Any record book will tell you that the youngest ever player for Scotland's football team was John Lambie, who made his debut aged 17 against Ireland in 1886. Not only that, he captained the team and scored a goal.
   It is an astonishing record, but there is one problem: it isn't true. He was selected for the team but my new research shows that he did not play in the match.
   Despite that, Lambie still holds the record for our youngest internationalist, as he did play in the corresponding match in 1887.
   So, what happened? Ireland played Scotland in Belfast on 20 March 1886. The Scottish FA selected the team on 9 March, including three from Queen's Park: JJ Gow as captain, W Harrower and JA Lambie. The Athletic News described it as a team of young players, although there was no comment about precisely how young. Lambie was only 17, having been born on 18 December 1868, and was already a regular in the Queen's Park team - in fact he had just won the Scottish Cup. A precocious talent, indeed.

The day before the match, it was reported in the press that Gow and Harrower were going to miss the match. They would be replaced by Leitch Keir (Dumbarton) and Charles Heggie (Rangers) respectively. This is important on two counts: Heggie would seize the opportunity by scoring four goals in his only international, while Gow's absence left the team without a captain. None of the match reports indicate who captained the team, although the honour is commonly ascribed to Lambie.

The only paper I can find which published a 'live' report on the day of the match, 20 March, was the Glasgow Evening Post. It was a short report which focussed more on the weather and travel than the match itself, but it did list the teams and the final score of 7-2 for Scotland. Lambie is not listed, his place taken by Kelly (Renton). 
   Surely some mistake? On Monday, many of the leading newspapers named Lambie in the Scotland team: the Glasgow Herald, the Scotsman, The Sportsman, the Sporting Life, Northern Whig and Belfast News Letter.
   But look a bit further: the Irish Times says that Lambie was replaced by Kelly. Later in the week the sports papers give the same info: The Field agrees that Kelly played in place of Lambie, Sport (Dublin) says Kelly, the Scottish Umpire reports Kelly scored a goal. The Athletic News is not much help as it says Kerr (Renton).

   And then there are the official records. I have not been able to check the SFA minute books because of the lockdown, but the Scottish FA Annual for 1886 is absolutely clear. It names all the 'Scotch' players who have faced Ireland and Kelly, not Lambie, is listed among those for 1886. ​
   I have also looked at subsequent SFA Annuals for their records of who played against Ireland, and they are consistent: Kelly played in 1886, Lambie played in 1887.
   There are other sources: Richard Robinson's jubilee history of Queen's Park (1920) credits Lambie with just two caps, against Ireland in 1887 and England in 1888. And Willie Maley, writing in the Sunday Post in 1924, says that Kelly 'played against Ireland as far back as 1886, in which match he made the acquaintanceship of Michael Dunbar, who played inside left in his only international'.
   So, it seems that Lambie did not make his Scotland debut aged 17, but he does still hold the record, as he was named captain of Scotland against Ireland on 19 February 1887, aged 18 years and 63 days. However, he has lost the title of youngest goalscorer, which appears to belong to Fred Anderson in 1874.
   This is not the first time I have discovered a mistake in Scotland's international caps record. Hugh Wilson of Dumbarton played against Wales in 1885 but has been missing from the record books.
   Lambie is also not unique in being selected aged 17 but unable to play. I wrote a few years back about Woody Gray who was 'compelled to decline the honour'. 

Here is a revised list of Scotland's youngest international footballers:

John Lambie born 18 December 1868; Ireland 19 February 1887 - 18y 63d.
Fred Anderson born 17 November 1855; England 7 March 1874 – 18y 110d.
Bob Christie born 15 November 1865; England 15 March 1884 – 18y 121d.
Sandy McLaren born 25 December 1910; Norway 26 May 1929 – 18y 152d.
Denis Law born 24 February 1940; Ireland 18 October 1958 – 18y 236d.
Willie Henderson born 24 January 1944; Wales 20 October 1962 – 18y 269d.
Willie Johnston born 19 December 1946; Denmark 13 October 1965 – 18y 298d.
Kieran Tierney born 5 June 1997; Wales 29 March 2016 – 18y 298d.
Davidson Berry, born 27 May 1875; Wales 24 March 1894 – 18y 301d.

A further six players were also 18 on their debut: Danny Wilson, Paul McStay, John R Gow, Garry O'Connor, James T Richmond and Oli Burke.

In sport there has to be a first time for everything, and the earliest known football medal dates from 1851, this beautiful silver prize which was presented by Edinburgh University students to the soldiers of the 93rd Regiment.
   Engraved with a detailed action scene of soldiers in kilts challenging for a ball against students in ordinary outdoor clothes, on the other side it has the match details. This silver medal provides an indisputable record of a competitive game of football taking place, and is of exceptional historical value as the sport's first trophy, in the sense that it was a prize for the winners.

