FAMOUS FORWARD LINES I HAVE MET
— James W. Crabtree | 07/12/1901 —

Naturally in the course of my career I have played against many of the most famous sets of forwards the game has known. I can recall many attacking lines which have made history; indeed, I remember all the great forward quintettes which the game has known since Preston North End introduced the science of combination which effected little short of a revolution in the game. There were great forward lines before North End came to the front, but no previous team ever played football with such mathematical precision as North End did. Queen's Park, in the days of Fraser, Anderson, Geordie Ker, G. Angus, J. Richmond, and J. Kaye, were a brilliant set, and it is historical that Frase and Anderson understood what combination meant, but the team, as a whole, did not realise its full possibilities as North End did.

NORTH END: A PRE-EMINENT ATTACK.

I think John Gordon, James Ross, John Goodall, Fred Dewhurst, and George Drummond have never been equalled as a forward line. Each man was a star individually; the wing pairs combined perfectly, and John Goodall was the finest pivot that ever lived. I would say more of them, but I have devoted so much space to North End in previous articles that I would prefer now to deal with forward lines which were also really admirable in their methods, but which have not received the publicity which has been given to North End. I think that the next best line I have ever seen was the Sunderland combination which carried off the League Championship two years in succession. All that was wanted to make Sunderland almost equal to North End was really tip-top outside right. That they never had. J. Smith played many good games for them, and so did Gillespie, but the club never had an outside right who could sprint along the wing and centre like Bassett, Gordon, and Athersmith used to do. That was one weak spot in the team; another was at half, where Gibson was always a trifle show. But the forward line in 1891-2 and 1892-3 was the second best I have seen. John Campbell alone was sufficient to make a team. Not quite so skilful or quite so perfect in his idea of securing combination as John Goodall — although he was little behind Goodall in either quality — he possessed pace and dash such as Goodall never displayed. No centre ever got through a defence better than John Campbell did. He weighed well over 12 stone, even when perfectly fit; after a time he put on flesh far too rapidly, and then it was that he began to lose his efficiency. But he was the most dangerous centre of modern times, and his record of goals scored must have been a prodigious one.

SUNDERLAND'S GREAT CENTRE FORWARD.

Tom Watson always averred that Campbell was a better centre than John Goodall at his very best, but that I may venture to doubt. I should say that he is the second best centre I have ever seen, and that he was by far the most dangerous individually. I have seen him repeatedly run right through a defence and shoot a goal, and I have heards backs wondering how he managed to do it. I have heard that his display at Perry Barr in the season 1892-3 was the most brilliant seen on the ground since the days of Archie Hunter, and that even Archie never played finer football than John Campbell showed that afternoon. Sunderland beat the Villa in a League match by six goals to one that day, and Campbell was easily the hero of the game. In the season that Sunderland first became champions — 1891-2 — they scored 217 goals to 67, and Campbell must have obtained at least half of them. James Miller was also a delightful player. For years he had no superior in England as an inside forward. He was a splendid dribbler, and could fool a half-back as well as most men I have seen. He, too, had a full appreciation of the value of combination, and never neglected the man on the outside or the player in the centre. A greatly admired forward as James Miller. Jimmy Hannah was a very inside left. He had all the tricks which a man in that position should have, and always played at the top of his form. Scott was also a good forward, but not so clever as Miller. Campbell, and Hannah; there was something slightly unequal about the play of the Sunderland line. But with John Campbell and Miller there, the other men could not help playing above their form, and for three or four seasons the combination of the front rank was the envy and despair of all the teams they encountered. Towards the last I used to think that they overdid their passing, and gradually lost their deadliness in front of goal. I suppose that sort of thing is inevitable; North End fell off in the same way. When a man becomes reputatively skilful he does not feel called upon to exhibit that dash and enthusiasm without which the young player would be valueless.

VILLA'S BEST QUINTETTE.

