31 January 1948 Blackpool 1 Aston Villa 0
The rest was a tame affair
MclNTOSH’S GOAL
Blackpool 1, Aston Villa 0
WITH Mr. Ted Fenton working out one of his “F” plans in the Blackpool directors’ box and everybody talking and thinking about next week’s Cup-tie, this match seemed to be relegated to the category of just another game.
The first news I heard when I reached the ground was that Mr. Joe Smith, the Blackpool manager, was not present, but was not, as rumour had it, away at Torquay, where Colchester were without four of their Cup team.
His destination was Ireland, and the purpose of his visit, I understand, the signing of a reserve goalkeeper if the price is not fantastic.
George Cummings, who has had many a duel with Stanley Matthews, came back to have another for his first game in the First Division since November 15.
The Villa have lost five out of six points in postwar games with Blackpool.
The attendance approached 25,000. A high wind blew in gusts.
BLACKPOOL: Robinson; Shimwell, Suart, Lewis, Hayward, Kelly, Matthews, Mortensen, McIntosh, Dick and Munro.
ASTON VILLA: Jones; Potts, Cummings, Dorsett, Moss (P), Lowe (E), Edwards, Parkes, Ford, Brown and Smith( L).
Referee: Mr. W. H. E. Evans (Huyton).
By a remarkable coincidence, Mr. “Bill” Evans was the referee at a match at Blackpool for the second successive week.
THE GAME
Eric Hayward, captain for the day, won the toss and whatever aid the wind offered, which at times was a lot.
It was the other goal - the south goal - which was menaced in the early raids on turf so firm that repeatedly the ball bounced off it twice the height of a man.
Hayward had to make clearances on two exposed wings before Parkes won a corner which Edwards lofted into the wall of the net.
It was fast, but curiously unexciting after last week’s cup-tie.
Blackpool’s football was a little subdued, and another corner was won on the right wing by a Villa front line constantly raiding.
The Blackpool forwards were repeatedly being over-passed by their half-backs.
LOST IN MID-AIR
Yet, in Blackpool’s first raid, the Villa goal nearly fell, as Matthew’s took McIntosh’s fast throw-in and crossed a high centre which, under Mortensen’s challenge, Jones lost in mid-air.
In the end, Moss cleared anywhere in front of an open goal with Munro racing in a split second late to shoot over the line.
Another minute, and from another of Matthews made-to-measure centres, Dick headed into Jones’ arms.
Those two raids awakened Blackpool, so awakened the entire game, too, that Mortensen and Cummings had a little debate which Referee Evans had to interrupt.
GREAT LEAP
Robinson saves drive by Edwards
In the 15th minute Robinson revealed what an efficient goalkeeper he is after his season and a half’s apprenticeship in the Reserves.
Ford wandered out to the right wing and crossed a low centre.
It rebounded off a man. Edwards was waiting for it, and shot a fast, rising ball which in a great leap Robinson lifted over the oar with his finger tips for the Villa’s third corner in the first quarter of an hour.
There were few incidents afterwards.
The Villa began to press again, but little else happened for a long time until McIntosh found himself unexpectedly with a scoring chance, but could only lash a bouncing ball into the arms of Jones.
In the first 25 minutes there had not been half a dozen scoring chances created by football which was being ruined by the wind and by a succession of straying passes.
In the 26th minute, when another chance came, it offered itself to Blackpool as Jones lost a race with McIntosh for a forward pass, and in the end had to run backwards into an open goal before punching Munro’s lobbed shot over the bar for a corner.
In the next minute the Villa missed a great chance.
Trevor Ford, the £13.000 centre-forward from Swansea, escaped all on his own, and with Robinson alone in front of him shot wide of a post.
ESCAPE
Three minutes later Blackpool were the luckiest team in the country not to lose a goal.
This time Parkes discovered himself all on his own with the Blackpool defence wide open.
He raced 20 yards without a man reaching him, and shot a ball which passed Robinson, hit the face of a post, and cannoned back into the goalkeeper’s arm's as he sprawled half a dozen yards beyond his line.
RAKED GOAL
Blackpool were never completely outplayed for long. At times, in fact, they were often raiding.
Mortensen raked the Villa’s goal with a blazing shot when Matthews’ astute pass had given him position.
Yet all the time the team’s game had little of its recent assertiveness, and at periods, scarcely any plan either.
It was the sort of half I expected in this wind, and on the eve of the cup-tie.
The Villa had rejected two big chances. They should have been in front. Little else could be written about it.
Half-time: Blackpool 0, Aston Villa 0.
Second Half
Whenever Blackpool had a goal chance it was Matthews who made it.
In the second minute of the half, a bewildered Villa defence allowed him to centre without a challenge.
