BURNLEY WIN GAME TEN MINUTES FROM TIME
Blackpool’s great second half
MATCH OF THRILLS
Burnley 1, Blackpool 0
By “Spectator”
IT might have been a cup-tie at Burnley today. As early at 11-0 a.m. queues were waiting outside the Turf Moor gates. An hour before the kick-off not a seat was left in the stands.
Hundreds of Blackpool people reached the ground to find all the entrances to the stands locked. At this time, too, gate after gate admitting to the terraces was being closed. A sell-out and an attendance bordering on the prewar ground record of 54,000 were promised before 3 o’clock.
Among the spectators was Peter Kippax, the England and Burnley amateur who might have been wearing a tangerine jersey this afternoon if events had followed a different course. I hear that definitely all differences have been settled in this case.
The player is now content to remain on the Turf Moor staff to await his chance, which will assuredly come, of a restoration to the First Division football in which he should be playing.
Alan Brown, Burnley’s captain at Wembley last season, returned to a defence with the best record - seven goals lost in 10 games - in the division.
Teams:
BURNLEY: Strong; Woodruff, Mather, Attwell, Brown, Bray, Chew, Morris, Billingham, Potts, Hays,
BLACKPOOL: Wallace; Shimwell, Suart, Farrow, Hayward, Johnston, Matthews, Munro, Mortensen, Dick, McIntosh.
Referee: Mr. W. H. E. Evans (Liverpool).
THE GAME
The winning of the toss by Johnston was of no importance on this dull, windless afternoon. Hayward cleared in a last second tackle from Morris when the inside-right chased a high lobbed pass from Attwell in the first minute with Burnley pressing at a great pace.
Mortensen was halted with no sort of ceremony in Blackpool’s first raid - with such little ceremony that a trainer had to be called to him.
The referee lectured the offender.
Brown headed out Farrow’s free-kick, but before it had been cleared there was another incident in the raging excitement, the referee addressing another lecture, this time to a Blackpool forward.
I wrote before the match that it might have been a cup-tie. So soon it was in the ruthlessness of the tackles, the refusal by both defences to permit the front lines to build an ordered raid.
Amid all the break-neck pace and fury, Hayward conceded the first corner in the filth minute.
The new Dick-Mclntosh wing created one position for Mortensen with two crisp fast passes, but Brown was there again, closing the centre, presenting his famous heartbreak act for centre-forwards.
LITTLE IN IT
There had not been a lot in it with seven minutes gone. The two defences were as firm as I expected them to be on their reputations.
This time the ball was reaching Matthews with greater frequency, but it was for a time on the other wing that the greater menace to Burnley's goal threatened, McIntosh partnering Mortensen in a raid half the field's length before the centre-forward sliced the last pass outside.
In rapid succession, Suart, Hayward and Farrow made great clearances with the Burnley forwards battering away, but not often reaching a position where a shot could be made.
Both defences were a lot too fast into the tackle for the men racing in on them.
Burnley’s pressure with 15 minutes gone was becoming almost continuous. It nearly produced a goal in the 17th minute as a crisp pass inside gave Morris the ball half a dozen yards out, with Wallace fronting him alone.
The inside-right shot low. To his left, near a post, the goalkeeper fell, parried the ball, fell on it desperately as Billingham raced in to walk it over the line.
Wallace clutched the ball to him until the referee's whistle came to his aid.
Nearly all Blackpool’s raids, and there were not many of them, were limited to the old familiar pattern of Mortensen chasing passes down the centre.
Once he passed Brown, but Woodruff was in position to close the gap. These Burnley men cover to perfection. Blackpool's defence also was magnificent.
RAID AFTER RAID
Hayward hooked a bouncing ball away from Potts almost in the jaws of a Blackpool goal on to which raid after raid moved.
Yet Blackpool were not completely outplayed. The left wing built another raid which lasted a long time after Farrow had opened it with one of those long passes with which he specialises It was not repelled until at last a long centre was crossed from the left which Munro headed on to Mortensen, whose shot seemed to be snatched from his foot by Strong with the rest of the goal wide open.
