Robinson, Kelly and McIntosh
BUT ALL FINISH
Portsmouth 1, Blackpool 1
MANAGER JOE HULME, of the ’Spurs, and his Welsh international half-back, Ronnie Burgess, came to Fratton Park this afternoon. Object of their visit was a preview of Blackpool before the Cup semi-final at Villa Park next week.
Portsmouth were playing their first game for three weeks, and Blackpool had their last week’s Cup team in the field.
The ground was packed with a crowd of 40,000.
PORTSMOUTH: Butler; Yeuell, Rookes, Scoular, Flewin, Dickinson, Harris, Reid, Clarke, Wharton, Froggatt.
BLACKPOOL: Robinson, Shimwell, Suart, Johnston, Hayward, Kelly, Matthews, Mortensen , McIntosh, Dick, Rickett.
Referee; Mr. V. Rae, of London.
Blackpool had a remarkably fine reception as Cup semi-finalists. They won the toss and defended a goal scarcely visible in a mist which was drifting over the field.
The game opened with a gem of a pass by McIntosh to Mortensen, who was halted without any sort of ceremony as he tore off on one of his familiar lone raids.
From the free-kick Rickett cut away from his full-back and crossed a ball which McIntosh volleyed wide.
When the Portsmouth front line entered the game with a long, crossfield pass out to the left, Froggatt eluded Shimwell by sheer pace before crossing a pass which, in the jaws of nearly an open goal, his partner Wharton could not reach.
In another raid from the left, Suart crossed over to halt the advance.
PENALTY CLAIM
In the seventh minute a bouncing ball hit Flewin’s arm in Portsmouth’s penalty area.
The referee decided that the offence had no intent in it and refused all Blackpool’s demands for a spot kick.
In the next minute a goal was near as Mortensen, always waiting for Matthews’ long, gliding passes, was in possession for another.
He chased it, but was beaten in the race for it by less than half as Butler came galloping out to him and kicked the ball from his feet.
THE LEAD
Two minutes later, in the 10th of the half, Blackpool took the lead and deserved it.
There was a raid on the right. Dick, who had wandered into the inside-right position, exchanged a couple of passes with Matthews, took the second into an open space, and crossed a perfect high centre.
To it, MORTENSEN leaped, headed from 10 yards out a ball which flew away from Butler as he tried to reach it. In another two minutes, and with Portsmouth outplayed everywhere, it should have been 2-0.
Matthews escaped again, raced half the length of the field, crossed a falling centre which McIntosh headed against the face of the bar with Butler late in his leap to the ball.
RIGHT WING
Constantly tore gaps in the defence
Blackpool’s light wing chasing Johnston’s perfect passes, was constantly tearing a gap in Portsmouth’s defence.
Into another Mortensen went full tilt, hooked over the advancing Butler’s head a long, loose ball which soared over the bar. of an empty goal.
Except when half-back Scoular shot high and wide a ball which came bouncing out to him from a pack of men In Blackpool's penalty area, there was not a shot for 10 minutes on Blackpool’s goal.
Reid shot low into Robinson’s arms from a position where he should have centred to two waiting forwards, and then Johnston had a couple of scoring shots repelled by a massed Portsmouth defence.
GRAND FOOTBALL
It was grand forward football Blackpool were playing. It was not confined to one wing either, but making a lot of progress on the other, where Rickett was revealing himself as a forward prepared to go after anything.
Kelly was ensuring there were plenty of passes to go after.
Long forward passes continued to find a path through the Portsmouth defence, whose two full-backs were playing far apart.
Yet Portsmouth were no longer outplayed. They were building one raid after another, chiefly with long passes out to the left wing.
They could, however, seldom reach shooting position.
Portsmouth s left wing continued to be aggressive, even if it was on the other wing that the next big raid stormed on Blackpool’s goal Harris ending it with a shot which Robinson held low on his line.
CASUALTY
With 10 minutes left to play, Blackpool had one of the casualties they had been fearing.
