6 September 1947 Blackpool 2 Wolverhampton Wanderers 2
WOLVES FIGHT BACK TO MAKE EXCITING DRAW
Two goals lead wiped off
A FAIR RESULT
Blackpool 2, Wolves 2
By “Spectator”
DENIS WESTCOTT, the Wolverhampton Wanderers' centre-forward, who was at one time a caddie at Royal Lytham and St. Annes, is still waiting for the one goal he requires to complete his century in the League.
Again, he was pronounced unfit to lead the Wanderers' forwards at Blackpool this afternoon.
The line which scored four goals at Grimsby on Wednesday was retained, but with Galley also on the casualty list. Mr. Ted Vizard had to introduce a full-back, Crook, into the right-half wing position.
Blackpool played the men who shot four goals against Huddersfield in half an hour five days ago.
All the paddock gates were closed 15 minutes before the teams appeared. Another 29,500 capacity attendance was almost certain.
In the heat ambulance squads were in constant demand as the time of the kick-off approached. Thousands of people had been waiting for nearly three hours.
Teams:
BLACKPOOL: Wallace, Shimwell, Suart, Farrow, Hayward, Johnston, Matthews, Mortensen, Buchan (W.), McKnight, McCormack.
WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS: Williams, McLean, Pritchard, Crook, Brice, Wright, Hancocks, Pye, Forbes, Smythe, Mullen.
Referee: Mr. S. Boardman (Altrincham).
THE GAME
A colour clash compelled the Wanderers to play in white. Thousands of Midlands visitors were on the ground.
Blackpool won the toss. The. Wanderers had to defend the north goal in the sun’s glare and had to be content to defend it almost all the time in the opening minutes.
Two raids down the centre were halted by the two defences in the first half minute.
Afterwards, there were two fine interceptions by Hayward and Suart before McKnight took a back pass, beat McLean, but shot wide of the far post.
That might have been a goal in the first five minutes for a Blackpool forward line playing direct, aggressive football against a Wolverhampton defence inclined to panic under pressure.
One fast exchange of passes between Smythe and Mullen was the only glimpse those opening minutes offered of these high repute visiting forwards. Williams snatched a high falling centre crossed by Farrow a minute before fielding a long, curling shot by the new outside-left, McCormack, who knows how to cross the sort of centres which goalkeepers hate.
Hayward was superb, almost impassable, whenever the Wolves bared their fangs at close range.
That, early in the afternoon, was not often. I gave seven of the first ten minutes to Blackpool.
BUCHAN SCORES
A few clearances by the Wolves full-backs and half-backs betrayed a few ominous sighs of desperation. That the Wanderers’ goal would fall was more or less inevitable. The goal came in the 15th minute
Matthews won a comer, which was awarded only on a linesman’s signal. From the flag the England forward crossed a perfect centre.
The Wolves’ defence hesitated and was lost - lost a loose ball which rolled out to BUCHAN, who, before this defence could mass its forces, had shot his first goal of the season low and wide of the unsighted Williams.
OUTPLAYED
Blackpool dictating everywhere
Blackpool were dictating the game, outplaying the Wanderers everywhere.
One big chance the Wolves made. It was the sort of raid which has produced a few goals for a forward line which cuts out all the nonsense.
“To me,” called Mullen, so loud that you could hear him on the other side of the ground. His partner. Smythe, gave it him.
Away Mullen raced, was tearing after the ball into a scoring position as Wallace came out to meet him, dived at his feet and was clutching the ball as the wing forward somersaulted over him.
Otherwise, it was still nearly all Blackpool, still at it at a tearaway pace, inclined only to make one pass too many at shooting distance.
PERFECTION CENTRES
McCormack’s centres were models of perfection whenever he was given the sort of pass which wing forwards are entitled to expect.
There were not too many of them, either on this wing or the other. Yet Blackpool’s football was still outplaying the Wanderers with half an hour gone.
After one raid via Matthews, McCormack and Mortensen, Williams lost a ball which for a second or two bobbed up and down in front of an open goal before Bryce, a great centre- half, cleared it anywhere.
Another minute and after losing a ball which was bouncing high on the baked turf, this centre-half brilliantly halted Mortensen after the ball had passed him once.
No longer were the. Wanderers out of the game Suart put the brake on the six-foot Pye with the inside right swerving on the goal.
STORMING FOR GOAL
Repeatedly, too, the wing forwards were coming into the game.
Farrow shattered another raid with the Wanderers storming at last after a goal, giving the impression in the process that they knew the shortest way to that goal.
Little freedom was being allowed Matthews by a Wolverhampton defence infinitely -faster into the tackle and less uncertain that it had been.
Wallace beat down a long shot by Forbes before Johnston, twice in rapid succession, dispossessed a forward in a shooting position and Farrow as conclusively, ended another raid.
It had taken a long time to awaken the Wanderers but once awake they had 10 of the last 15 minutes of the half.
Half-time: Blackpool 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers 2.
SECOND HALF
There was drama behind the scenes unknown to the 29,000 people during the interval.
As soon as he left the field at half-time, and before he even reached the dressing-room Mortensen collapsed.
He was still under treatment when Blackpool took the field to a murmur of amazed comment with 10 men.
