On This Day – 12th October
Scotland and Wales played in a World Cup Qualifier on this day back in 1977, with a place at the World Cup Finals in Argentina up for grabs.
Czechoslovakia were the other side in the small qualifying group and they beat Scotland 2-0 in the first group game. Wales then comfortably beat the Czechs 3-0 at home. Sadly, there was crowd trouble at this game played at Wrexham’s Racecourse Ground and the Welsh FA decided to play the Scotland home game at Liverpool’s Anfield ground.
On 21st September, Scotland beat Czechoslovakia 3-1 at Hampden Park to lead the group by two points. This was at a time when two points were awarded for a win instead of three as is the case today.
Scotland topped the group with four points and Wales and Czechoslovakia had two points each. With only one team progressing from each group, a victory for Scotland would guarantee them a place in the 1978 World Cup.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom for Wales as they knew that a win at Anfield would put them top with only one game remaining. That match would be away to Czechoslovakia in the group’s final fixture and confidence was high in the Welsh camp because of their comprehensive victory in the last fixture between the two at Ninian Park.
Back to the game on 12th October between Scotland and Wales. The Welsh FA’s theory behind moving the game to Anfield was to get an extra pay day and to have a larger crowd to cheer them on. This backfired massively as a huge Scottish contingent arrived at Anfield en masse and made the match more like a home game for the Scotland team.
Both sides had chances in an open, end-to-end math where both teams needed the win. The games pivotal moment came in the 78th minute when Joe Jordan flicked on an Asa Hartford throw with his fist. Jordan had gone up for a header with Welsh defender David Jones and the French referee decided that it was Jones and not Jordan who had handballed.
The Welsh players were incredulous but the referee wouldn’t listen to their pleas. Don Masson then slotted the resulting penalty away, sending Dai Davies the wrong way. Kenny Dalglish settled the tie ten minutes later with a near post header and Scotland won the game 2-0.
The Welsh FA got their pay-day as 50,850 fans clicked through the Anfield turnstiles that night, but more importantly Wales didn’t get the result that they needed. To compound their misery, Czechoslovakia beat them 1-0 in the now-meaningless game in Prague.
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