13 September 1947 Aston Villa 0 Blackpool 1

VILLA’S BID TO SAVE POINT WAS TOO LATE

Blackpool played all out

ONE GOAL DECIDES

Aston Villa 0, Blackpool 1

By “Spectator”

THE afternoon cleared after hours of rain in Birmingham today. Again, there were hours before the kickoff those long queues which wait outside football grounds every week these days.

The highest Spion Kop in Britain had thousands massed on it before 2-30, and the attendance approached 40,000 half an hour before the teams came out on to the field, softened at last by rain. The crowd increased to 50,000.

“We’ll give them another chance in spite of that Blackburn game,” said Mr. Joe Smith, Blackpool’s manager, confirming his earlier announcement of an unchanged team for the third successive game.

Villa played ten of the men who defeated Everton 3-0.

It was a 1-1 draw when Blackpool met Villa at the Park last January on a pitch bordered with snowdrifts.

Teams:

ASTON VILLA: Rutherford; Gutteridge, Cummings, Dorsett, Parkes, Lowe, Edwards, Dixon, Ford, Martin, Smith (L.).

BLACKPOOL: Wallace; Shimwell, Suart, Farrow, Hayward, Johnston, Matthews, Buchan (W), Mortensen, McKnight, McCormack.

Referee: Mr. W. G. E. Evans (Liverpool).

THE GAME

Blackpool faced a sun which was beginning to shine again when the toss was lost. It was all the Villa without the forwards reaching a position for a shot in the opening two minutes.

McKnight lost Matthews’s studied pass in Blackpool’s first raid but the second packed a big punch, McKnight and Mortensen exchanging passes before the centre-forward, apparently as fast as ever, raced inside, forced Parkes to concede a corner in a neck or nothing sliding tackle.

CHANCE LOST

Another minute and another chance came and was lost as the unprepared McCormack, put unexpectedly into possession by Shimwell’s half-the-length-of-the- field clearance, missed a bouncing ball from the sort of position where goals are scored.

The Villa defence under pressure was never too composed. Rutherford lost the ball in a flying dive in another Blackpool attack, was still sprawling as a full-back hooked the ball away anywhere in front of an open goal.

All the time Blackpool were raiding, playing football of high quality.

An oppressed Villa defence, outwitted by Matthews, conceded a second comer in the eighth minute.

Yet another comer came 10 minutes later as again McCormack shot a low ball, which passed outside Rutherford's dive to his left, was deflected an inch wide of a post by Cummings, who was, I think, the luckiest man in the world not to have put through his own goal.

But the goal was always coming. It came in the 11th minute and it was one out of the book

Matthews opened the raid with a pass inside. Mortensen took

it advanced, doubled back,

swerved two men, opened the centre of the field, released a forward pass into the great gap which he had forced.

Into the space after the pass raced McKNIGHT, shot a great ball as the two full backs closed in too late to reach him.

VILLA ATTACK

First big raid nearly ends in a goal

Edwards shot slowly at Wallace as the offside whistle halted Ford in two belated Villa raids, but all the football to a plan was still being played by Blackpool.

McKnight shot wide from a position where five minutes earlier he had shot his goal before the Villa, awakening at last, stormed in their first full line raid into the game.

It nearly ended in a goal as Edwards raced away from Suart before crossing a pass which Leslie Smith, the ex-Brentford and England outside-left, half lost near the post before Wallace dived at his feet audaciously with the ball bouncing almost on the line.

Twice in rapid succession afterwards Mortensen was given a shooting position by a Villa defence which still had big gaps in it.

Once he shot wide. The second time he stabbed the ground, took a dive, and rolled the ball slowly into Rutherford’s arms.

FAST RAIDER

But the Villa were no longer outplayed. Smith shot wide of a post and Ford headed into Wallace’s hands before Edwards, a fast raiding forward, won the first corner for the Villa in the 23rd minute.

