Match Summary

England Team

Scotland Team

For the first time Wembley was to decide the winners of the British Championship as both England and reigning champions Scotland had won both their previous matches. England had not won the championship outright since 1913 but Scotland had won, or shared it, seven times in the previous ten years.

England took the lead when Vic Watson took a pass from Jack and shot past Harkness. Then, in a five-minute spell, towards the end of the first half England scored three goals to destroy Scotland's resistance. Sammy Crooks created them all. First he crossed for Watson to head his second. Then, a cross to the far post found Ellis Rimmer's head. Following this, a corner by Crooks was neatly converted by David Jack and Scotland were four goals down at the interval.

To their credit, they did not give up. In the second half, Hibbs failed to hold a long shot from Craig and the ball bounced out for Jimmy Fleming to net the rebound. England soon quelled the revival when Rimmer took a pass from Bradford and shot past Harkness without breaking stride. Scotland managed a second with 28 minutes remaining. Morton's cross was converted by Fleming, but Scotland had suffered their heaviest defeat since losing 3-0 to England at Goodison Park in 1895.

This was the first of three successive British Championships for England, although they had to share it with Scotland the following year.

"There were fears of a riot just before the start of the game, when thousands who were unable to gain admission attempted to storm the gates. Many ticket-holders were considerably inconvenienced by the occurrence and did not get into their seats until after play had started." - Glasgow Herald, Monday, 7 April 1930.

Football League Division One 5 April 1930
Team	P	Pts
Sheffield Wednesday	32	46
Derby County	36	45
Manchester City	36	44
Aston Villa	36	40
Blackburn Rovers	37	40
Liverpool	37	40
Huddersfield Town	36	39
Leicester City	37	38
Leeds United	35	37
West Ham United	37	37
Portsmouth	36	36
Bolton Wanderers	37	36
Birmingham	35	34
Arsenal	35	33
Sheffield United	37	33
Sunderland	34	33
Manchester United	36	33
Middlesbrough	36	32
Burnley	38	32
Newcastle United	35	29
Grimsby Town	36	27
Everton	36	26

 

Division One matches played on 5 April 1930:

BIRMINGHAM 2-4 DERBY COUNTY
Briggs, Robinson (Bedford 3, Barclay)
13,609 (St Andrew's, Birmingham)

Birmingham were without Bradford and Hibbs (in goal), who were playing against Scotland at Wembley, whilst Derby were without Sammy Crooks, who was making his international debut, against Scotland.

BLACKBURN ROVERS 2-0 ASTON VILLA
J.Bruton, L.Bruton
14,138 (Ewood Park, Blackburn)

GRIMSBY TOWN 1-1 BOLTON WANDERERS
Robson (Milsom)
12,081 (Blundell Park, Cleethorpes)

HUDDERSFIELD TOWN 1-1 MANCHESTER CITY
Smailes (Busby)
14,180 (Leeds Road, Huddersfield)

Huddersfield were without Goodall, who was playing against Scotland at Wembley, Kelly, who was a reserve against Scotland, and Jackson, who was playing for Scotland.

LEICESTER CITY 5-4 EVERTON
Chandler 3, Lochhead, Barry (Martin 2, Johnson, Critchley)
13,897 (Filbert Street, Leicester)

LIVERPOOL 1-3 SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY
Hodgson (Allen, Hooper, Burgess)
35,563 (Anfield, Liverpool)

Liverpool were without Jimmy McDougall, who was a reserve for Scotland against England at Wembley, whilst Wednesday were without Blenkinsop, Marsden, Rimmer (who scored twice) and Strange (making his international debut), who were playing against Scotland.

MANCHESTER UNITED 2-1 SUNDERLAND
McLenahan 2 (Gurney)
13,230 (Old Trafford, Manchester)

Sunderland were without Jock McDougall, who was a reserve for Scotland against England at Wembley.

MIDDLESBROUGH 1-1 LEEDS UNITED
Camsell (Keetley)
14,136 (Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough)

Middlesbrough were without Maurice Webster, who was making his international debut, against Scotland at Wembley.

NEWCASTLE UNITED 1-1 ARSENAL
Devine (Halliday)
36,309 (St James' Park, Newcastle)

Arsenal goalkeeper, Dan Lewis went off injured with twenty minutes left and Bill Johnstone went in goal, conceding Newcastle's equaliser, five minutes from the end. They were without Jack, the captain who scored against Scotland at Wembley, and James, who was playing for Scotland.

SHEFFIELD UNITED 2-3 PORTSMOUTH
Tunstall, Radford (Thackeray, Weddle, Easson)
17,800 (Bramall Lane, Sheffield)

WEST HAM UNITED 1-0 BURNLEY
Barrett
12,092 (Upton Park, London)

West Ham were without Vic Watson, who scored the first two goals against Scotland at Wembley.

