THE SCIENCE OF HALF-BACK PLAY
— James W. Crabtree | 23/11/1901 —

Speaking very broadly, and, perhaps just a trifle loosely, one might say that the half-back line is the backbone of a football team. I make this reservation because it would avail no team to have the finest "backbone" ever known, if the forwards were incapable of shooting goals, or if the two backs were  inefficient and the goalkeeper incapable. You must have all departments fairly up to form if you are to have a team worth calling such. But given general competency all round, the half-back line is possibly the most important section of the team, in that the halves are there to fill a dual purpose. You know what the funtions of a goalkeeper are, if his side are attacking, he is usually shivering and waving his arms as the cabman will, in the vain effort to restore circulation. No one expects him to go and give the forwards a lift. The full-backs, too, are there to defend; defence must ever be the primary consideration of a back. But the half-backs are privileged persons. It is quite as much their duty to attack as to defend; the robbing of an opponent is the cardinal point in a half-back's football faith. Give the ball to the man on your own side who is best placed to receive it, if you can; by all means look after your forwards. But better do anything than allow an opposition forward to get off with the ball. Kick out if you like; clear skilfully, scientifically, and advantageously if you can — but clear. But the man who can only tackle will never rank as a great half. The halves have not only to check the opposing forwards, and so relieve the backs of a great deal of work, but if they are to be regarded as worth their salt they have to aid their own forwards to attack.

MULTITUDINOUS QUALIFICATIONS.

The halves are the connecting link between the backs and the forwards; they are the most vital part of a piece of complex machinery; and if anything goes wrong with them the whole mechanism is thrown out of order. Generally speaking, I have never known a team to attain any real eminence which had not an intelligent and powerful half-back line. You know how highly I think of the Corinthians, yet I believe it was a slight deficiency at half-back that prevented certain Corinthian elevens being recalled as we recall North End of old, Sunderland of the middle nineties, and Aston Villa of 1897. I have seen Corinthian teams which, had their half-back line consisted of Robertson, Russel, and Graham, or Reynolds, Charles Perry, and Groves (modesty prevents my adding, Reynolds, Cowan and Crabtree), would have stood little dauger of being defeated by any club sid in the country. That is my opinion; it may or may not be the opinion of others. What, then, are the qualifications — the essential qualifications — of a good half-back! They are multitudinous. He must be a skilful tackler. He must be up to all the wiles and dodges of a clever forward; nay, he must be up to all the tricks which a clever wing pair can spring upon him. He must have almost unerring judgment; he must divine what a forward's intention can be translated into action. He must know when to cover a hard-pressed comrade without leaving his own wing — the wing it is his positive duty to hold in check — too dangerously open. And when he has tackled a man, and established a clear success, he must be able to place the ball to a comrade with unfailing accuracy. Not only that, but he must know which man out of the eleven is best circumstanced for receiving it. That he must find out in the tenth of a second; nay, he must know it intuitively; he must feel what his duty is. If you think that is an easy matter, allow me to say that is the most difficult thing in football. Some men would never learn how to act almost intuitively. It may be to a large degree a gift: I often think it is.

MEN OF MARK.

Then, again, a half-back must be physically perfect or he cannot last out the game, and the half who is blown half-way through the second portion will find that he is letting his side down badly. Last season I used to find half-back play very exacting. The half is the most hard-worked man on the field. Backs get plenty of rest, and often forwards do, for the ball cannot be on both sides of the field at once. But the half-back has to follow the ball more than any forward; he has to follow it consistently with the maintenance of an ability to be in his place should a very long pass place the wing men he is dealing with in possession of it. It would not do for the average half-back to follow the ball as Needham does. To play Needham's game you want Needham's matchless ability. I have seen Ernest Needham leave his wing open in a way I should never have dared to do, and I have over and over again expected to see disaster result from his absence from position. The goal has been invaded, and when everyone thought that the ball would be put through, the errant Needham has dropped from the clouds, or sprung out of the earth, just in time to head away, and receive a storm of applause. But Needham is Needham, and he plays his own game; some of us have to exercise more care than he appears to the casual spectator to exhibit. It would not do for the youthful cricketer to mould his style on Ranjitsinhji, because Ranji can do things which no other batsman dare attempt, far better copy A. P. Lucas, and learn Ranji's tricks one by one, if you can. We can all be good players, but we can't all be wizards, and Ranji and Needham are wizards. Johnny Holt had a wonderful knack of knowing what he could do and what he had better not attempt; he was a Needham with 25 per cent. more caution. Frank Forman is a man for the average half to copy; he was always sound in his methods. So was Charlie Perry; he was one of the soundest halves that ever played the game. John Reynolds was of a different order; he would do things which made you wonder if you had ever seen a man like him; often he had to be brilliant or fail, for he was never a fast man — at least, not in my time, but no one quite knows how many generations of footballers John Reynolds saw come and go. Probably James Cowan was the safest half that ever played the game; if ever he did make a little miscalculation — which was a very rare occurrence — his great speed always got him out of what seemed likely to develop into a difficulty.

