POMO

March 18 flew past and I was wrapped up in nostalgia with friends in the Lake District, hence yesterday's blog on Kendal Town.

I missed the opportunity to tell you about "Opportunities".

Charles Reep was an accountant and former RAF Wing Commander who liked statistics. He also enjoyed analysing football matches and on the 18th March 1950 at 3.50pm, he was watching Swindon v Bristol Rovers in a Division 3 South League match. After considerable sampling of football matches, he came to the conclusion that most goals (85%) were scored after three passes or fewer and 66% of goals were created when the ball was recovered in the final third of the pitch. The long ball into the opposition's final third, usually into the corners, was called a "reacher" and he aimed at tall ball winners and players who could get around the target man and win the second ball. Set pieces also brought results, so players tried to win those in the final third too. The long ball towards a defending full back to win a corner in the game was one way of getting into the oppo's danger area....all you needed was a long throw expert and a big centre forward.

The successful Wolves manager Stan Cullis adopted Reep's ideas and his team was successful in that decade, winning three league titles and the FA Cup. Charles Hughes, the Director of Football for the FA, also liked the idea of the long ball which he named gaining the Position of Maximum Opportunity or POMO.

Graham Taylor at Watford and a few other coaches in England followed suit. John Beck at Cambridge United would have been one disciple and so would the technician behind the Wimbledon Crazy gang.

Egil Olsen, the Norwegian national coach adopted the technique and his national team was remarkaby efficient at the "skill"and his 1990's team were true believers.

On June 2nd 1993 Olsen's Norway played Taylor's England in a World Cup qualifier in Oslo. Reep was the guest of honour in the stand and the game was a shocker. England lost 0-2 and "Do I not like that!"
http://www.fourfourtwo.com/performance/tactics/graham-taylor-playing-long-ball