In the early 1920s, football faced a crisis that nearly wrecked the professional game in England. This crisis was largely caused by one man – Billy McCracken.

Irishman McCracken was a sturdy full-back. He played for Newcastle United from 1904 to 1924, helping the club to win three league titles and the FA Cup.

In total, he played 432 games for Newcastle, scoring eight goals. After hanging up his football boots, McCracken managed Hull City, Gateshead, Millwall and Aldershot.

McCracken was the inventor of the ‘One Back Game’ which people claimed had reduced the number of goals scored to such an extent that football was losing its spectacle at the time.

Originally, the offside rule laid down that three players, the goalkeeper and two defenders, had to be nearer the goal-line than the furthest attacker for the latter to be offside.

Before McCracken came to the scene, however, this rule was rarely applied because in those days, the full-backs were rather static and very rarely ventured out of their own half, making it very easy for the attackers to remain on-side.

McCracken devised a simple, but devilish, plan.

His plan was to shadow his opponent and, a split second before the ball was played, move upfield a few metres to put the attacker offside. His game worked to perfection.

Time and again attackers were caught napping by McCracken.

Tempers rose, leading to ugly scenes. He was booed at every ground, but the more the crowd jeered, the harder he played.

McCracken marshalled the Newcastle defence so well that they hardly conceded a goal. Soon, other teams started copying the ‘One Back Game’ as it came to be known. Officials were alarmed. If this continued, soccer would no longer be an exciting spectacle.

Even in Malta, McCracken’s ploy was successfully copied.

Masu Hicks, of St George’s, and Ruggieru Friggieri, of Floriana, both played the ‘One Back Game’ to perfection and were largely responsible for their teams’ success during the first years of Maltese football.

On June 15, 1925 the English FA met in London to scrap the old offside law that McCracken and his followers had discredited and by a two-thirds majority adopted the ‘Two For Three Scheme’.

In future, only two players, the goalkeeper and a defender, had to be between the furthest attacking player and the goal-line.

By the middle of the 1925-26 season, the scoring rate had risen so much that the legislators wondered whether they had done the right thing.

This was also the situation the Maltese game was faced with at the start of the 1925-26 season.

The change in the laws and the new tactics adopted by the English clubs soon reached our islands and since our matches were controlled by UK referees, the new law was put into effect immediately.

Unfortunately, many local football fans did not understand the new rule.

This was always the problem here especially in those days when very few could read and the systems of communication were non-existent. Many were the shouts of ‘offside’ which echoed around the terraces of the Mile End Sports Ground by several spectators who just could not understand what was happening.

Buchan impact

Fortunately, soon after the introduction of the new offside law, another great footballing character appeared on the scene – Charlie Buchan.

Buchan was one of the greatest inside-forwards ever produced by the English game.

One day, during his spell with Arsenal, he pulled aside his manager, the famous Herbert Chapman, and outlined his plan to stop the avalanche of goals his team was conceding because of the new rule.

Buchan’s plan was to make the full-backs mark the wingers and the half-backs the inside-forwards.

The centre-half, who in those days had a midfield role, was pulled back to mark the opposing centre-forward. One of the insides was then given a midfield role to fill the gap left by the centre-half.

Thus the famous ‘Third Back Game’ was born.

Chapman adopted Buchan’s plan and Arsenal moved from obscurity to the top spot of the English league. Under Chapman’s guidance the club won three consecutive championships and the FA Cup once.

The Maltese soon adopted these new tactics as the game moved into the ‘W’ formation plan... that, however, is another story.