England. Scientifically better than Spain

Or so it was in 1931. Here's a fantastic retrospective on 'the science of the long ball' from Nick Wright.

England 7 – 1 Spain. It’s hard to imagine such a scoreline. But then this was long before Xavi Hernández and Andrés Iniesta. The location was Highbury, North London, and the year was 1931, smack in the middle of the Great Depression.

Having triumphed 4-3 at the Estadio Metropolitano in Madrid in May 1929, Spain rocked up at Highbury as the only continental side to have achieved victory over England. The hosts, led in attack by the iconic Dixie Dean, responded in emphatic fashion.

Highbury had an official capacity of 55,000, but on 9th December 100,000 people flooded the streets surrounding the stadium in anticipation of thepoint, England winger Ellis Rimmer had to tiptoe cautiously through the stretchers of wounded just to take a corner in front of the overloaded North Bank. “Fainting women were handed down over the heads of the crowd like human shuttlecocks,” added Manning.

On the pitch, England did nothing to ease the excitement as they found themselves two goals up after four minutes. John Smith - a 33-year-old inside-forward from South Shields - struck first with a 20-yard drive, before Everton’s Tommy Johnson added another a few minutes later. After 32 minutes, Smith collected Dixie Dean’s lay-off and smashed the ball in off the underside of the bar for his second. England added a fourth two minutes after half-time through Derby County’s Sammy Crooks. Crooks, one of 17 children from