Chapter 6 – Long Ball or Long Pass?

'My biggest regret is using his phrase in interviews' – Graham Taylor

What’s the difference between a long ball and a long pass? It's a question that came to characterise the media's coverage of Graham Taylor's Watford team.

In 1979, as Taylor was reflecting on the compromises he'd made on arriving in the Second Division, a statistician called Charles Reep wrote to him with a detailed breakdown of the numbers that led to success on the football pitch.

Reep, who had been a wing commander in the Royal Air Force, had analysed hundreds of matches and had identified some key statistical truths about the game. One was that the great majority of goals were scored from moves consisting of three passes or fewer. Reep's methods had been instrumental in the success of the great Wolverhampton Wanderers side of the 1950s.

But how did he come to work with Graham Taylor and what effect did his ideas have on Watford's success as they looked to push on and achieve promotion to the First Division?

Enjoy the game by Lionel Birnie. Read by Colin Mace. Produced by Jon Moonie.

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