How did it all come about? There was already a tradition of organised football in Edinburgh, where John Hope had founded his Foot-Ball Club in 1824 and ran it into the 1840s. There was then a ten year gap before a flurry of football match reports were published, somewhat incongruously in the London-based Bell's Life rather than the Scottish newspapers.
   The first of these related to a momentous game played on 25 January 1851 'in presence of a vast multitude' in the Queen’s Park (next to Holyrood Palace). It was contested 20-a-side between the Edinburgh University Foot Ball Club and the 93rd Regiment of Foot (later to become the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders), who were garrisoned at Edinburgh Castle. The reporter gushed: 'The students looked all confidence and appeared active, fine, athletic fellows. The Highlanders took their places coolly but with resolute determination, arranging themselves in a manner which displayed excellent training.'
   The teams kicked off at half past two for the best of five games (goals), with ends changed each time a goal was scored, and two hours later the soldiers were declared the winners by a convincing 3-0 margin.
   What made this contest particularly noteworthy is that the teams had agreed beforehand that the losers would present the winners with a medal – originally meant to be gold, but in the event only silver. It was commissioned from the silversmith James Mackay, whose son Robert had been a member of John Hope's Foot-Ball Club from 1824-26; he may have been able to advise his father on the design. This priceless object is now on display in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders' regimental museum in Stirling Castle.
   The soldiers were no strangers to football. The previous month they had played a match at Spark's Cricket Ground in Grove Crescent, reported in the press, and that helped to provide clues to the identity of the winning captain. He was Lieutenant William Donald Macdonald, born in 1827 in Strathmartine, Angus and who joined the regiment in 1847 as Ensign. He had a much-decorated military career in the Crimea, China and the Indian Mutiny, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before he died of cholera in India in 1862.

Much to my delight, I found that Edinburgh University Library holds his manuscript account of a 'Pedestrian tour round the west coast of Scotland in 1849' together with the above carte-de-visite photo of Lieut-Col Macdonald in his hunting clothes. This picture of the first prize-winning football captain has never been published before.
   While the medal match was important, the students were not done yet. A month later Bell's Life published a report headed 'University of Edinburgh Foot Ball Club’' of a 24-a-side match between 'the Scotch and English members composing this club'. I believe this is the first known example of a football match of any kind being played according to nationality.
   The game started at two, the teams identified 'on the Scotch side by a green badge, and on the English by a red', and it was agreed that they would play for three hours. The Scots scored first with 'a lucky hit', then the English scored twice and were declared winners when five o'clock struck. The writer counted 500 spectators, named seven players from each side and two umpires, and gave us one of the most complete football reports of its day.
   Although the participants were identified only by their surnames, it is possible to work out who some of them were. The English (Russell, Broadbent, Cobbold, Aldridge, Frost, Jones and Cousens) all appear to have been medical students, including William Henry Broadbent (1829-61) of Cheshire, Thomas Spencer Cobbold (1828-86) of Ipswich, and one of two Aldridge brothers from Hampshire.
   The Scots (Nasmyth, Smyth, Currie, Frazer, Dickson, Bone and Christison) also featured future doctors such as John Barclay Nasmyth (1832-55) and David Christison (1830-1912), both of Edinburgh, and one of three Bone brothers from Barbados. The team also included James Currie (1828-86), a Divinity student, and Archibald Dickson (1829-95) of Hawick who was studying Law. The two umpires were probably Robert Paterson, a Law student from Ayrshire, and James Hood Wilson, later a Free Church minister.
   The final report in Bell's Life that spring was of a match played on Leith Links on 21 March 1851, between 'the members of the Edinburgh University club and the gentlemen attending the Veterinary College'. It was won 2-0 by the former after two hours, and the writer noted that 'the arrangement of the forces from the University was decidedly superior, and throughout their play was of a much higher order. This is mainly attributable to the good practice the side has been in since the commencement of their season.'
   He makes reference to a proposed match between the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, 'the first time the rival clubs have competed together', but unfortunately no report of this match has been found, if indeed it took place.
   Thanks to these anonymous articles in 1851, we know that Edinburgh University Football Club was organised, practised regularly and had a programme of fixtures. The soldiers of the 93rd also clearly enjoyed their sport and even after they left Edinburgh for a posting at Weedon Barracks in Northamptonshire they held Highland Games which concluded with a game of football.
   Although there are no further accounts of the Edinburgh students playing football until the end of the decade, that may simply be due to a lack of newspaper coverage. The clear inference from all of this, notably the presentation of the first medal and the number of detailed reports, is that football was played more widely in the 1850s than is generally believed. Long before it was codified into the modern game, football was a popular pastime in Edinburgh.