From the centre, Mortensen headed just outside a post.
This raid prefaced a series of Blackpool attacks which promised a lot, but for a time never reached a definite conclusion, although Matthews twice raced away from Cummings after giving the fullback a couple of yards start.
Shimwell halted, with a superb tackle, a Villa front line all of whose passes were at last being intercepted by two wing halfbacks coming definitely into the game.
INTO ATTACK
Blackpool put on the pressure
Potts headed McIntosh’s centre off the Villa’s goal-line with the Blackpool forwards pressing as they had not pressed all the afternoon.
Twice, in rapid succession Mortensen was in action in a Villa goalmouth, which was becoming at times a congested area, heading into Jones’s arms a minute before losing a Matthews pass with the goalkeeper for once deserted by his two vigilant full-backs.
Blackpool were playing at last as if they meant business.
CAUTIONED
Afterwards, everything began to peter out again for a time until there was an ugly little passage in mid-field in which a Blackpool and a Villa forward were both rebuked by the referee. Slowly, the Villa were beginning to attack persistently again without ever reaching a scoring position.
It was earnest and at times tense, as it had never been in the first half, but the quality of the football was still little to write home about.
DICK INJURED
Twenty minutes from time, in a collision with Dorsett, Dick took such a count as he can seldom have taken even in his days as a cruiserweight.
After prolonged attention, he was carried over the line and into the dressing-room still in a heap, and out to the world.
For minutes afterwards, in a storm of jeers and catcalls, four Blackpool forwards battered at the Villa’s defence as if they were playing the cup-tie a week in advance.
Excitement rose again, and there was a demand for a penalty which Mr. Evans refused with the Villa’s goal still in a state of seige.
A couple of minutes later, in another attack Dorsett’s name was taken.
With 25,000 people in a tumult in a game which had begun in a garden - party atmosphere, and was ending as a battle. Dick came limping back.
THE LEAD
Two minutes later, with the sort of cheer which greets a cup goal, Blackpool took the lead.
There was another tackle on Matthews a couple of yards outside the area.
After another rebuke to the offender. Mr. Evans lined them up for the free-kick,
Matthews lobbed it high into the packed goalmouth.
McINTOSH leaped at it, glided it with his head, inches outside the leaping Jones’ reach and just a few inches inside the far post.
Another Villa player was warned as the game ended in a storm of “Send’em off’" cries.
Result:
BLACKPOOL 1 (McIintosh 77 min)
ASTON VILLA 0
COMMENTS ON THE GAME
Blackpool’s two full backs and Hayward could scarcely be faulted.
The Villa had two big chances to win this game before the interval, but afterwards Blackpool had -sufficient of it to deserve the point.
Otherwise it was a match which except for its last 15 minutes will soon be forgotten, the sort which so often prefaces a big Cup tie.
IT’S A LONG, LONG WAY TO WEMBLEY
Can Blackpool do it?
By “Spectator”
They had not forgotten Sheffield Wednesday a year earlier, and one or two other comparable failures between the wars.
Today they are saying that this is Blackpool’s Cup year, and are actually talking about Wembley. Strictly, it makes no sense at all.
Jottings from all parts
BY "SPECTATOR" 31 January 1948
Says Mr. TED FENTON of Colchester United -
BLACKPOOL ARE GOOD - BUT REMEMBER HUDDERSFIELD TOWN
From our Colchester correspondent
"EVERYONE knows that Matthews and Mortensen are great footballers - I played with them and against them in Forces games during the war - but a wonderful fellow named Doherty played for Huddersfield!”
First for 55 years if -
IF COLCHESTER UNITED succeed at Blackpool they will be the first non-Football League club for 55 years to figure among the last eight in the F.A. Cup competition.
In season 1892-3 Middlesbrough Ironopolis reached the sixth round, being beaten 7-0 by Preston North End. That achievement led to Middlesbrough’s election to the Second Division at the end of the season.
THERE are only four full-time professionals in the Colchester side - Ted Fenton, the manager and centre-half, Harry Bearryman and Andy Brown, the other half-backs, and Bob Curry, captain and inside-right.
The others work five and a half days, and train in the evenings.
Following are the men you are likely to see line up at Bloomfield-road.
HARRY WRIGHT, goalkeeper.
Graduated with Harwich and Parkstone. went to Charlton for his first professional engagement, and soared into fame with Derby County. Played in a jubilee international for England before the war.
Decided after the war that there was no future in big-time football, became a physical training instructor at a Guildford school.
ALBERT (“DIGGER”) KETTLE, right-back.
Playing now for his home town, and never wants to play for any other. Has refused professional offers by several League clubs, is content to retain his job in an engineering works and to play football at the weekends.
