000

The 1876 association football match between the national teams representing Scotland and Wales took place on 25 March 1876 at Hamilton Crescent, Partick, the home ground of the West of Scotland Cricket Club. The match was the first game ever played by the Welsh side. It was also the first time that Scotland had played against a team other than England.

The fixture^[discuss] was organised by Llewelyn Kenrick, who had founded the Football Association of Wales (FAW) only a few weeks earlier in response to a letter published in The Field. Advertisements were placed in several sporting journals asking for Welsh players, or those with more than three years residence in the country, to come forward and the Welsh team was selected after trial matches were held at the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham. The FAW selected the side and Kenrick was appointed captain for the fixture.

As the more experienced team, Scotland dominated the match and had several chances to score in the first half. They had a goal disallowed after scoring directly from a corner kick, before taking the lead after 40 minutes through John Ferguson. In the early stages of the second half, Wales attempted to play more openly to find a goal, but the Scottish side took advantage of their opponents' inexperience and scored two further goals. The first was a rebound off the goalpost which was converted by Billy MacKinnon; the second was headed in by debutant James Lang. Scotland added a fourth through Henry McNeil and claimed a victory in front of a crowd of over 17,000 people, a record for an international game at the time.

The two nations have met frequently since this first match, playing against each other every year in friendly matches until 1884 when the British Home Championship was introduced. The competition was an annual tournament, and Scotland and Wales played a fixture against each other every year until 1984, apart from when competitive football was suspended during the First and Second World Wars. In total, the two sides have played more than 100 matches against each other since the first meeting.