In the third minute of the half there was a sensation. On to a depleted, palpably disconcerted team the Wanderers swooped.
There was a fast exchange of passes. A high centre was crossed. Shimwell fielded it as though he were a goalkeeper. There was no question about it - it was a penalty.
Hancocks took it, shot fast and low. Wallace fell to his right, reached the ball and cleared it to a tempest of cheers.
A minute later, in the seventh minute of the half, Mortensen appeared to the sort of cheers which only greet goals.
LEAD INCREASED
Buchan again finds the net
Three minutes later Blackpool’s lead was increased.
A centre was crossed from the left wing, where McCormack’s centres all afternoon had been menacing the Wanderers’ goal.
Mortensen and Williams leaped at it, but the goalkeeper punched it out.
Waiting for it was BUCHAN, who, taking his time, shot it fast and low into the net with the goalkeeper still falling vainly to it.
When Hancocks shot at last he missed the far post by inches The Wanderers were in the game almost continuously.
Yet in one raid by Matthews, which brought down the house, the outside-right zig-zagged from the right to the left wing leaving them sprawling behind him all the way.
Two minutes later, in the 23rd minute of the half, the Wanderers, not undeservedly, reduced the lead.
It was a great goal and it redeemed a penalty failure. A long pass reached the right wing, HANCOCKS was in position for it, cut fast inside, outpaced Hayward who had gone to meet him shot inches inside the near post.
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:
BLACKPOOL 2 (Buchan 15, 55 mins)
WOLVES 2 (Hancocks 67 min, Forbes 85 min)
COMMENTS ON THE GAME
DON'T RUSH THE NEW PLAYERS
Stars not made in a day
By “Spectator”
This McCormack-McCall wing may yet make a name in football. But give it time. That’s only fair to the two men - and it’s for their sake that I write.
No serious complaints about Blackpool’s football since the midweek fiasco at Huddersfield. Results silence criticism.
Jottings from all parts
BY "SPECTATOR" 6 September 1947
To be out of first - class football for 10 years is a long time, but they still think he will make the grade.
He had a triumph that day against the two Blackpool Watsons - Albert and Phil. Neither could hold him. From his passes the ’Spurs scored their three goals in a 3-1 win.
"Stan Matthews may have better publicity in certain respects,” wrote its author, “but he cannot compare with our compere. . . We have rarely gained in our ranks a better man than Ephriam Dodds.” And so on and so on.
All of which indicates that Everton are not thinking of asking Blackpool for their £8,000 back again. I am not surprised. Jock is still a grand player.
TOMMY LODGE, the reserve wing-half of Huddersfield, who was in the team at Blackpool on Monday, is one of the Yorkshire C.C.C.’s colts.
He played for his county’s second eleven this week in the minor championship play-off with Surrey.
GAME OF FEW CORNERS
GEORGE SHEARD, the Blackpool Press steward, is counting corners -and everything else there is to count from goals to throws-in- again.
Strange how few corners there were in the Everton-Blackpool match according to his chart, Blackpool won only two—one in each half - and Everton four- two in each half.
Everton had 28 throws-in and Blackpool 27, and Blackpool 14 goal-kicks and Everton 15.
Blackpool F.C. player sent to hospital
Tommy Buchan, Blackpool’s reserve wing half, must be one of the unluckiest players in football.
It is almost exactly a year ago that he was taken ill early in a match at Brentford, losing in the First Division team a position which he was establishing as his own.
Now he is ill again. Yesterday, shortly after he had reported for training and complained about his health, he was examined by the club's doctor and sent immediately to hospital.
He should have played today as an inside forward in the Central League match at Everton. Lewis was reintroduced at right-half and Tapping transferred to the vacancy in the forward line.
THEY WENT EARLY TO THE MATCH
MIDSUMMER football madness still has Blackpool in its grip.
Hundreds of people were waiting outside the Blackpool ground three hours before the kick-off for the Wolverhampton Wanderers visit this afternoon.
When the gates were opened a few minutes after one o’clock, which is earlier than they have ever before been opened at Blackpool for a three o’clock match, the queues in Bloomfield-road nearly reached to Central-drive.
An hour before the teams appeared the turnstiles were being closed with crowds still surging outside the walls.
Half an hour later the streets in the neighbourhood were almost deserted.
CENTRAL CONTROL
Everybody was there early today. A reinforced squad of 75 stewards, gatemen, checkers, disciplined the 29,000, with the aid of a loudspeaker battery operating from a central control.
As one turnstile was closed the queues were directed to another.
On Spion Kop and the terraces and in the congested paddocks there was scarcely a vestige of movement, so tightly packed were the people.
DO NOT forget to send any suggestions for the improvement of the programme to “Supporter, c/o Bloomfield-road.”
THE Supporters’ book “Sport-raits of 1947” is now on sale both on the ground and in local paper shops. Get a copy immediately.
THE Information Hut is open at the south-west comer of the ground both before and after the match. Your inquiries are invited.
There are for sale, price 2s. 3d., a few plastic badges in the club’s colours which have, been made by a wounded ex-Serviceman. Your help will be appreciated.
AGAIN may I appeal for your continued support. We are there to help you. It is hoped to hold a public meeting in the course of a month or so.
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