Matthews took a Shimwell clearance at full gallop, raced away from his full-back, reached the line in a 60-yard spurt, crossed a ball which McIntosh was preparing to hook past Butler as Flewin hurled himself in the centre-forward’s path.
Down went both men in a heap, and McIntosh stayed down. He had to be given attention and was still limping when the game resumed.
Two minutes later, he hobbled on to the left wing, and Rickett, who will always play anywhere, went into the centre.
Immediately, Hayward made two desperate clearances with the full line of Portsmouth’s forwards in full cry on him.
With only five minutes of the half left, there was a remarkable incident.
AMAZED
Portsmouth called for a free-kick, assumed it had been given when it had not. In the end, a full-back passed the ball slowly back to where he considered the kick should be taken, stood in amazement as Mortensen took the loose ball away and shot barely wide of a post with only one full-back left in action and the rest of the defence at a standstill.
Portsmouth had raided a lot in the last 20 minutes of this half and finished the last raid with one of Reid’s thunderbolts.
Half-time: Portsmouth 0, Blackpool 1.
Second Half
McIntosh came out for the second half with his right knee bandaged, but back again at centre-forward.
Two of Mortensen’s spurts after those forward passes in which Blackpool were still specialising opened the half, force of numbers halting the inside right in the first before he shot wide in the second.
Yet Portsmouth might well have made it 1-1 in the fifth minute of the half as Reid took a pass in a scoring position, but hesitated so long before he shot that in the end, he never shot at all as Suart came up to clear the K bouncing ball anywhere for a corner.
Rickett and Dick in rapid sue cession shot wide in Blackpool’s attacks.
PRESSURE
There was raid after raid by Portsmouth as the game entered on its last half hour.
A corner was won on the right, and from it Blackpool had another casualty. Robinson, in his leap for the ball collided with a post, was stunned, and required the trainer’s attention before a second corner could be taken.
Twenty minutes of the half had gone and Portsmouth, not undeservedly, equalised.
A great goal it was, too. Raids were still hammering on the Blackpool goal. At last, a loose ball reached Harris, who steered the ball forward to the waiting REID.
It was all over in the next split second, the ex-Stockport forward shooting a ball so fast that even from 15 yards out Robinson never moved to it.
Blackpool took command of the game again, won a couple of comers on the left and for the next five minutes never permitted the Portsmouth front line to reach shooting distance again.
KELLY HURT
Then Kelly developed a limp, ultimately came to a standstill, and at last went over the line for attention.
Blackpool were taking a little too much punishment in this game with the Cup semi-final so near.
Rickett went into his third position of the match, at left-half, for the three minutes that Kelly was out of the game and was still there with Blackpool still fielding only 10 men as Hayward made a superb clearance almost off his own line with a couple of forwards tearing in on him.
Fifteen minutes left, and either team could still win a game as fast as ever with neither front line ever able to dominate it for longer than a couple of minutes at a time.
Five minutes from time McIntosh hit the inside of a post with Butler beaten all over. That was a shot which deserved to win the match.
Result:
PORTSMOUTH 1 (Reid 65 min)
BLACKPOOL 1 (Mortensen 10 min)
Blackpool would be content to end this game with 11 fit men on the field. There were times when, in the tempestuous pace that never seemed too probable.
As a game, it was divided into two phases. The interval separated them. During the first half, the Blackpool forwards played all the football which had purpose or punch in it.
It was so good - and not merely on the right wing either - that it won an early lead and in those first 45 minutes, might have won the match.
Afterwards, the Portsmouth front line, by storm tactics, were in as nearly complete command, and hammered at a Blackpool defence which seldom had a gap in it.
The half-backs were again as good a line as present-day football probably possesses, with wing men assured in the tackle and never content with anything except a studied pass.
Suart must have silenced all his critics today for he was equal in resolution of both Hayward and Shimwell, and that is saying a whole lot.
