Football Thoughts
Football Thoughts
Id be interested in your football thoughts, particularly about what Im writing, also your own separate musings.
Ever since I was little boy, I loved football, I played in under 11’s-14’s and school football, I was even lucky enough to be offered trials at West Ham. Where I lived I was absolutely blessed, we had an orchard behind us that had a small clearing big enough to play football on it, the trees served as good goalposts, we also had two parks, both with football pitches. So if you were a boy (in those days, only boys played) and wanted to play you could. My dad was a goalie and obviously had a big interest in the game, I don’t remember my brothers being that interested in playing, though latterly my middle brother played and supported football. My neighbours were fanatics, with a love for Millwall (my dad played for them) and more importantly they had a colour TV. FA Cup Final day, we would pile round after lunch to sit and watch the game in colour, we only had black and white. I remember it as great days with the build up and Wembley Way.
Anyway, so my dad always went on about the 1953 Cup final Bolton vs Blackpool. My dad is 84, and this was still a vivid memory for him. It was referred to as the Stanley Matthews Cup Final. My sister bought it on DVD for him for father’s day, and I sat and watched it with him. As we know the rules of football change, frequently and I was interested in the game.
There were no substitutes allowed. These guys were getting smashed left, right and centre and after a dab of magic sponge were carrying on. It seemed the only valid reason to leave the pitch was severe concussion or death. Nothing like today, especially with this multiple subs and water breaks and injuries. Literally these guys played with breaks and all sorts.
The ref was barely noticeable in the game, it was played and refereed so well, it was like the ultimate, you barely noticed his presence. There were a few drop balls (played for) which you don’t see these days, and I also noticed he never seemed to be in the way of the ball. The players were very much self regulating.
One huge difference was that the play was predominantly attacking with hardly any backward passing whatsoever if there was space the player moved forward.
The ball was allowed to be passed to the keeper but it rarely happened, and for information, the keeper could pick it up, but from picking it up, he had three steps to distribute.
The players were of a much higher age and ultimately Stanley Matthews played professionally into his early 70’s albeit abroad.
The goalies had to be tough for a number of reasons, firstly, the roughing up in the box was extreme and dad used to explain having to put one hand up to punch the ball whilst the other was cleverly disguised as an uppercut since there was no other protection for them. Secondly, the ball, especially in wet weather was rock hard. If that ball came at you and you weren’t behind it properly it would easily break fingers, wrists etc. Likewise with heading the ball, it simply hurt, especially if you caught the laces or worse the lace came loose and cut your face. Iv seen people pole axed if the wet ball hit them in the face on the jawline.
There was no shirt pulling at all.
These guys were able to play off of both feet, something sadly lacking in the modern game.
The sticks in corners and centre of pitch were wooden and would break and have to be moved or replaced.
In that year, Liverpool were relegated, Man Utd were the new young players and Arsenal were mid table.
If I were a ref now, here would be my plan of attack for the game. I would explain to everyone that there would be no question, infringement of these rules would result in sending off
No shirt pulling at all. VAR should quickly get this sorted.
No diving
No pulling or pushing especially in the penalty box
VAR has some issues, I think we all know that these mm calls are pointless and ruining the game, likewise the handballs where the player is clearly moving away or has no intent to handball.
I would remove throw-ins. Just pointless with the man-marking, make it a kick and distribute further.
Remove the rule on passing back to the keeper.
I would have 3 points for a win, 2 for a score draw, 1 for a draw and 0 for a loss.
I’d love to hear your football thoughts on the beautiful game and my observations and personal thoughts. Maybe, you have a story from the past or a game you remember like my dad’s cup final.