Wednesday 1 England beat Uruguay 2‑1 at Anfield in their final friendly before the World Cup squad is picked. Darren Bent makes his debut, Peter Crouch and Joe Cole score. Scotland lose 3‑1 to Switzerland, extending their ten‑year run without a friendly win at Hampden. Northern Ireland beat Estonia 1‑0, Ivan Sproule scoring after 78 seconds. England’s World Cup group opponents Sweden lose 3‑0 to Ireland, while Paraguay draw 0-0 with Wales, Derby’s 17-year-old Lewin Nyatanga becoming the youngest ever Welsh international. Former Chelsea and England striker Peter Osgood dies aged 59.
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Stories
In the blue corner, Alex McLeish, only keeping his job because of European success; in the maroon corner, Graham Rix, in his job for reasons no one can fathom. Dianne Millen reports
Tired of the predictability of your domestic league? Hoping that more than two clubs might be in with a chance of winning it? The recipe is simple – just sell one of your clubs to a wealthy foreign businessman and watch the points (and the crowds) roll in.
David Ogilvie’s only regrets about Stirling Albion’s finest hour are that he wasn’t there and that he has never seen the 20th goal. And yes, you read that right
In a year when Liverpool won the European Cup and Scotland’s rugby team won the Grand Slam, and in the month that Bob Geldof went from being a pop singer to the man behind Band Aid, an unremarkable football club also made headlines nationwide.
Sky would kill for last day dramatics like this. Bobby McMahon retells the tale of one of the closest ever title races
The long-term significance
This season brought to an end a period in which teams other than Rangers and Celtic actually won the Scottish League. In the 19 seasons after the end of the Second World War, non-Old Firms clubs took eight of the championships. In the 40 years since, that has only happened four times. After winning the domestic treble the previous season, Rangers slumped to fifth while Celtic could only manage to finish eighth.
The sun shines on the football in Leith these days, as Tony Mowbray’s young side have become Scotland’s latest third force. But can they build on current success? Dianne Millen reports
Every team in Scotland outside the Old Firm is allowed to have what the papers normally refer to as a “bumper season” – a concept depressing in its acknowledgement that no club can hope to actually claim the real honours. Seven years ago, improbably, it was St Johnstone, now of the First Division, who claimed the “third force” honours. Four years ago it was newly promoted Livingston who, rather than dutifully struggling against relegation, instead stormed to third place and Europe. Since then, the club with the most credible claim have been the consistent if somewhat stolid Heart of Midlothian, the only club to finish in the lucrative half of the laughable “top six-bottom six” league split every year since it was introduced. This season, however, the third force-elect are their Edinburgh neighbours, Hibernian. Their youth-fuelled renaissance under ex-Ipswich man Tony Mowbray hints that, for the first time in years, genteel Edinburgh may be rising again as a footballing city to challenge its western cousin.