# Association Football and How to Play It/Chapter 4

CHAPTER IV.
Forward Play.
A good forward line is perhaps a club's chief asset. If the forwards continue to attack, the defence has an easy time, and, as previously mentioned, the best defence is attack. It is not the man who scores that is necessarily the best forward, but to get goals should be the aim of a forward whether he gets the goal himself or leaves a comrade to shoot the ball into the net. From this it will be gathered that a forward should really understand something of the art of goalkeeping, so that he may know how best to defeat the goalkeeper. The object of every forward movement should be to get to the goal by the nearest way possible, eluding the goalie by placing the ball out of his reach. We have all heard of Johnnie Goodall's method in this line. It is a well-known fact that he used to put at tall hat on top of the bar and endeavour to knock it off. In this way he practically put the ball wherever he wanted to, and this was the great secret of his goal-scoring power, which, as I have already remarked, is the chief asset in a forward. While we are on the point of shooting, another thing is to be able to take the ball on the run, which is to say that a forward should shoot without having to ​trap the ball. By doing so he gives the goalkeeper no possible chance of knowing where it is going. If he can do this while running at top speed, he will certainly be an artist in this department, and no one was better able to do this than Stephen Bloomer, the great International. I have often been asked what was the secret of his success, and I have always put it down to this reason: running at top speed and being able to give the ball—without slackening down—the final kick into the net. In the last decade the forward line was purely individualist, and there were certainly many giants of the game. Combination was, generally speaking, unknown, and every forward was quite on his own. The forward line is now a combined one, and in one way it is more effective than the old style. It is hardly possible to get a blending of both, but it can be done, and if a team are fortunate enough to do so they would certainly come out on top at the end of the season. It is a recognised fact that the forward play of to-day is rather too mechanical, and we miss the individual efforts that we used to appreciate so very much in the days gone by. Naturally, the centre forward is the connecting link of the rank. He should be tall, a fine dribbler, and more often an individualist than any of his comrades. He should also be able to keep his wings well together, and distribute the play to the best advantage, and most of all to be a fine shot. The inside forwards should do what is called "the donkey work," to fetch and carry, and to help the half-backs when they are in a dilemma. Theirs is the most thankless job of ​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.