The game was moving continuously on the Blackpool goal as Mortensen, after one touchline conference with the trainer, Lynas left the field, limping as a result, I think, of the shot he had stabbed into Rutherford’s arms 10 minutes earlier.

After a couple of minutes he was back again, but still the Villa raided. There was not the class in these raids which Blackpool had revealed in the first 15 minutes, but they were outpacing the left flank of Blackpool’s defence with ominous frequency.

HAYWARD SHINES

Twice Hayward made great clearances as Trevor Ford tore in to meet high centres from this aggressive Villa right wing before Smith took a pass from his centre-forward and shot the ball at a great pace - the best shot of the half - over the angle of bar and post.

Still the Villa pressure continued. Where were the Blackpool forwards who had glittered and sparkled in that first quarter of an hour? Not a pass reached them for nearly 10 minutes.

Then, as soon as the right wing advanced, panic beset the Villa’s defence again. Cummings and Rutherford between them losing a ball which rolled out loose and in the end was lost out on the right wing with the goal untenanted.

GOAL CLAIM

Hullabaloo, on and off field 

There was nearly a sensation five minutes before half-time. Hayward passed back the ball under pressure. Wallace came casually out to meet it. Out of his clutch it bounced.

Almost leisurely Wallace trotted after it and cleared it.

Immediately there was a hullabaloo, half Spion Kop and all the Villa team asserting that the ball had crossed the line but in the end Referee Evans, who had not seen the incident, consulted a linesman End said “No goal.”

Half-time: Aston Villa 0, Blackpool 1.

SECOND HALF

After the first minute of the half the Villa goal had a remarkable escape. Matthews corkscrewed past two men, released a forward pass.

Mortensen chased it, outpaced a full back hooked from an incredible angle while still at full gallop a ball which seemed to graze the front of the bar of a wide open goal with no Blackpool man in position to head it in.

Another two minutes and this fast centre-forward gave Parkes two yards in 10, ran away from him, shot high over the bar with the unmarked McKnight waiting nearly under the bar for a low square |iass.

It was all Blackpool again as it had been early in the first half.

With the Villa’s defence stampeded again, Mortensen raced into a half of *the field which, except for Rutherford, was empty. Out came the goalkeeper, fell at the leader's feet half a dozen yards outside the penalty ara.

Mortensen passed him, and, as he chased the ball out to the right, fell too, with no Villa man within 20 yards of an open goal.

ANOTHER GAP

Two minutes later another, great gap opened and into it McKnight raced before shooting too soon from 30 yards out a ball which was still so fast that Rutherford had to fall to reach it.

Twice, Edwards put corner kicks on the top of the net with the Villa forwards still battering into the game.

Then Ford called for a pass out on the left. Up went a linesman’s flag for offside as the ball reached him. Mr. Evans ignored the signal, on went Ford, shot a ball which missed the far post by inches.

Ten minutes were left, and Hayward made an amazing clearance, hurling himself at a ball which Smith had shot past Wallace and hooking it wide of a post before somersaulting into the net with half the Blackpool team falling on him to mob him in an excitable celebration.

GOAL DISALLOWED

Ten minutes from time in this game of sensations came another.

Wright took a free kick crossed a high ball, Forbes leaped at it out of a pack of men, headed it into the net, was still being mobbed by a jubilant swarm when Mr. Boardman unexpectedly disallowed the goal.

It made no difference. The goal came five minutes later. Again, Blackpool’s defence seemed to hesitate as a high centre crossed it. Again, FORBES was in position, hooped it high into the net for a goal about which there was no question at all.

Result:

ASTON VILLA 0, BLACKPOOL 1

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COMMENTS ON THE GAME

After threatening to win this game by a distance in the first half hour Blackpool had to play all out to the last minute to retain the points.

But class will tell. It told this afternoon when the Villa in spite of storming into the game at a breakneck pace in the last 30 minutes never achieved the order and precision which entitled Blackpool to the match.