The third best line — and I am not sure that it ought not to rank as at least equal with the Sunderland forward rank — was the string with which Aston Villa won the League Championship and the English Cup in 1897. It may be that, writing under a certain sense of restraint, I am not doing the Villa men full justice. I know that in some quarters the idea prevails that if the Aston Villa team of 1897 and the North End team of 1887 could have met, the Villa might have proved to be the better side. I do not think so myself, but it is all a matter of speculation. But that the Villa team of 1897 was never excelled by any other club except North End I am quite certain, for no finer set of forwards has ever been backed up by three better halves than the Villa had in that season. Athersmith and Devey made a wonderful wing, and although I do not for a moment contend that Bloomer should not have been chosen for every international in which he has figured, I do maintain that at no time during recent years would a mistake have been made if the Villa right wing had been selected for the match with Scotland. Devey was an ideal partner, and no man could have got more work out of Athersmith than our old captain did. Then, John Campbell played a superb game that season. I think he was better during that year than he ever was before or has been since. He was equally competent to get on with the ball himself or to enable others to shine, and no man could have held a forward string together better than Campbell did. He imparted an abiding confidence to the other men, and I consider that Scotland made a mistake in not playing him in their international team in preference to poor George Allan. Then, Fred Wheldon was emphatically the best inside left in the whole country, and not only was Steve Smith thoroughly good, but James Cowan was as useful a man as any club wish to have in reserve. It was a really good, solid, skillful forward line, and we may not see its equal for some time to come.

A DASHING ATTACK AT BOLTON.

A forward line rarely written about in the midlands and South, but which was one of the most practical and dangerous I have ever seen, was that which represented Bolton Wanderers when I first played with Burnley. There was not so much polish about the play of the "spotted tigers," as they were called, on account of the extraordinary costume they affected, but I have not seen many forward lines whose methods were more vigorous and determined. There was a good deal of individual skill among the men, too, but it was their dash and go that made them so successful. For a season or two the Wanderers were as nearly as possible the second best club in England; Kenny Davenport and Brogan made a rare wing. Kenny was one of the neatest little forwards who ever put his toe to a ball. There was not much of him, but he was fast, and for years ranked as the cleverest outside right (homebred) in Lancashire. He owed not a little to the determined, bulldog style of his faithful henchman, James Brogan. Brogan was a wonderful partner for Kenny; indeed, he seemed to live for the sole purpose of making the clever little outside right shine. He took all the hard knocks that came his way, and always smiled so long as Kenny did not receive any of them. Then Will Struthers, who came from Glasgow Rangers, was a magnificent centre. He was strong and clever, and had a go-ahead style which made for effectiveness. He was a fine fellow socially and in every way. He was an ideal footballer; I have seen few forwards whose style has appealed to me more. Joe Hewitson was a very fine forward, too; he could play at any game. J. Vanghan, of the Druids, was a nippy little outside left, and so you have one of the forward lines rarely referred to by writers outside Lancashire, but which I maintain was one of the best that I have ever seen.

OTHER LANCASHIRE LINES.

A forward line the fame of which must endure was that of Everton, when Alex Latta, Brady, Fred Geary, Edgar Chadwick, and Milward were comrades in arms. That was a splendid line, and the line in which John Southworth appeared for Everton was also an equally good one. Very few lines have displayed finer combination; it will rank with the three great ones I have previously singled out. Chadwick and Milward were a perfect wing, and few greater centres than John Southworth have ever played the game. The Forest had a good forward line when Tinsley Lindley was with them, and the Blackburn Rovers have had more than one great quintette of forwards. The one in which Harry Campbell and John Southworth figured was a good one, and so was the famous line which was made up of J. Lofthouse, J. Douglas, J. Brown, T. Strachan, George Avery, and Jack Hargreaves. That was probably the earliest of our great forward lines, although Notts were not a line to be despised in the days of Harry Cursham, William Gunn, J. A. Dixon, and Harry Daft. Then the Corinthians must not be forgotten; when they could pick a forward line from Tinsley Lindley, W. N. Cobbold, George Brann, J. B. Challen, B. W. Spilsbury, G. H. Cotterill, G. L. Wilson, E. S. Currey, and Fred Dewhurst, you might depend upon encountering a formidable opposition.