KEEP THE GAME GOING.

Then a half-back should be a good shot; if he is a deadly shot, so much the better for his side. Few half-bcks shoot as well as they ought to do. William Groves was a great shot; so was Hugh McIntyre, of Blackburn Rovers. If the posts had been three feet higher, James Cowan would have been an ideal shot; very often he used to get just over the bar, but of course James has shot some fine goals. Albert Wilkes shot very accurately last season, and one of the best halves of the day as a goal-getter is Abbott, of Everton, who, when with Small Heath, looked like making a second Fred Wheldon at inside left forward. By the way, why was not Fred Wheldon signed up as a half-back? I believe he would have made a tip-top man in the intermediate line. If ever he fell back when the Villa were being pressed, his tackling used to strike me as being quite out of the ordinary. A half-back's duty is to keep the game going. How finely Groves used to play behind Dennis Hodgett's and Steve Smith, and how grandly Needham combined with Wheldon and Spiksley in that international at Glasgow in 1898. The old North End halves were always extra forwards when their side were attacking. No forwards alive, however clever they may be, can ever beat down a powerful defence if they have to make all their own openings. What a power Archie Goodall has been to Derby County! I wonder how many goals Steve Bloomer has scored from Archie's passes. Yet Archie Goodall is not an ornament half. I doubt if any half-back that ever lived has played fewer poor games than Archie Goodall. David Calderhead, of Notts County, was another centre half whose form could always be relied upon. Tom Crawshaw is another great worker, and Morren, of the United, always knew what to do with the ball when he got it. J. R. Auld, the Sunderland captain, was another half of infallible judgement.

FAMOUS HALF-BACK LINES.

Of famous half-back lines we have had, I might write great length. I doubt if Robertson, Russell, and Graham, have ever been beaten as a trio, and of Reynolds, Perry, and Groves, Reynolds, Cowan, and my humble self, I have spoken. In justice to my two colleagues I feel bound to say that we were very good, for we knew how to combine with the forwards as well as any set I have seen. Hugh Wilson, Auld, and Gibson were a good trio, but not so clever as any of the lines I have mentioned, although prior to the throw-in being altered I think Hugh Wilson was the most dangerous individual half-backs playing. He was a superb footballer. It often used to strike me that if the Scottish Association had not been so narrow-minded they might have had the finest international trio that was ever put together, and might had had them for years, too. Hugh Wilson, Cowan, and Groves! — what a line it would have been! Needham, Morren, and Rab Howell were pretty good; little and good, but give me the North End trio, for I believe in men of build, skilful though the United trio are. To-day, Fitchett, of Bolton, is a good half; so is Albert Wilkes, our Villa photographer; so is Alec Leake. Everton have a splendid set in Wolstenholme, Booth, and Abbott, while Raisbeck is a great worker, and Aitken is thoroughly good. Across the border, Robertson and Neil Gibson are very fine halves; Robertson is a great player, but we have more good halves than they can show; of course, we have more clubs. I believe that the supremacy of the North over the South is now mainly a question of half-back play. Of the earlier halves I remember, James Forrest and George Howarth were two of the best I have ever seen, and Jack Keenan, of Burnley, was a capital man; only his misfortune in running against a man line Forrest deprived him of the highest honours.