JUBILANT SCENES IN LONDON
A FOUR - O'CLOCK-IN-THE-MORNING SERENADE ON RATTLES AND BELLS OUTSIDE AN HOTEL IN SOUTHAMPTON ROW HERALDED BLACKPOOL’S INVASION OF LONDON TODAY, TELEPHONES “SPECTATOR ”
The serenade was for Blackpool's players up for the Cup with a date at Fulham this afternoon but they were not awakened by it because they had been purposely allotted rooms on one of the higher floors.
But everybody else heard it and knew that it was Cup Day again in town.
A few minutes earlier, at Euston, the first football excursion put on the lines by British Railways, every compartment packed to the doors, had arrived.
Blackpool fans who are invariably so reserved and undemonstrative were neither today.
In a fleet of motor coaches and in the special train rattles and bells made a hullabaloo all through the night.
One man came with something new in football's madcap orchestra - a pair of bellows fitted with a brass funnel, which made the noise of a ship's siren wailing up and down the scale.
Others were dressed in siren suits of tangerine and white.
Half a dozen hawked up and down the streets with a board the size of a house door on which was written in capital letters the names of the three teams dismissed by Blackpool this season.
ROSETTES
Men, women and children - boys of six and seven among them - all came to town and everybody wore a rosette the size of a cabbage.
Up and down the West End. into all-night snack bars and out again, they prowled until dawn.
And with the dawn came a thin mist which had not cleared by noon.
It was 10 degrees milder in London than in Blackpool yesterday.
Reports from the ground were that the frost was out of the turf which was as soft as Blackpool have been praying all week it would be.
All the coaches went direct to Fulham ground. Some were outside at six o’clock, but there were no queues until two hours later which was still seven hours before the kick-off.
London soon learned last night that the Blackpool team many of the players’ wives and sweethearts travelling with them, were in the City.
At the Victoria Palace, where the players and all the club’s guests spent the evening, the Crazy Gang were calling out for Stanley Matthews every few minutes during the show, one of them parading up and down the aisles and paging him, while the England forward crouched low in his seat seeking to make himself invisible.
On the train going down there was a gift for every man. not forgetting 12th man. Alec Munro, Mr. Fred Pack, a Chapel-street tradesman, wandering unexpectedly into the club’s saloon and presenting every man with a fountain pen.
AUTOGRAPH HUNTERS
The team purposely spent a quiet morning. Until 11 o’clock they could not poke their noses out of the hotel door without the autograph hunters swooping on them, but afterwards everybody who was going to the match without a ticket had gone.
Tonight, after the game, they are nearly all going to see “Hellzapoppin' ” at the Casino. It will have been “poppin’” for an hour and a half at Craven Cottage.
Mayor's good wishes
A FEW minutes before the kick - off the Blackpool team received the following message from the Mayor of Blackpool (Coun. J. R. Furness. J.P):
“Blackpool thinking of you. Wish you every possible success.”
THIS DEFENCE DESERVES A HEADLINE
Best record in Blackpool's history
By “Spectator”
IT’S ABOUT TIME THAT SOMEBODY WROTE A COLUMN ABOUT BLACKPOOL’S FORGOTTEN MEN.
Everybody knows all about Blackpool's right wing triangle, the forwards who have scored 15 goals in four Cup-ties, and the two wing halfbacks who would give distinction to any team in the land.
The men who are forgotten - except when they are criticised, as they were, in my opinion, unwarrantably criticised after the Fulham Cuptie - are the goalkeeper, his two full-backs and the centre-half.
They are the men who have written a new chapter in Blackpool football, entirely apart from the record which was achieved a week ago when for the first time ever a Blackpool team entered the Cup semi-finals.
For not in all the record books can I find a Blackpool defence which has conceded so few goals as this defence has lest this season.
Fine record
Consider achievements and compare it's this season them with the records of Arsenal and Burnley, whose defences are reputed to be the strongest in the country.
Ten goals against in 18 home games, including three Cup-ties. Arsenal have lost 10 in 16 home games, Burnley nine in 15.