Though they were only a point ahead, Sheffield Wednesday had four games in hand and went on to celebrate clinching their second successive title by putting six goals past Derby at Hillsborough.

Football League Division Two 5 April 1930
Team	P	Pts
Oldham Athletic	36	49
Chelsea	36	49
Blackpool	36	49
Bradford	36	41
Bury	35	40
Southampton	36	39
Cardiff City	36	39
Nottingham Forest	36	38
Tottenham Hotspur	36	37
Stoke City	37	36
Wolverhampton Wanderers	36	36
West Bromwich Albion	36	35
Charlton Athletic	35	35
Notts County	36	32
Millwall	36	31
Reading	37	31
Barnsley	36	30
Preston North End	36	30
Hull City	34	30
Swansea Town	37	29
Bradford City	36	29
Bristol City	35	25

 

Division Two matches played on 5 April 1930:

BARNSLEY 3-0 HULL CITY
Gibbs, Eaton 2 pens.
6,243 (Oakwell, Barnsley)

BLACKPOOL 0-2 STOKE CITY
(Sellars, Kirkham)
13,679 (Bloomfield Road, Blackpool)

BRADFORD 4-0 CHARLTON ATHLETIC
Harwood 2, Scott, Davis
8,523 (Park Avenue, Bradford)

BURY 3-1 WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS
Robbie, Smith, Chambers (Hetherington)
6,854 (Gigg Lane, Bury)

CHELSEA 3-2 BRADFORD CITY
Wilson 2, 1 pen., Pearson (Partridge, Randall)
26,068 (Stamford Bridge, London)

Chelsea were without Tommy Law, who was playing for Scotland against England at Wembley.

MILLWALL 2-0 PRESTON NORTH END
Cock, Horton
14,746 (The Den, London)

NOTTINGHAM FOREST 1-0 SWANSEA TOWN
Burton
6,604 (City Ground, Nottingham)

OLDHAM ATHLETIC 4-1 CARDIFF CITY
Littlewood, Gray, Taylor, Adlam (Robbins)
18,596 (Boundary Park, Oldham)

Oldham had a penalty saved by Tom Farquharson.

SOUTHAMPTON 3-0 BRISTOL CITY
Jepson, Dougall, Haines
9,788 (The Dell, Southampton)

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 2-0 NOTTS COUNTY
Bellamy, Cook
17,848 (White Hart Lane, London)

WEST BROMWICH ALBION 1-0 READING
Edwards
6,676 (The Hawthorns, West Bromwich)

Chelsea and Oldham took advantage of Blackpool's surprise home defeat, with three teams now level on points with six games left, but it was Oldham who were to miss out on promotion.

Division Three on 5 April 1930:

Port Vale led the northern section on goal average from Stockport County, but had a game in hand. They would hold out to win their first ever promotion. Plymouth Argyle led the southern section by a point from Brentford and also had a game in hand. Brentford would win all 21 of their home games, but they could not catch Plymouth, who finally secured that elusive promotion, following six successive runners-up placings in the past decade.

IN OTHER NEWS...

It was on 5 April 1930 that the verdict on the death of the twenty-year-old West End chorus girl, Nita Foy, was returned as "accidental". Whilst filming a musical called 'Spanish Eyes' at Twickenham Studios she had leaned over a radiator in a dressing room and her dress caught fire. She died in hospital on the following day.

Source Notes

As well as the 1900 'Rosebery' team of Scottish Internationalists, sponsored by Bob McColl, with the exclusion of Nick Smith, who had died in 1905, the match was attended by various dignitaries, including the Prime Minister and his daughter, Ishbel MacDonald, Mr and Mrs Arthur Henderson, the Egyptian Prime Minister and four delegates to the Egyptian Conference, Mr C.F. Adams and Mr Dwight Morrow, of the American Delegation,  Signor Grandi, Admiral Takarabe, Mr C.T. Te Water, Professor T.A. Smiddy, representing the Irish Free State and Mr T.M. Wilford, representing New Zealand, all from the Naval Conference.

DELIGHTFUL PLAYERS

   "The English team was so delighted with its victory, that after the game the players asked for gold medals as souvenirs instead of the usual playing fee of £6.
   "The English players also marked the occasion by presenting each other with autographed match programmes.
   "All players in international games are awarded a 'cap', and it is the practice to be content with this for a souvenir and to take the £6 fee. The request that the money be used to purchase the medals is probably without precedent."

Scottish Football Association
Scotland - The Complete International Record: Richard Keir
London Hearts
Glen Isherwood's Wembley: The Complete Record (SportsBooks Limited, Cheltenham, U.K., 2006)
original newspaper reports
FA Yearbooks 1950-60
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CG