Whenever the two forces clashed the Blackpool front line repeatedly stampeded the Villa’s defence. It was the left wing, too, which this time was the line’s most menacing flank.

Supplied by the intelligent, constructive passes of Johnston, this McKnight-McCormack partnership was a revelation in the unsuspected punch it revealed and the direct plan to which it worked.

This wing and the incredibly fast raiding of Mortensen gave this line great raiding qualities.

Under the Villa’s pressure, and there was a lot of it late in the day, Hayward had another resolute afternoon, and the full backs, too, stood firmer than I have seen them stand this season in spite of an occasional indecision on the left.

People who saw Blackpool against the Rovers would never have recognised them today.

As the commentator saw it

Dominating Blackpool forwards

THE Blackpool-Villa game had the attention of radio fans today. The second half of the game was broadcast by F. N. S. Creek.

In his review of the first half he spoke of “a wonder dribble by Mortensen” and “the dominating Blackpool forwards.” and in the second half commentary told of “Mortensen’s amazing speed ” nearly bringing goals.

Here are some of the comments on the Blackpool players:

These determined Blackpool forwards.

Blackpool's attacks very fast slick football.

A wizard save by Hayward.

Johnston's magnificent game - perfect passes from him.

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CENTRE-FORWARD OR INSIDE-RIGHT?

If they moved Mortensen - 

By “Spectator”

THE Great Mortensen Controversy is assuming such dimensions in Blackpool these days that in

common with the Crisis it has to be spelled in capital letters. 

The selection of “The Two Stanleys ” as England’s right wing for the match in Brussels tomorrow week, which, by the way, will send Blackpool into the field against Sunderland with two reserves, has

made every bar parlour noisy with disputing voices.

Today all those people who for months have been saying, “Stan Mortensen should never be played as a centre-forward,” consider their case unanswerable.

I am inclined to ask, “Is it?” I ask, too, in spite of the fact that I was the first - and that was over a year ago - to question the wisdom of his conversion from an inside-right.

At that time, I recall Mortensen himself considered that I was wrong, and, without being at all aggressive about it, gave me an assurance that he was playing as a centre-forward because he preferred the position

“What punishment?”

“WHAT about all the punishment you’re 'taking?" I asked him. He replied, “What punishment?” and reported that since he had gone into the centre he had required the trainer’s attention less often than when he had been an inside-right - a fact which Trainer Johnny Lynas was able to corroborate. I held my peace afterwards.

Later. when Mortensen returned from the Continental tour with the English team, after he had played as Stanley Matthews’ partner and scored four 'goals in the 10-0 defeat of Portugal in Lisbon. I had a suspicion that he was losing his love for the centre position. 

But he held his peace, has again been fielded as Blackpool’s front-line’s leader, and, I suppose, will remain there. 

Expert view

FOR, wherever England choose to play him, Manager Joe Smith still thinks that Stanley Mortensen is about the best centre-forward in the country to-day and he is not the only good judge to think it. too. 

I will quote one other only.

“He’s Jimmy Hampson all over again,” said Tommy Browell, the ex-Manchester City and Blackpool inside-left, when I asked him his opinion the other day. He played with Jimmy and should know. 

“He's about Jimmy's height and weight and it’s not only hulking heavyweights who make centre-forwards. Also - and this is more important - he’s as fast over the first 10 to 20 yards, and he can think as fast too.”

Who could lead? 

THERE you are - you pays your money and you takes your choice.

My only comment today is: "If Mortensen is not played at centre, who " on Blackpool’s present staff could lead the attack?" If somebody can tell me that I’ll go all out for Mortensen again as an inside-right.

THE ANSWER

ALREADY there are mutterings in Blackpool, as the Press showers bouquets on Douglas Blair, the Cardiff City forward. “Why did they let him go?”

The answer to that one is simple. Blackpool let him go because they could not persuade him to stay. This younger brother of Jim Blair has lived in Cardiff since he left the Services, taking a post-graduate course, he would not come to Blackpool.