BOB ALLEN, left-back
Will have to watch Stanley Matthews. A schoolboy international who began the game as an outside-left and played there for. Fulham and Brentford.
Converted into a full-back at Northampton. graduated into the Colchester team as another part-time professional after a season in the reserve. Another P.T. Instructor at a school
HARRY BEARRYMAN, right-half.
This member of Colchester’s all-fulltime-professional half-back line was a sergeant rear-gunner in the R.A.F., who was 30 times over Berlin during the war. Had a season or two at Chelsea.
TED FENTON, centre-half and player-manager.
Came from West Ham United, his only League club Played for England against Wales, and was in F.A. teams which toured South Africa in 1939 and Switzerland in 1945.
Reputed to be one of the game’s best tacticians, has put Colchester on the football map this season and is the town’s Wonder Hero No. 1.
ANDY BROWN, left-half
A Scot who played for Torquay United and Cardiff City before accepting Ted Fenton’s invitation to enlist with Colchester.
THOMAS HILLMAN, outside-right.
Was given a free transfer by Brighton, renounced big football and became a market gardener, but has now made a name in the game ail over again on Colchester’s right wing.
BOB CURRY, captain and inside-right.
Scored two of the goals which dismissed Bradford and has never missed scoring in a Cup-tie this season.
Wounded at Dunkirk he was prepared to leave the game, but Ted Fenton persuaded him to begin again and this is the result.
ARTHUR TURNER, centre-forward.
One of the few amateurs ever to play in a recent Cup Final. Lea the Charlton forwards against Derby, County at Wembley in 1946.
Became a professional when he went to Colchester, but only part-time, for he assists his father in a London timber business.
FRED CUTTING, inside-left.
Shot the winning goal against Bradford. Played for Leicester City and Norwich before migrating to Colchester. where he plays football every Saturday and works in the family’s motor business for the rest of the wees.
LEN CATER, outside-left
The team’s only amateur. Born in Colchester, refused professional contracts offered by Wolverhampton Wanderers and Ipswich Town. Has played for Essex in inter-county amateur football and was recently selected for an F.A. XI.
And are they superstitious!
FOOTBALLERS are notoriously superstitious, but it is doubtful whether as many men in one club have caught the superstition bug as badly as Colchester United.
The lucky champagne cork, with its origin in Berlin, has already gained fame. Ted Fenton, the club’s popular player-manager, refuses to take the field without the cork in his pocket.
In addition, the players’ dressing-room is festooned with horseshoes and charms of various shapes and designs, and they continue to pour in from the enthusiastic Colchester townsfolk.
- AND A RABBIT’S FOOT
Just before the start of Colchester’s latest triumph over Bradford, a bottle of champagne, with a chromium-steel replica of the Cup attached, was handed in to the dressing room. As the players were about to take the field, an elderly man sent in a rabbit’s foot, with the request that the captain should carry it during the game.
Superstition even resulted in the Colchester officials hoping that they would be drawn against Manchester United in preference to almost any other side left in the fifth round, simply because the Manchester club wear red shirts.
The reason is that every side Colchester have knocked out this season wore red or partly red jerseys.
Huddersfield, who normally play in blue and white stripes, changed to red for the game, as their colours were the same as those of Colchester.
LOCAL ENTHUSIASM
Manager Fenton is a shrewd judge of the game, and there is little doubt that his accurate reading of the weaknesses of his opponents has had much to do with Colchester’s success.
At the same time he will admit that above all else the team spirit of his players and the tremendous local enthusiasm have been the chief factors in bringing about the dramatic victories.
Another home draw, and even the mighty Manchester club might have been humbled. A visit to Blackpool is a different story.
However, many supporters travel north, they will not be able to demoralise opponents as they do at home.
MUCH has been written in the past about the so called “lesser lights” of the football world having a successful run in the F.A. Cup through a preconceived plan, but few have had such publicity or success as Ted Fenton’s Colchester United, whose “F” plan has carried them to the fifth round.
What of these schemes, asks a Press Association football writer. and how much do they really contribute to the side’s success?
Surely it is asking too much of players to expect them in the heat of the moment to turn their minds to some idea formulated on a blackboard?
The popular conception seems to be the “blocking” of a particular star or, better still, as one man rarely makes a team, playing on a positional weakness.
BIG TASK
How will this affect Colchester’s mammoth task at Blackpool? Huddersfield’s mastermind, Doherty, was successfully “eliminated” on the small playing field at Colchester but will Blackpool’s pitch lend itself to this scheme?
Who is it to be, Matthews or Mortensen, both capable of winning a match? And has a team well placed in the premier League a vulnerable positional weakness?
Manager Fenton may have decided this when he watched Blackpool' in their league match today.
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