George Edmonds
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The 3rd Grenadier Guards paid one of their popular visits to St Albans on Saturday(1) and met with defeat by two goals to nil. The result was a good indication of the play, but had the Guards performed in the second half as they did in the first, the result might have been different – if the City had played in the second half as they did in the first.
Before the interval the Guards accomplished very skilful football and kept the City defence working at full pressure. After the interval there was a different state of affairs. With the City playing towards the entrance end Clark and Hosier, the extreme wingers, moved down their respective ends at great pace which combined with the dashing and clever work of the inside men to badly harass the opposing defence for the best part of the last forty five minutes. Then why, it may be asked, did they score only two goals ?
Although the splendid goalkeeping of Rooney must be borne in mind, the real reason may be given in three words, “Too much whistle.” The times out of number that the Saints were pulled up for offside quite incensed the crowd and went a long way towards ruining the game. The referee was perfectly right in nearly all his decisions. It was the Guards backs who were to blame – if blame could be attached to anyone and it is doubtful if it could for they were quite within their rights in adopting their unorthodox methods. To put it shortly they played the one back game. No sooner was the play in the City half of the field than Wright, the Guards’ right back, was standing on the half-way line, while his partner hung well back. Thus no sooner did the City forwards get in possession than it needed very clever manoeuvring on their part to keep onside and more often than not they failed to do so.
This was in the first half. In the second half City did nearly all the attacking, despite the many and often successful attempts to throw them offside and it was then that the goalkeeping abilities of Rooney were brought so much to light as they have invariably been on his previous visits to the Park.
The Guards’ tactics were justifiable in that they kept the City’s score to moderate dimensions, but they were a little risky, especially against a centre forward like Edmonds, who has a habit of getting goals when he receives the ball with only one back between him and the goalkeeper. On Saturday, however, the home centre forward was a little off colour and beyond keeping his wings in touch with each other and heading a goal, he did comparatively little.
The City defence played splendidly all round. Although it was announced that Trulock would play at right half, Palmer was able to turn out and the City were therefore at full strength.
Reprinted from “The Herts Advertiser and St Albans Times” 23rd November 1912.
1 All Grenadier Guards matches were played away until a ground was acquired at the Memorial Grounds, West Ham in 1913. |
