Walcott to the Rescue

Following Theo Walcott's treble, Opta look at some previous England hat-trick heroes.

England managed to end their poor run of form in superb fashion on Wednesday night, with a resounding 4-1 victory in Croatia. It was the first competitive defeat that Croatia have suffered at home in 36 attempts and Arsenal winger Theo Walcott stole the show with a classy hat-trick. Opta delve into the history books and look at some previous England hat-trick heroes. Walcott managed to become the 55th England player to score a hat-trick for his country and it was the 79th scored by a player in an England shirt.

Interestingly

Interestingly, Walcott's treble was the 45th to be scored away from home; which means that just 43% of national hat-tricks scored have come in England. Walcott became the first Arsenal player to score a hat-trick for England since Ian Wright in November 1993 against San Marino. Overall, he is only the third Gunner to grab a treble for the Three Lions, the only being Ted Drake against Hungary, way back in December 1936. We shouldn't get carried away however, Walcott still has a along way to go to match Jimmy Greaves' amazing record of six hat-tricks between October 1960 and June 1966 for the national side.

Date	Goals	Player/Club	Opposition	Venue	Type	Score
12-Jun-91	4	Gary Lineker	Malaysia	Away	F	4-2
17-Feb-93	4	David Platt	San Marino	Home	WCP	6-0
17-Nov-93	4	Ian Wright	San Marino	Away	WCP	7-1
27-Mar-99	3	Paul Scholes	Poland	Home	ECP	3-0
4-Sep-99	3	Alan Shearer	Luxembourg	Home	ECP	6-0
1-Sep-01	3	Michael Owen	Germany	Away	WCP	5-1
31-May-05	3	Michael Owen	Colombia	Neutral	F	3-2
3-Jun-06	3	Peter Crouch	Jamaica	Home	F	6-0
10-Sep-08	3	Theo Walcott	Croatia	Away	WCP	4-1

In recent times, only nine players have scored hat-tricks for England in the past twenty years. Prior to the former Southampton forward's treble, the last England hat-trick was scored by Peter Crouch in a friendly against Jamaica at Old Trafford in June 2006. The last England hat-trick scorer in a competitive match was Michael Owen. He scored three goals past Oliver Kahn against Germany in that famous 5-1 victory in Munich in September 2001.