Twenty-eight goals lost in 33 First Division matches and cup-ties. Burnleys goal has fallen 28 times in 30 games, the Arsenal’s 22 in 31.
Since the beginning of 1948, compelled to field a goalkeeper, Joe Robinson, who had never played for Blackpool outside the Central League until called upon at short ntice for the first of the Cup-ties, this defence has played nine games and conceded only three goals.
This works out as a goal in every third game, or, if you prefer it, a goal every four and a
half hours.
Ever presents
TWO of the men in this defence were signed for £10 each, but it still keeps on holding forward lines at bay, and has won the bonus once or twice for those others whose names have made 80 per cent, of the Blackpool football news this remarkable season.
And three of the four have not missed a match for the team this season - a distinction which they alone possess.
It is, I repeat, about time that somebody wrote a testimonial to them, unsolicited and sincere. Here, then, it is.
Whatever has happened at Portsmouth this afternoon - and on the eve of a big Cup game when a team is often thinking about one match while it is playing another, anything might have happened, even the capitulation of this defence have been praising - it will soon be forgotten.
The one topic today is the Cup.
Cup luck
BLACKPOOL have had the breaks this time, have had the luck which most teams must have to win the Cup. That is one reason why if Manchester United, who have had all the Becher’s Brooks to leap, win it this season, it will rank as one of footballs greatest triumphs of all time.
Yet, even if Blackpool can now go to Wembley as a team which en-route has not met another in its own class, it has scarcely been the undisputed passage, which a few folk are making it out to be.
For, as Manager Joe Smith said the other day, “If we’ve not met a First Division team we’ve met teams which have beaten First Division teams.” That as a little exercise in logic is unanswerable.
A little gilt may have been taken off the gingerbread, as I wrote at Craven Cottage a week ago after the defeat of 10 men at Fulham. But it’s still a fair slab of gingerbread, and there's a lot of gilt still on it
Jottings from all parts
BY "SPECTATOR" 6 March 1948
TESSIE O'SHEA won a bet ' from Tommy Trinder, the Fulham director, on the Fulham - Blackpool Cup-tie, and gave the stakes after the match - and they were, I am told, 20 guineas - to a charity.
She said - for Tessie is always a Blackpool fan - “Blackpool will win." Tommy considered that almost high treason. So they made the bet.
And before the match, to encourage her team, Tessie sent this telegram to the Blackpool men: “The whole two-ton is behind you, boys. Go out for a terrific win. I'll pacify Tommy Trinder”
When I saw a subdued Tommy after the match, he looked as if he needed all the pacifying that was going.
***
THE only forward in England who has scored in every Cup-tie this season: Stanley Mortensen, of Blackpool.
He scored one against Leeds, two against Chester, two against Colchester, and one against Fulham.
That’s six in four games.
Jim McIntosh, whose only blank was the Chester match, has five to his name—two each against Leeds and Colchester and one at Fulham.
Those two have shot 11 of the team’s 15 goals in the Cup. The other four were scored by Eddie Shimwell - remember his Big Bertha goal against Chester? - Alec Munro - his only goal of the season - George Dick and Harry Johnston, whose goals were the first they had ever scored in the Cup.
WHAT a grand sportsman Joe Bacuzzi is.
The Fulham full-back could make nothing whatever of Stanley Matthews at Fulham last weekend. At first, acting under orders, he seldom went out to meet him on the wing, but waited for him at a sort of halfway house between the line and the penalty box.
Repeatedly the wing forward took the ball to him and left him standing. There was a similar result when at last he made his challenge on the wing. But not once was Joe guilty of a tackle which was not scrupulously fair, not once was his temper frayed.
That was, in any case, typical of the match. Deliberate fouls were so few that you could have counted them on the fingers of one hand. This is how football should and - even in all the excitement of a Cuptie - can be played.
COLCHESTER have not forgotten. To Harry Johnston, the Blackpool captain, on the eve of the Fulham Cuptie, was delivered a telegram from Manager Ted Fenton of the Southern League club, “Go to it - you can win,” he wired.
