Ged O’Brien argues that a game recognisable as the direct ancestor of modern football first appeared in Scotland hundreds of years before the 1860s
The English game was based around individual dribbling, while the Scots played as a team. Perhaps controversially, O’Brien goes as far as to suggest that this is a reflection of different national characteristics – the Scottish clan system, for all its faults, encouraged a kind of shared group ethos – the community (or team) was all in this together. The rugged individualism of the English was not conducive to success in a team game. England did earn a draw in the very first International match in 1872, and actually managed to win the return fixture in 1873, but O’Brien explains that Scotland had only been able to afford to send 8 players down for that game. The other three players had to be drawn from Scots living in England, who were upper class and steeped in the English style. O’Brien says that these three ‘weak links were not capable of intelligent Scottish Combination play’. By 1878, the pattern was set, and Scotland ran out 7-2 winners.
At a time when Scottish football has for years been plummeting down the international rankings, and is routinely dismissed and mocked by English pundits as a sub-standard product, it is good to know that this has not always been the case – we were the best in the world, streets ahead of our southern neighbours, who played a basic and predictable version of the game. Scotch Professors brought their Scottish Combination game to the rest of the world, where it took root and flourished.
Reviewed by John McIntosh