So Blackpool transferred him, and told the City that at between £2,000 and £3,000 he was one of the best bargains in football.

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Jottings from all parts  

BY "SPECTATOR" 13 September 1947

CHAPTER ENDS

IT was the end of a chapter when Bob Finan left Blackpool a week ago.

When he came to the club in 1933, an unknown young Scot, over the Border for the first time, Blackpool's first team was: McDonough; Wassell, Everest; Watson (A.), Watson (P.), Crawford; Thomson, Upton, Hampson, Douglas, and Smailes.

A few months earlier the club had been relegated, and there had been close season storms, a new board, a new manager, and all sorts of new resolutions.

Yet it was not until Manager Joe Smith came to town two years later and played Finan at centre- forward, where he should have been played from the beginning, that Bob, such a good and faithful servant to Blackpool, made his name in England.

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THERE was one drama after another at Blackpool last weekend - on the field and in the dressing. Nor was it over when the match. Not after the last whistle Mr. Ted Vizard was in-formed that England wing-half, Billy Wright, had accepted an invitation to fly back to the Midlands.

The Wolverhampton manager decided at I once that this could not be permitted, was too late to inform the player of the ban before he left the ground, telephoned Squires Gate, where Billy, unaware that he was acting contrary to regulations, was told, almost as he was climbing into the plane: “You can’t go.”

He went back to St. Annes instead, where he had tea with the rest of the Wanderers before going home by road instead of air.

***

COMMENT by Blackburn reporter after the Blackpool-Blackburn Rovers match on Monday: “You may think this hasn’t been so good, but it was a classic by comparison with the Villa match last Saturday.”

***

MALCOLM BUTLER and Alec Roxburgh will be in opposing defences week today when Barrow play at Accrington.

Malcolm is in the Stanley fullback line these days, the goalkeeper still on the Barrow staff, and playing, according to all reports, the sort of game which won him a wartime international cap.

“We'll give him something to think about,” promises Butler, who has already learned that in the Northern Section they ask for no quarter - and give none. Not that he complains - after all, he’s an Irishman.

***

NEARLY everything went - wrong at Blackpool on Monday evening. Even the referee’s watch stopped, and he had to borrow one from a linesman.

Coincidence that two Altrincham referees, Mr. S. Boardman and Mr. J. Ward, should have been allotted Blackpool matches twice in three days, the former the Wolves match, the latter the Blackburn game.

One of Blackpool’s referees, Mr. Arnold Shakespeare, is on a line for the Manchester City-Manchester United clash today week.

***

THERE is nothing but praise for Louis Cardwell, the ex- Blackpool and Manchester City centre-half, at Netherfield, where they have made him captain and have soon learned to appreciate all those qualities which make him such a model servant on and off the field.

They are coining a bit of money at Netherfield these days. A £100 gate for a Lancashire Combination match is a commonplace. They took £70 for a West Lancashire League fixture last week.

 ***

IT is to be another ticket match for the stands when Sunderland come to Blackpool next week-end.

The board’s intention was to limit these ticket games to September, and the holiday weekends, but the first October visitors are Manchester City, and - yes, I think they will have to make this another one.

 ***

THEY are not only selling out all the tickets at Blackpool these days, but all the programmes, too.

The eight-page programme published by the Supporters’ Club is already commanding big sales, is averaging between 10,000 and 12,000 every first-team match.

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JOCK WALLACE has now been longer on Blackpool’s staff than any other of the present-day players. He played hist first game for the club at Lincoln on February 17th 1934 two days after he had been signed from Raith Rovers. It's not often except for the war years when he went back to the pits in Scotland, that he has been out of the Blackpool first team.

His wife’s health, by the way, is still causing him concern. He is back in Scotland to see her nearly every week, and is beginning to talk now of the day when he will return over the Border, his days in football over.

But, Jock, that’s a way off yet - a long way.

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