After reading an article in the Gazette about Daniel Ayala’s 7 goals equalling the highest number scored by a Boro central defender, it was not always the norm to expect goals from defenders.
Goal-scoring Defenders
I believe Jack Charlton was one of the first centre half/central defender to be given license by Don Revie at Leeds United to encroach the opponents penalty area for set pieces to ‘make a nuisance of himself’ because of his 6 foot 3 inch height. Jack certainly did that putting his height to good effect with a career total of 76 goals for club and country. Whether that stemmed from watching the great John Charles I’m not sure, but the Welshman started his career as a centre half under manager Major Buckley during his first spell at Leeds.
However John Charles whilst doing his National Service played as a centre forward for his army team, but when allowed to play for Leeds, he still continued playing as a centre half. After his demob the Leeds management decided to try him at centre forward and that’s the position where he spent most of the rest of his career. So it could be that Jack Charlton had ambitions to be a centre forward, who knows? But that might account for his wanting to use his height to the best advantage.
I might just be speculating here, but I can’t recall centre halves in the 1950s ever leaving their own half of the field unless they took penalties. In fact Boro’s centre half in the 1950’s Bill Whitaker never did. However Leslie Compton (brother of the great England cricketer Denis) when playing for Arsenal did score 5 goals in his career, but he had also played as a centre forward too, so maybe I’m wrong.
Incidentally as an aside, Leslie Compton kept wicket for Middlesex but never played cricket for England, but did win two football caps for which brother Denis never did excepting a dozen wartime internationals where caps were never awarded. I well remember the furore over Leslie being selected for his England debut, because at the age of 38 at the time he was, and still is, the oldest player to make an England debut since the Second World War.
As I mentioned before, centre halves rarely scored until the early 1960s from the following players:-
▫Mel Nurse ........ (1962-1966) .... 9 goals in 124 appearances
▫Dickie Rooks ..... (1965-1969) ... 14 goals in 150
▫Willie Maddren ... (1968-1977) ... 21 goals in 351
▫Stuart Boam ...... (1971-1979) ... 16 goals in 393
▫Tony Mowbray ..... (1982-1992) ... 29 goals in 419
▫Gary Pallister ... (1985-2001) .... 7 goals in 249
▫David Wheater .... (2004-2011) .... 9 goals in 140
Fullbacks hardly ever scored either – here are some examples:-
▫George Hardwick .. (1937-1950) .... 7 goals in 166 appearances
▫Mike McNeil ...... (1958-1964) .... 3 goals in 192
▫Gordon Jones ..... (1961-1973) .... 5 goals in 527
▫Frank Spraggon ... (1963-1975) .... 3 goals in 326
▫John Craggs ...... (1971-1982) ... 14 goals in 487 (the exception)
▫Terry Cooper ..... (1974-1978) .... 1 goal in 133
Of course backs and halfbacks weren’t encouraged to join in attacks as we usually had two wingers and two inside forwards until the 1960’s who might be considered midfielders today. So perhaps we’re being over critical about the current backs and midfielders, but nevertheless what wouldn’t we give for a Frank Lampard or a Steven Gerrard!
However until the 1960’s full backs and centre backs were classed as defenders. Full backs marked wingers, the centre half marked the opposing centre forward, and wing halves marked the opposing inside forwards who were the creative players. The system was fairly stereotyped, and pre-season matches at Boro usually consisted of the first team defence plus the reserve attack playing against the reserve defence plus the first team attack, then a second match where the proposed first team would play the reserve team. The whole formation was based primarily on numbers 2 to 6 defending, and numbers 7 to 11 attacking, so it’s perhaps not really surprising that numbers 2 to 6 didn’t score many goals. Apart from wingers the creative players were numbers 8 and 10, the inside forwards, who however were also along with the centre forward were the main goalscorers because it was also a rarity for wingers to score either.
Boro Midfielders Scoring Record
In addition, I’m sure most of us think that Boro’s midfielders don’t score enough goals, so I thought I’d do an exercise to see how midfielders/wing halves fared since the Second World War and some of my findings may surprise folks considering Boro were in the past a more free-scoring team than today’s side.
▫ Jimmy Gordon ..... (1945-1954) .... 4 goals in 253 appearances
▫ Harry Bell ....... (1946-1955) ... 10 goals in 315
▫ Tom Blenkinsopp .. (1948-1953) .... 0 goals in 100
▫#Bill Harris ...... (1953-1965) ... 72 goals in 378
▫ Ray Yeoman ....... (1958-1964) .... 3 goals in 227
▫ Billy Horner ..... (1960-1969) ... 12 goals in 213
▫ Frank Spraggon ... (1963-1975) .... 3 goals in 326
▫*Don Masson ....... (1964-1968) .... 7 goals in 61
▫*Graeme Souness ... (1972-1978) ... 27 goals in 214
▫ Tony McAndrew .... (1973-1986) ... 18 goals in 353
▫ John Mahoney ..... (1977-1979) .... 2 goals in 90
▫*Craig Johnston ... (1977-1981) ... 16 goals in 70
▫ Irving Nattrass .. (1979-1986) .... 2 goals in 215
▫*Gary Hamilton .... (1982-1989) ... 27 goals in 259
▫ Willie Falconer .. (1991-1993) ... 10 goals in 53
▫ Robbie Mustoe .... (1990-2002) ... 25 goals in 365
▫ Phil Stamp ....... (1993-2002) .... 8 goals in 102 + 52 sub
▫!Emerson .......... (1996-1998) .... 4 goals in 41
Only those marked with an * could be considered having a reasonable return. However Bill Harris’s goalscoring contribution marked # was outstanding, though it did include 20 penalties. ! Emerson was a real surprise with only 4 goals, although everyone was spectacular.
The conclusion therefore is that it’s very difficult to compare pre-sixties football with today’s, as most teams played the same system 2-3-5 whilst there have been, and still are, many varied systems today. Nevertheless it does make me wonder what would happen if a team decided to adopt a system using five forwards. Didn’t Steve McClaren use something similar out of desperation against FC Basel and Steau Bucharest? It seemed to work then didn’t it?