When I was 14, I played for my Sunday-football side against the Ipswich Town Youth Team at a Navy base in East Anglia. They were a year older than us and quite a bit bigger and better.
Ipswich were coached by the club’s chief scout Ron Grey, whose mere endorsement could make or break youthful ambitions to become a professional footballer.
I was the sweeper in a four-man defence, marshalling the side with my big mouth and mopping up anything that was played through for the striker to run on to.
With about 10 minutes to go, I was dragged out to the right as a ball over the top had caught our full back unawares. I’d played well up to this point and was at the peak of my confidence. Before I knew it I was in a high-speed footrace with their left winger.
He was fast, but I was no slouch and as we sprinted alongside each other I realised I had to commit fully. The ball fell perfectly into my stride pattern and although we were right alongside each other, I slid my right leg across his path, pushing the ball out for a throw in before the winger’s momentum took him over my leg and face first into the turf.
Applause rung out right around the field, it was an immaculately-timed tackle, quashing what could have been a very damaging break. There was never a thought that the referee might blow for a free-kick. The winger got up, dusted himself down and played on without complaint, while I took to the credit audibly given, by the powerbrokers in attendance.
I won’t deny that at least part of the pleasure from that tackle and the reason I remember it so clearly some 30 years later, is that I’d felled the man as well as cleared the ball. It was a physical as well as skilful accomplishment. I had got the better of a bigger and better player and mauled him to the ground without so much as a hint that there could be any recourse.
Today, I wonder whether such a move remains valid in the game. Had I been a mere fraction of a second late and not made contact with the ball, the player would still have gone down in a heap. He’d have then been entitled to roll around in ‘agony’ and I’d have been lucky to escape without a yellow card.
Of course the threat of a yellow card and the danger of a free kick are one thing, there’s also the rare but real threat of injury. While I was a good player heading towards my ‘O’ Levels, that winger was a very good player, possibly heading towards a professional career. Had I broken his ankle or torn his cruciate ligament, back in the 1980s, it could have ended a very promising career.
In the last month a particular type of challenge has come under the spotlight – the two-footed challenge when opponents vie for a loose ball in a head-on confrontation.
Such challenges see a player jumping in with both feet, baring studs (or more accurately these days, cleats), with the opponent being launched into a somersault while clutching at a badly damaged lower shin or foot.
While my challenge was not of that nature, recent assaults on fellow professionals by Manchester City’s Vincent Kompany, Liverpool’s Glen Johnson and Queens Park Rangers’ Shaun Derry have been. What hurts the game more than the challenges themselves is that they were treated in three very different ways by the referees.
Although it’s very likely that we’re heading towards a high-level review, where the treatment of such tackles will become more uniform, I’m concerned that perhaps a more thorough examination required.
Do we really need to leave our feet, let alone leave the ground, to win possession?
Changing the rules to prevent players from touching the surface with anything other than their feet when trying to win possession would help hone the art of a perfectly-timed tackle; encourage attackers to take on defenders, knowing that their chances of retaining possession are greater; and doubtless reduce career-threatening injuries.
Fans of free-flowing football with fewer stoppages would surely support this notion as might and those poor referees who exist in a series of on-going no-win situations every weekend.
The substitution of physicality for skill would surely blend better with the spirit of the game and its entertainment value.
Catch Steve Dawson on SportsCenter on ESPN every weekday at 7.30pm, for highlights and news from the world of sports