In the 33rd minute Burnley nearly went in front again as Wallace hesitated, and allowed Morris to cross in front of an open goal
a ball which Shimwell hooked over his own bar in a huge leap, for the greatest clearance of the half.
The half ended with Blackpool attacking, but in vain against a Gibraltar-like defence.
Half-time: Burnley 0, Blackpool 0.
In the first minute Matthews was given the sort of pass for which he had been waiting. At once Blackpool were nearer a goal than the front line had ever been.
Down the wing the outside-right raced, reached the line, cut in to within half a dozen yards of the post crossed a pass which missed Mortensen by inches, reached McIntosh, whose shot cannoned off a full-back with Burnley’s defence for once scattered.
Another two minutes and Mortensen, seeking a passage by sheer force and pace, won Blackpool’s first corner of the match.
Another minute and Potts swerved away from Suart, raced fast inside, and shot wide from a position where goals have been scored. Backwards and forwards the game surged
There was a Blackpool demand for a penalty as Dick was upset in the area as he chased a long pass, but it was unheeded.
Then came a second corner for Blackpool, in the 10th minute. All the time Burnley were on the defence. Blackpool were unfortunate not to take the lead in the 12th minute as Munro shot a ball which appeared to hit a man in its path, canon off him and bounce on to the foot of the far post with Strong yards away. Burnley were completely outplayed in this smash-and-grab pressure.
Still Blackpool raided. Farrow missed a post by inches with a free kick. Dick shot wide at a great pace.
Munro cut inside from Matthews’s pass, shot a ball which Brown seemed to hook off the line with Strong falling late to it.
RETREATING
This was great football by Blackpool. Nothing in the first half had led anyone to expect it. Burnley were retreating all the time. It must be a long time since a Burnley defence had such a hammering.
Yet still it was intact. Yes, it is a great defence, and for a long time had to be as Blackpool in the 20th minute made it 3-3 in comers.
At last the storm began to subside. The Burnley forwards coming into the game again.
Toe Blackpool goal nearly fell as Shimwell passed back the ball so slowly that he had to hurl himself after it and hook it out anywhere as Billingham tore in to take a chance which would have been a gift.
Constantly, with Blackpool’s forwards still in the game a lot, Matthew’s was sending Munro away to cross centres which repeatedly raked the Burnley goal with no forward in position to meet them.
Fifteen minutes left and it was still anybody’s game with Burnley. hammering away now at a Blackpool defence which had still few gaps in it.
Fourteen minutes left and Strong snatched out of the air a ball which Mortensen had headed fast and wide of him.
Ten minutes from time, a minute after Brown had cleared McIntosh’s shot from the line of an open goal, Burnley won the game.
A free kick was conceded by Blackpool under pressure, Hays was given possession, crossed a ball which POTTS, after losing the ball and retrieving it again, shot into the roof of the net with the ground in a tumult of excitement.
The official attendance was 52,933. This was 1842 fewer than the ground record.
Result:
BURNLEY 1 (Potts 80 min)
BLACKPOOL 0
COMMENTS ON THE GAME
This was one of those games strictly in accordance with the form chart. Both defences were as resolute as their reputation indicated.
Burnley might have won in the first half. Blackpool might have won during periods of non-stop pressure in the second half.
Once Matthews was given the passes, as at last he was given them after the interval, the Blackpool forwards were a fast, progressive line, packing a punch, but not sufficient punch to shatter Burnley’s nearly impassable defence.
The new left wing was industrious and at least entitled to another game, but always this attack seemed to stake nearly everything on Mortensen shooting a goal.
Farrow justified his inclusion, but the entire defence, with Johnston magnificent in it, had no cause to blame itself for Blackpool’s first away defeat since the match at Huddersfield on August 27.
One goal was sufficient. There was never more in it than that. If there was even a goal.
