The impetus for goal-scoring sparked in the summer of 1925 with a revision to Law 11 in the Laws of the Game: the offside rule. Prior to that, there always had to be three defenders between the attacker and the goal when the ball was played to them.
This regulation was ruthlessly exploited by defenders after the First World War; most notably, Bill McCracken, a Northern Irish full-back with Newcastle, perfected an offside trap that snared forwards like a web catching flies.
