Prominent English Referee Confident That Tactical Side of Game Would be Revolutionized London, Jan. 15.
IRED of the modern way of playing soccer, tired of the methods of "policemen" centre-halves, and believing that the majority of the hundreds of thousands of football supporters in Great Britain and other parts of the world, too, are equally tired of these things, Mr. J. H. Lockton, a well-known English referee, who in his younger days played for several leading: teams, both amateur arid professional, including the Corinthians and Crystal Palace, has evolved a new positional type of play.
He is confident that it would be a great success in practice, revolutionizing the tactical side of the game improving it both from the point of view of players and spectators and making it much more in. teresting, so-that it would hold the present supporters, who often groan at the dull, defensive type of stuff served up to them, and recruit further supplies of new supporters for the game, who would be drawn by a more attractive type of game than that served up by many teams at present. tthe wing halves would have more opportunity of coming through with the ball Another movement they could participate in is the cross pass from wing half to outside fárward, a movement that could be developed to become a potent attacking force, and one that could be used as a useful variant of the attack down the centre or the movement from centre to wing or vice-versa. The element of surprise would undoubtedly be greater with a formation that admitted of greater elasticity, another point that would lead to a more spectacular and attractive type of Overcoming "Stopper"
Throughout this season one of the chief subjects of conversation on football grounds, and off them, when the enthusiast is taking his leisure, is the need for overcoming the "stopper" centre-half, the outstanding phenomenon of the contemporary game.
The present tactics arè the outcome of the offside rule, and many students of the. game think that a better type of play will result only if the law is altered. game.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.