NEGLECT OF MATTHEWS IS FOLLY
But there is no conspiracy
By “Spectator”
EVERYTHING happens to Stanley Matthews. Since he became a professional footballer he has been feted, baited, and at times infuriated. But not until he transferred to Blackpool has he ever been stalemated.
That, by accident and not design, is what has been happening to him in recent weeks, as I have been writing since the beginning of the season until I am tired of writing it.
Now at last the public are sitting up and taking notice of this phenomenon and, in the process, reaching various remarkable conclusions.
The first man I met after the Manchester City match last weekend was almost prepared to sign an audited certificate that between 3-55, when the second half opened, and 4-10 - the first 15 minutes of the half - not one pass, according to his watch and his own indignant observation, was given to the England forward.
I am not disputing it.
Not deliberate
BUT I am disputing his verdict - the opinion of not a few other people, according to my mail-bag - that this neglect is deliberate, that jealousy of Matthews’ fame dictates it.
That, to put it politely, is a lot of moonshine.
Nobody would make the accusation who knew the Blackpool team as I know them, on and off the field. Nobody would make it who knew that Stanley Matthews’ talent at this game of football is equalled only by his modesty about it.
Nobody would make it who knew that from the time in the war when he first put on a tangerine jersey not a Blackpool footballer has ever had for Matthews anything except admiration, with no envy in it at all.
No. there’s no conspiracy. But there is an elementary error in field tactics which will have to be corrected.
Two reasons
A MAN who will be playing his 52nd game for England next weekend, which is one more than even the immortal Billy Meredith played for Wales, is probably the greatest footballer of his generation. But even he can’t play football without a football.
That, apparently, is what Blackpool are expecting.
The suicidal neglect of him can be attributed, I think, to two reasons:
(1) A defence masses on his flank, leaves big gaps on the other, and into those gaps. on the principle that the ball should always be given to the unmarked man. the passes are sent.
(2) Blackpool's left-wing: have not been exploiting this freedom, because, as I wrote early in the season, Blackpool were fielding men on it before they had completed their graduation in the Central League.
One result today is that Manager Joe Smith has had. to relegate this wing back whence it came. An outcome of that may be that both Murdoch McCormack and Andy McCall will lose a lot of self - confidence.
And all because the public clamoured too soon, “We want ’em in the first team.” That was, as I wrote early last month, unfair on both these Scots. I am sorry that events have confirmed that opinion.
What Blackpool have to do - and in the boardroom they know it - is to sign at least one new forward to give balance to a line which this season has been manifestly lop-sided.
Jottings from all parts
BY "SPECTATOR" 11 October 1947
FIRST DIV. 1 CLASH
BLACKPOOL and Burnley met this afternoon at Turf Moor in a First Division match for the first time in history.
Burnley were relegated to the Second Division in the year, 1929-30, when Blackpool were promoted for the first time.
The last meeting in the Second Division at Burnley was on February 24, 1937, when Blackpool lost 3-0 four days after Arsenal had won 7-1 in a Cup-tic there.
The teams were:
BURNLEY: Adams; Richmond, Robinson, Rayner, Woodruff, Smith, Stein, Fisher, Gastall, Hiller, and Fletcher.
BLACKPOOL : Wallace; Blair (D.), Witham, Farrow. Cardwell, Jones (S.), Watmough, Hampson, Finan, Jones (T. W.), Hill.
Only 10 years ago .... and there were only three survivors playing today.
***
Lockhart plays for Coventry
After a midnight signing in London, Norman Lockhart, former Swansea and Irish international leftwinger, travelled to Coventry to play for his new club, at home to Bury, today.
Swansea received a fee in the region of £10,000. Lockhart is making his home in Coventry.
There was a prospect at one time that Lockhart would come to Blackpool.
Still a marksman
MANAGER FRANK HILL will not be regretting that he signed Bob Finan from Blackpool.
“He was good while I was captain at Blackpool,” he said when I met him. “That, I know, was 10 years ago, but I’m taking a chance.”
Bob is justifying this faith in him, scoring week after week, and shot last weekend the late goal which won Alexandra a 3-2 game against Bradford City.
