Page:Association Football and How to Play It (1908) by John Cameron.djvu/26

24 the lot, and a great deal done by them is often unappreciated. How often I have heard the crowd cheer a centre forward for a goal while the man who did so much to lead up to it was quite overlooked! Happily he has the consolation of knowing that the men with him quite appreciate his work, as also does the educated public. I always try to impress upon the young and old that it is not the man who scores the goal that deserves the credit, but that in an ideal forward line each one should work for the benefit of the side, treating the getting of the goal as a mere item of the play. Perhaps, having played mostly on the inside, I may be inclined to be biased. Still, I think not, and I can fortunately plead my long connection with the game, and I care not what others may say, this is the esprit de corps that must prevail in any team which intends to reach the highest pinnacle in the Association world.

One would imagine that it is the simple duty of the inside right to pass the ball to his outside man or on occasions to the centre forward, but this is far from being correct, and one of the most effective passes is from inside right to outside left or vice versa, from inside left to outside right. The reasons for this are obvious. In the first place, all the play is concentrated on the right wing, and the outside left, being correctly placed, passes it with a long swing to him, and that always means danger to the opposition. Another reason is that he retrieves the play to a certain extent by carrying the play right up the field and so giving the defence an opportunity to reveal itself. An