Christmas Day and Dixie Dean’s quest to beat George Camsell’s goalscoring record hit a snag. After a promising start, a decline in performance has resulted in a dip in goalscoring form. 8 goals in 7 games is usually great, but when you’re trying to score 60 goals in an entire league season, it has to take more than just over a goal a game.
The season was near its halfway point and Dixie Dean scored an incredible 31 goals – the exact same amount George Camsell scored the previous season after the same amount of matchdays. The task suddenly became a lot harder after Dean’s 8 in 7 was nowhere near close to Camsell’s 21 in 7. A few more goals for Dean in those 7 games would have gave him a much better chance of beating the record.
The battle recommenced on Boxing Day, and Dixie Dean scored 2 goals in Everton’s 2-1 win over Cardiff. A valiant performance from Cardiff’s Fred Keenor was not enough to stop in the end after despite stopping Dean in the first 75 minutes of the game, fatigue took over and Dean scored his brace in the final 15 minutes. However, Cardiff got their revenge the very next day, beating Everton 2-0 – Dixie Dean’s 4th goalless game in 8 games. At this point, he fell behind George Camsell for the first time. After Matchday 22, George Camsell scored 36 goals the previous season and Dixie Dean was 3 goals behind.
The next matchday, Dean reduced Camsell’s lead to one goal by scoring 2 goals against Sheffield Wednesday. Dean then scored two more braces in successive games against Blackburn and Camsell’s Middlesbrough. His brace against Middlesbrough was a historic one. That brace meant he scored 39th league goal of the season, meaning, despite it being only the first week of January, Dixie Dean broke Bert Freeman’s record of most goals scored by an Everton player in a league season. His name was already in the history books, even if he didn’t beat George Camsell’s record. A great day for Dean, not even the fracas between Everton’s Tony Weldon and Middlesbrough’s James McClelland could spoil it.
Following that game, he wrote for the Bexhill-on-Sea Observer (a local newspaper in East Sussex) about the tremendous season he was having.
Everton’s winning form this season has caused many experts to point to me as “the reason for it.” I hasten to say at once that no single man ever yet made a team. In fact, it is very seldom that a man alone ever succeeds, even in scoring a goal. Ninety-nine goals out of every hundred scored are the direct result of clever teamwork – sound scheming by the inside forwards, or a good run and a well-placed centre by the wing-forward, or some strategic backing-up by the half-backs. “Lucky” goals fall to the lot of most footballers. An error by goalkeeper or back places the ball at the feet of a man who has done little to earn the honour. I have had my share of these goals, and I certainly have all I can ask for in the way of backing up. When all is said and done, however, and the luck of the game has been accused of undue egotism if I say that the form is difference to the play of any team. There is a marked shortage of first-class centre-forwards at the moment. Why?
Experts have many explanations to offer. For example, it is said that the new off-side rule has changed centre-forward tactics considerably, and that many of the older generation are not able to adapt themselves to the new methods. Again. the speed at which football today is played is pointed out as the reason for the shortage of centre-forwards. Many men have the ball control and the shooting skill, but they just lack the natural turn of extra speed that enables the centre-forward to take advantage of the opening.
Speed undoubtedly has a lot to do with success in the centre-forward position, but not quite in the way that many footballers of the game believe. Team-builders, I believe, are barking up the wrong tree when they place too much reliance on speed. A man with the gift of speed is an asset in any team – a tremendous asset – but just because a man lacks extraordinary speed, there is no reason to condemn him as a failure before he starts. What we need as centre-forwards are men who can play football.
I honestly believe that we are in danger of overlooking this fact. When I say that we need men who can play football, I mean that the first thing a centre-forward has got to realise is that football is a team game. If you take a man who has speed, ball control, and ability to shoot unerringly with head and foot, you have a footballer. If, to these talents, you add the ability to exploit tactical openings with the co-operation of the other players, to keep the line together, and to inspire the others in a crisis, you have a man who can play football. You see the difference? Few centre-forwards can do all these things. Certainly not me! But it is the ideal I aim after.
There is no room for criticism of one’s teammates in modern football. If the other men are not playing up to the centre-forward as they should, it is more than likely his own fault. If a centre-forward makes a few mistakes when he has a clear opening in front of the goal, the other players can be excused if they begin to lose confidence in him and do not feed him to the extent that they should. Everyone fails sometimes. Very often it is the easiest of shots that fail you, because you are over-confident, and hold the ball too long, or do not take a careful enough aim, or fail to allow for what the goalkeeper can do in a very tight corner if he makes a superhuman effort. Undoubtedly, every player has moments when he wishes he could kick himself. But if he is obviously trying his hardest every minute of the time, and achieving a certain success, he can rely on the co-operation of his teammates. Another fault that may mar co-operation in a team is any small habit – either on or off the field – that makes a man disliked. The other players have got to be glad to see the centre-forward scoring goals, or otherwise they will not give him the help that they should. The only way to win this co-operation is for the centre-forward to admit frankly just how much credit is due to the others for the part they play in his best and most successful movements. A centre-forward must credit his team, and not accept all the praise that is offered to him by enthusiastic supporters who think that it is only the head or the boot of the centre-forward that has scored the goal.
Men must have confidence in their centre-forward. They must feel, in a tight corner, that if only they could get the ball through to him, everything would be all right. And it is up to the centre-forward to earn this confidence. That is why I say that we need footballers—real footballers—in the centre-forward position. There is nothing like a little reciprocity in football as in other things. I mean, a man who expects to receive good passes should be able to give good passes. Inside men are clever schemers, and I am not suggesting that the centre-forward should attempt to do their work for them. All the same it is much more encouraging to make openings for a centre-forward who takes a lively interest in the tactical proceedings than it is to strain continuously to get the ball through for a centre-forward who is doing little but wait for the ball, and who does not even recognise a strategic and penetrative position when he sees it. A centre-forward must work hard to win his place in a leading team, and keep it. It is nonsense to say that a man in a small team never gets a chance to be seen by the men who matter. Why try? I suppose that when I was with Tranmere Rovers, I must have been watched by a dozen managers, until eventually I went to Everton. Goodison Park, the Everton headquarters, is near enough my own birthplace—Birkenhead—to make my present club the ideal one from my point of view.
A modest piece by Dixie Dean. He broke a goalscoring record with over three months to spare, and he doesn’t gloat about it. Instead, he thanked his teammates, said the art of being a world-class centre-forward was dying because of a lack of confidence and support, and proclaiming that football is a team game.
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