1 November 1906 - As Good As They Were, You'd Think They Could Have Gotten Paying Jobs

On 1 November 1906, England's national amateur team played their first game, beating France 0-15 in Paris.

As football in England began to shift from an amateur game to a professional one, the amateurs found places in the national team difficult to obtain. That, along with a desire by some to maintain the sport's original spirit, led to the formation of an amateur national side to complement the primary team.

Captained by Stanley Harris, who had six full internationals under his belt, the amateurs played their first match at the Parc des Princes against the senior French national team (who were playing just their fifth match themselves). England won 0-15, with seven goals from Harris and four from Vivian Woodward (pictured). S.H. Day added two more, with the remaining goals coming from J.E. Raine and P.H. Farnfield.

The match was not an outlier--the amateurs rattled off a string of seventeen consecutive victories, including equally lopsided wins over the Netherlands (12-2), Sweden (12-1), Belgium (11-2) and also served as the gold-medal winning British team at the 1908 Summer Olympics.

The amateur side lasted until 1974, when the FA stopped distinguishing between professionals and amateurs.

20 October 1908 - Whoever They Were, They Got Off To A Great Start

On 20 October 1908, Great Britain played their first match and got their biggest win, beating Sweden 12-1 at the London Olympics.

Some dispute exists as to whether the team was truly representative of Great Britain, as it consisted of players exclusively from England (and all were members of the English amateur national team). On the other hand, they wore Union Jacks on their shirts, suggesting that, whatever sporting allegiances they usually held, they were at the Olympics to play for all of Great Britain.

They opened their campaign with a match against Sweden at White City, played in front of a relatively modest crowd of 2,000 (four times that many showed up there for the final). The British team dominated, with goals from Clyde Purnell (4), Harold Stapley (2), Vivian Woodward (2), Robert Hawkes (2), Arthur Berry, and Frederick Chapman, while Sweden's only goal came from Gustaf Bergström. The scoreline remains the team record.

Great Britain followed the win with a 4-0 victory over the Netherlands. That put them into the gold medal match against Denmark, which they also won, 2-0.

1 June 1909 - The Three Lions Take Ten

On 1 June 1909, England won their record 10th consecutive match, beating Austria 1-8 in Vienna. Even more impressively, it came just one day after their ninth win.

Coincidentally, their winning streak started with a victory over Austria almost one year earlier. After beating them 1-6 on 6 June 1908, they went on to defeat them again two days later, 1-11, then followed that with wins over Hungary, Bohemia, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. They returned to Hungary in 1909 to record two more wins, with the second coming on 31 June, then traveled to Vienna to play Austria the following day.

Captain Vivian Woodward (pictured), who had scored four against Hungary the day before, continued his run of form, putting England up against Austria in the third minute. He went on to score twice more to complete his hat-trick and bring his two-day total to seven. He was joined on the scoresheet by Harold Halse and George Holley, who got two each, and Ben Warren, with one.

Austria's lone goal was a second-half penalty scored by Leopold Neubauer.

The winning streak stopped there, as England drew 1-1 with Ireland in their next match, played on 12 February 1910.