In the very early stages of the game, it was scientific in the sense that each player exhibited skill rather than brute force, but of scientific arrangement of elevens there was very little. Often there were but two back players besides the 'goals' or goal-keeper, and all the forwards played together, not having allotted sides, although some teams would have one 'wing' player on each side, who rather did the duties of 'half-back' than forward, in protecting from attack his own side of the field. Each forward then strove to distinguish himself by making sensational dribbles, getting the ball in front of him and piloting it by clever dodging and twisting clean through the gaps in the opposing ranks, and combination play was thought to consist in backing up the dribbling forward, so as to carry on the ball as soon as he was deprived of it by an opponent. In the Oxford and Cambridge Match of 1874, each side played three 'behinds' only besides the goal-keeper, and we can well recollect how the winning goal of the match was scored by an Oxonian, who dribbled the ball nearly the whole length of the field, and then himself kicked it through.

Very little attempt was made at this period to pass forward from behind, each forward striving, as in the Rugby game, to be always near the ball, so that the backs had much less ticklish work, and a smaller number of them was quite sufficient. By 1875, however, 'passing on' as one form of play had begun to be known and recognised as dangerous, and every good team had followed the example already set by the Scottish clubs of playing two half-backs and two backs, and making each forward keep strictly to his own place upon the field. It is from 1875 or 1876, therefore, that the game began to be played substantially in its present form; and 'passing on' completely superseded dribbling about the same time that the great provincial centres suddenly came to the front, about 1878 or 1879.

As both in the old and new games back, half-back, and goal-keeping play has varied but little, we need not describe here the old style of play behind; but the old style of forward play deserves description, as it was brought to a marvellous degree of skill of a kind which is now almost useless. Doubtless each forward must still know how to dribble, in the sense in which dribbling means speeding along with the ball close in front of the feet and well under control; but now, when once hampered by several opponents, he is taught that the presence of several attacking one must leave a gap elsewhere on the field, and he at once passes either to his own wing man, to the middle, or perhaps clear across the field. In the olden times, by dodging and twisting with the ball only a few inches from him, the forward steered it through what appeared to be a close mass of opponents. This special art of steering a ball up and down through opponents (and very pretty play it made) was one learnt in early youth at school, and few of the modern players have either the opportunity or the need for acquiring it. In the older days, however, it was a brilliant piece of play of this kind which brought down the gallery, and was the most highly admired of any kind of skill in the dribbling game.

Our old friend the 'Football Annual,' writing of the best form of Association play, in 1873, says: - 'A really good player will never lose sight of the ball, at the same time keeping his attention employed in spying out gaps in the enemy's ranks which may give him a favourable chance of arriving at the coveted goal. To see some players guide and steer a ball through a circle of opposing legs, twisting and turning as occasion requires, is a sight not to be forgotten. And this faculty or aptitude for dribbling or guiding the ball often places a slow runner on an equal footing with one much speedier of foot. Skill in dribbling necessitates something more than a go-ahead, fearless, headlong onslaught on the enemy's citadel: it requires an eye quick at discovering a weak point and "nous" to calculate and decide the chances of a successful passage. One of the greatest eyesores to a first-class player is the too prevalent habit of "dribbling" the ball down the side of the ground. Unless when absolutely necessary, a forward player ought ever to avoid diverting the game from the centre of the ground.

It is an achievement of very rare occurrence to secure a goal with a kick from any remote corner of the ground.' Such was the old game where 'passing on' was all but unknown, and even the value of 'middling' for goal-winning purposes was hardly recognised. But such as it was the style of play produced some marvellously agile dribblers like C. J. Ottaway, and Vidal of Oxford, and Hubert Heron, who did great things in the later game but could never throw off the old Adam and play as unselfishly as the modern game requires.

For the modern game, however, each player keeps to his own allotted place in the field, and plays not for himself but for the whole forward field; and so far is 'passing on' the very life and soul of the game, and so universally is it practised, that besides the goal-keeper two backs are a necessity, and at least two, if not three, half-backs; so that only five, or at most six, players form the forward brigade. Indeed, three half-backs are now the rule rather than the exception, and the forwards thus form the minority of the eleven players. The field of eleven players, then, is usually arranged as follows: a goalkeeper who defends the space between the posts, two backs, one for each side of the field, who should never get too far away from the goal to render it possible for the backs of the opposite side to kick over their heads and oblige them to run back and return the ball under difficulties; three half-backs, who follow up with the game, but always keep their own forwards in front of them (of the half-backs one plays in the centre and one upon each side); and five forwards, one playing in the centre and two upon each wing. When, if ever, there are six forwards, the extra forward plays in the centre, and the two half-backs divide the ground between them.