Home Scots v Anglo-Scots
Home Scots v Anglo-Scots was an annual association football trial match organised by the Scottish Football Association between the 1890s and 1920s to examine the abilities of possible players for upcoming full British Home Championship internationals, primarily the 'Auld Enemy' England v Scotland fixture. Selection trials were commonplace among football federations, but this match was unusual in that its regular format consisted of players based in one country facing a selection of those who had moved to another country, in order to form a combined team to oppose that other country's natives in international play.
Background
From the advent of modern football in the 1860s, the relationship between the sporting communities of England and Scotland was one of its defining factors beyond local level. The development of tactics, styles and practices was evidenced in matches between the national teams from the first unofficial meetings in 1870 followed by the first official international in 1872, through the adaption of the combination game. The successful use of this style was exemplified by the 'Scotch Professors' who moved to England in increasing numbers, enticed south by payment for their services which was initially illicit but then legitimised with the introduction of professionalism in English football in 1886, with The Football League starting two years later - the pattern has continued ever since, due to the larger, more lucrative economic market for the sport in England and no legal barriers to employment between the countries as two parts of the United Kingdom.The Scottish Association, at that time dominated by strictly amateur club Queen's Park, refused to select these 'treacherous mercenary' players for the national team, and selected only Scotland-based amateur players, with the attitude of suspicion and hostility echoed at least to a degree by the general population. The practice still continued even after the Scottish Football League was formed in 1890, after professionalism was officially adopted in Scotland in 1893, and after Scottish players in English teams were seen to be dominating the competitions south of the border, with large contingents in the Preston North End 'Invincibles' and Sunderland's '' among others.
However, by 1896 Scotland had not beaten England in six attempts and it was decided to allow English-based players to be considered for selection. The first 'Home Scots v Anglo-Scots' trial match to compare the abilities of the two sets of players was played at the first Ibrox Park on 25 March 1896. Five 'Anglos' were subsequently selected to face England at Celtic Park ten days later, and a 2–1 victory to win the championship suggested the change in policy had been a success. From 1896 to 1914, Scotland's record against England was 7 wins, 6 draws and 6 defeats from their 19 meetings. The Scots had a superior record against the other British teams, Ireland and Wales, and continued to select only home-based players for those fixtures until the 1903 match against Wales and the 1906 match against Ireland – although there were still some all-home selections in the years afterwards. The enduring hostile attitude of the Scottish public towards Anglos was demonstrated by an open letter written by Alex Raisbeck in 1907 defending the commitment of England-based players in the face of public criticism that so many were being selected.
The annual springtime 'Home Scots v Anglo-Scots' matches played in Glasgow and attended by crowds into five figures, continued until the mid-1920s, interrupted only by the war – during which one unofficial fundraising equivalent match was organised in 1917, with the Anglos composed of players contracted to English clubs but released to play in Scotland.
However, while Scotland recorded two wins, one draw and a narrow 4–5 loss in their four post-war meetings with England, contemporary reports of the trials sometimes reported mismatched teams and/or varying levels of effort by some players which detracted from their purpose an assessment of ability for the selection committee; this led the SFA to change to a 'Team A v Team B' basis drawn from a single pool in 1924 and 1925, as they had previously done between the 1870s and 1898. There was no pre-England trial in 1926, with Scotland winning the Home Championship fixture, as they also had in 1925. But no trial followed by a defeat at Hampden in 1927 caused concern to the SFA.
In 1928, with Scotland's strong record in the Home Championship having been dented by the defeat to England and another to Ireland later that year, the Home v Anglos concept was revived briefly, although the trial match itself was reported as having drawn a poor crowd and been played on a poor surface. Five of its participants were picked for the England match, four of whom had already been capped so it was no great leap to involve them. The sole debutant, centre-half Tom Bradshaw, was never selected for Scotland again despite his marking role on Dixie Dean which contributed to the team going down in folklore as the Wembley Wizards with a 5–1 win at Wembley. The side contained eight 'Anglos', but soon a dispute over the release of players from some English Football League clubs to national teams other than their own in 1930 caused the Scottish selectors to revert to a 'home' focus for some years, negating the purpose of a 'Home v Anglos' match. Even with the matter resolved, it was not until the 1938 fixture that as many as eight England-based players were chosen again. Instead, having already gone on tour to North America in 1927, the SFA opted to repeat the practice in 1935 and 1939 to test their candidates, and also began to play an increasing number of friendly matches against European opponents at home and abroad, with 15 between summer 1929 and the outbreak of World War II in autumn 1939.
After the war, another American tour in 1949 was followed by irregular trials against opposition such as the British Army and Scottish club sides. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, six annual trials were played between a 'Scotland XI' and a Scottish Football League XI, which in effect was similar to the old 'Home v Anglo' matches – a good portion of each 'Scotland XI' were based in England, and as the ranks of SFL clubs contained very few men who were not eligible for Scotland, its squad comprised all the best home-based players. The pre-1920s 'home' team had never officially been presented as the SFL XI, but the SFL side for inter-league matches often closely mirrored that which had been picked for the 'Home v Anglos' trial games.