Page:Football, The Association Game.djvu/68

 elaboration. The first application of any real method in the attack, in the south at least, was by W. N. Cobbold, the old Carthusian, during his captaincy of the Cambridge University eleven of 1885. One of the most skilful forwards of the modern school, he was the first, as far as my knowledge goes, to evolve the mechanical precision which has been continued by his successors in office, and bids fair to be perpetuated in Cambridge elevens. His opinions on combination in attack are, too, of such value that it will be of interest to reproduce a portion of them for the benefit in particular of those who have passed through the preliminary stages of Association football.

"The first idea of any forward should be that he is only a connecting link in a chain which should, as a rule, be kept in line, and that the whole secret of good play lies in combination.

"As regards actual combination, my firm belief is that a judicious mixture of long and short passing is the most effective. If the ball be near one's own goal, let it be at once transferred to the outside right or left, as the case may be, and let him, in conjunction with his partner, go down the wing. When the time comes for middling (unless occasion shall have arisen before for him to pass), let him send the ball hard right across, along the ground if possible, or close to it, thus giving the centre and the other wing men all a chance. The time for middling comes, as a rule, some time before the goal-line is reached, for a forward should rarely, if ever, try to get round the last back, but middle just before he comes to him. How often is a really good run down the wing spoilt by a middle coming too late, when the backs have returned to defend the goal, or by a high centre, which an opposing back has no difficulty in heading away! Each forward must be always ready to receive the ball; and particularly let the centre place himself