17 May 1947 Blackpool 0 Charlton Athletic 0

Charlton, now safe in Div 1, draw at Blackpool

Blackpool 0, Charlton Athletic 0

By “Onlooker”

If football continued right through the summer at Blackpool they would still go in their thousands to see it.

More than 20,000 spectators crowded into Bloomfield - road ground this afternoon when Blackpool, in their last match of the season met the Cup holders, Charlton Athletic.

Charlton still needed one point to be certain of not being relegated.

A big attraction was the F.A. Cup which was paraded round the ground for everybody to see before the game began.

Blackpool made no changes, but Charlton, who had intended playing seven of their Cup-winning team, brought in Whittaker for Welsh at the last moment.

Teams:

BLACKPOOL: Wallace, Shimwell, Suart; Farrow, Hayward, Johnston, Munro, Dick, McKnight, Eastham, and McIntosh.

CHARLTON ATHLETIC: Bartram, Croker, Lock, Johnson, Phipps, Whittaker, Robinson, Dawson, Vaughan, Fenton and Duffy.

Referee: Mr. J. H. Parker (Crewe).

THE GAME

Charlton were soon in action, and it was a near thing for Blackpool when Vaughan whipped a pass across the goalmouth too quickly for Fenton to reach it.

Then, when little Chris Duffy, the man who scored Charlton's Cup-winning goal came into the picture with a dribble on the left Shimwell sliced a clearance and the ball was finally kicked out of danger by Johnston.

Blackpool, however, soon got going. There was a big cheer for Munro when he rounded three defenders and forced a corner which went behind.

PRESSURE KEPT UP

Blackpool kept up pressure and Bartram ran yards from his goal twice in quick succession to make clearances from McKnight and McIntosh.

Nearest thing to a goal so far came when McIntosh lashed in from 10 yards a drive which Lock turned round the post for a corner by blocking the ball with his foot.

Bartram, well out of position, gratefully patted the full back on the shoulder for saving what would otherwise have been a certain goal.

In Blackpool’s next attack Eastham baffled Johnson and Crocker but the inside left was intercepted by Phipps as he headed for goal.

There were moments when the Blackpool front line ran like clockwork and when it did McKnight and Munro were generally engineering the raids.

Blackpool should have been ahead in this lively first half. That they were not was largely due to their poor finishing and the grand goalkeeping of Bartram.

Half-time Blackpool 0, Charlton 0

SECOND HALF

When the game restarted Johnston enlivened it with a long swerving dribble down the left wing.

He was cutting in for goal at a tearaway pace when an opposing halfback tripped him but the free kick came to nothing.

Then, with the crowd shouting “ Let’s have a goal from one of you,” McKnight tried to oblige.

He veered at rare speed out to the right and from an awkward angle hooked in a shot which compelled the surprised Bartram to leap quickly.

IN ACTION AGAIN

With Blackpool keeping up the pressure Bartram was soon in action again, this time to punch clear a high centre from Eastham.

At the other end Duffy tried to open up a move with a crossfield pass to Dawson but Suart relieved the pressure with a lusty clearance.

The game afterwards lost a lot of its lire and towards the end there was little to excite the crowd beyond a couple of top-speed raids by McKnight and a clever dribble by Duffy.

The last incident of note was a magnificent save by Wallace from Fenton, prelude to a terrific drive by Dawson passing just wide of the upright.

Result:

BLACKPOOL 0

CHARLTON ATHLETIC 0

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Defences on top

FOR another year, at any rate, Charlton Athletic are safe in First Division football. They needed a point to make their position secure, and collected it at Bloomfield-road where they and Blackpool were unable to shoot a single goal to mark the end of the season.

It was a dull and uninteresting game, enlivened only by one or two bright flashes by Blackpool and the acrobatics of Sam Bartram in the Cupholders’ goal.

In a game which was dominated by the two defences, Harry Johnston and George Farrow rarely put a foot wrong. McKnight was a lively forward, but was generally well held by Charlton’s Phipps.

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