England v Scotland, 01 April 1893

Comments:

Although it was believed that Fred Spikesley scored a second-half hat-trick, it proved difficult to establish if it was the second or fifth goal in addition to the two indicated above. In 2009, Cris Freddi - author of a number of respected international football books - wrote: "Fred Spikesley was presented with a chain for scoring the first hat-trick against Scotland by the FA. "I can explain why the newspapers got the scorers wrong that day. "The Press could not see the game due to overcrowding and the press just agreed amongst themselves as to who had scored. "I have that in writing from contempory newspaper reports. "However,, those present in the stand, who had a clear view gave Fred three goals and so do the referee and other players on the pitch. The records will never get changed, I know, but he did score that hat-trick against Scotland." [26.01.2016] Subsequent evidence assembled by Mark Metcalf and Clive Nicholson, the authors of Flying Over An Olive Grove, established that he did score the fifth goal (a fifteen-yard left-footed volley set up by Cotterill), so not John Reynolds. Fred therefore became the first player to score a hat-trick against Scotland.