Next Saturday -
IN town next week-end: Mr. James Stewart, the ex-Blackpool trainer, who now holds the post at Portsmouth.
Blackpool minus Stanley Mortensen and Stanley Matthews, will have no picnic against a team which has come on a mile this season.
BLACKPOOL’S second team forwards played such a class game in the first half a Hillsborough against
the Wednesday Reserve last weekend that as soon as the news broke that two of the line George Dick and Willie Buchan, had asked for a transfer the Wednesday management was on the line asking, “Is it correct?”
Other clubs were soon interested. Yet I shall be surprised if either forward is put on the list. Blackpool cannot afford to transfer forwards these days.
MIDWEEK game at Blackpool next week. On Wednesday Burnley are the visitors in the first round of the Lancashire Cup.
It will be the first midweek afternoon match played on the ground this season. It may be a long time before there is another.
***
WEST BROMWICH ALBION, Second Division leaders, had Harry Kinsell playing in their full-back division again last weekend. The name is familiar in these parts.
When he was drafted to the North-West during his war service and chosen for Blackpool’s team he was an unknown reserve at the Hawthorns.
Manager Joe Smith confesses that often in those days, taking the long-range view, he was inclined to make an offer for him. It is probable that £400 or £500 would have been sufficient.
Since then Kinsell has played for England, and if the Albion were prepared to talk business now they would be nearer five figures - and could probably sell at that price, too.
***
ALEC MUNRO and Andy Black had plenty to talk about when they met at Blackpool last weekend.
Both in pre-war days were in a Hearts forward line which included Tommy Walker and was worth at present-day prices about a king’s ransom.
To settle a few arguments: Alec of Blackpool played for Scotland against Wales and Ireland in 1937.
STRANGE to think that Blackpool’s fisherman goalkeeper, Frank Swift, of England, who played for Manchester City in his home - town a week ago, was once so affected by the presence of big crowds that the first time he had a game with Fleetwood and about 2,000 people assembled for the match he could not be persuaded to take the field.
Fleetwood had to give him his baptism on a smaller ground away from home. Since then Frank has played at Hampden Park, Wembley and all the other famous enclosures, and thinks nothing of it if 100,000 people are Watching him.
If he were not so modest I should say that was because he knows now that he’s worth watching.
***
BLACKPOOL’S guest on Saturday, watching the Manchester City game, was Mr. Ebbe (pronounced “Ebbie”) Schwartz, secretary of the Danish Football Association, who acted as an unofficial Cook’s guide to the Blackpool tourists in Denmark a few months ago.
He has seen one or two games in England. “Everything is played at such a pace,” he commented. “Is it - do you think - that it is too fast, that in all this speed you are losing your football?
I assured Mr. Schwartz that he had something there.
***
IT was 10 years ago that he played his first game for England - and he was no new recruit to big football then.
He is still in a First Division team, not as fast as he used to be, but has such a fine positional sense that he often plays a wing out of a game.
Who is he?
Bert Sproston, the Manchester City and ex-Leeds United full-back. He had a grand match last weekend.
Arrangements are now well in hand for the Blackpool Supporters’ Club’s winter efforts.
The dance will be held at the Tower on November 5 and tickets will be on sale shortly. Late transport will again be arranged and. should the demand be great enough, it will be run to St. Annes.
The tickets for the snooker week at the Clifton Hotel. Blackpool, from November 10 to 15 are now on sale. Fred Davis, fresh from the professional snooker championship will meet several well-known amateurs, including the British amateur champion, the woman champion the boy champion, Herbert Beetham. Mendel Showman, and Frank Hibbert.
The Supporters’ Club hut and refreshment room are now open just behind the west stand. Members are invited to call.
“Sportraits”
THE sports book. “Sportraits of 1947,” is still on sale, but copies are now limited. Get a copy today (1s. 6d.) and avoid disappointment.
It is hoped to hold the quarterly meeting early in November and an announcement will be made as soon as the date is known.
The football players’ snooker championship is being arranged, and the final and semi-final will be open to the public.
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