Wales v Scotland: Wins have been elusive in Cardiff

Published on 12/10/2012 01:33

SCOTLAND badly need a win in Wales tonight but the bad news for them is that Cardiff has never been a happy hunting ground for Scotland teams. The two have met in 105 full internationals, with Scotland winning 61 to Wales’s 21; however, only 11 of these Scottish wins have been posted in Cardiff.

And the Scots have only won two of the past ten meetings between the sides, including their victory the last time the nations met, in Dublin in May 2011. Scotland haven’t won in Cardiff since May 1983, when goals from Andy Gray and Ally Brazil secured a 2-0 win.

Prior to that we hadn’t won in the Welsh capital since Eric Caldow, Denis Law and debutant Willie Henderson got the goals in a 3-2 win in October 1962. And no current member of the Tartan Army will want to be reminded of our two visits to Cardiff this century, heavy defeats at the Millennium Stadium and Cardiff City Stadium which helped hasten the demise of Berti Vogts and George Burley.

This lack of success is long-standing. In Scotland’s first visit to Cardiff in March 1903, debutant Finlay Speedie of Rangers got the only goal of the game. Scotland didn’t win again in Cardiff until a 3-0 victory in October 1925 – the start of a run of three successive wins in Cardiff, the last in 1931.

Scotland lost in 1933, drew in 1935 and lost in 1937. But, after the war, the Scots enjoyed their best run of success, winning 3-1 at Ninian Park in 1948 – when Hugh Howie of Hibs memorably scored one minute into his only international.

Two years later Lawrie Reilly scored two, with Billy Liddle scoring Scotland’s other goal. In 1952 he and Allan Brown were on target in another Scotland win, before Paddy Buckley got the only goal in October 1954.

The Scots had to settle for a 2-2 draw in 1956, but returned to winning ways in 1958, Denis Law memorably scoring a debut goal in a 3-0 win.

Wales won 2-0 in 1960, before Henderson’s debut heroics in 1962, but in 1964, seemingly on their way to a 2-1 win, the Scots were undone when Ken Leek scored in the 87th and 89th minutes.

The good news, however, is this. Scotland and Wales have been paired together in qualifying groups for four previous World Cups – 1950 and 1954, when the Home Internationals doubled as qualifying groups, and in 1978 and 1986. Scotland qualified on all four of these occasions.