All the Blackpool men appreciated this message from a man whose team they had dismissed in the previous round.
All those people who know Ted Fenton were not at all surprised that he sent it. He could not go himself to Craven Cottage, but his charming wife was there as Colchester’s ambassadress.
I WAS talking to a man at Craven Cottage last weekend who had to remain in the boardroom all the match and yet saw the game from start to finish. He was one of the Cottage staff, and he watched the play on the Fulham club’s television set.
Several of the Blackpool delegation, which for this match was nearly as numerous as a U.N.O, commission, watched the pre-match scenes on the set - the parading of the mascots and the marshalling of the crowds - and were greatly impressed.
What did the B.B.C. pay for the privilege of televising the match? Fifty guineas - that’s all.
WHAT'S been happening to Colchester United since the Cup giant-killers were slain at Blackpool?
I am often asked. This is the answer.
The week after the Blackpool Cuptie the United beat - Exeter Reserve, the Southern League leaders, by 6-0 - and there were 9.000 people to watch them, for not a soul in Colchester dreamed of deserting the team after its Cup defeat.
A week later a draw was played at Merthyr, and last weekend there was another draw 2-2 - this time with that other famous Cup team, Lovell’s Athletic, after a presentation to the Mayor of Newport.
On April 28 the gallant little United have a date with Arsenal, at Highbury, before going to Holland to play four matches.
***
THERE was a telegram of good wishes for nearly every Blackpool man at Fulham last weekend.
Jimmy McIntosh, the centre-forward, was very pleased about his. “Best of luck. Watching you today. Put one in for the old Victory.”
That was the script of his message. It was from all the men with whom he served during the war in H.M.S. Victory.
Well, he put one in - even if it was not until 89 minutes and 20 seconds of the match had gone.
***
I SHOULD think that throat lozenges were in great demand when the Blackpool chemists’ shops opened last Sunday.
Often in the past the Blackpool football fan has been told that he is the quietest of the species in these isles. Nobody can say that again after the Fulham hullabaloo.
There were 35,000 London folk at Craven Cottage last weekend, fewer than 5,000 from Blackpool. Yet those 5,000 made the other
35.000 sound like the inhabitants of a Trappist monastery for the entire hour and a half of the match, and for hours before it.
Three-quarters of them were croaking like frogs at the end of it all. They’d want those throat lozenges the next day.
T'HIS is what I call loyalty. All the way from Blackpool to London by all-night coach to watch the Craven Cottage Cuptie last weekend and back again went Louis Cardwell, the club’s former centre- half who is playing for Crewe Alexandra these days but has been out of action for a week or two.
He asked for no ticket, stood by himself in the paddock fronting the main stand, in spite of all the discomforts of a thigh injury, and, when I saw him after the match, said, “I couldn’t have been happier if I’d been playing for them still.”
Watching, too, always 100 per cent, for Blackpool, whether he’s playing or watching - and how always he’d prefer to be playing - was Bill Lewis, the club’s full-back, whose home is in the South but whose football allegiance is always to the North.
I PLEAD “guilty.” I was wrong - and I admit it - when I wrote last week that Manchester City were the first team to win three points from Blackpool last season.
What about Stoke City?” I have been asked in letter after letter. How vigilant is my public. Thanks for the memory.”
You are all correct. The City won 2-1 at Blackpool on Christmas Day and played a 1-1 draw at Stoke two days later.
BLACKPOOL'S BIG TASK TO HOLD SPURS' SHARPSHOOTERS
From our London Football Correspondent
IN London, at any rate, because they discovered and developed their own players without the outlay of several thousands of pounds, Tottenham Hotspur would be popular F.A. Cup winners. If they do win it, it will probably be won by a team not costing a penny in transfer fees.
Twice Tottenham have reached the final, each time winning the Cup.
In the season 1900-1901 they beat Sheffield United 3-1 in a replay after the first match was drawn 2-2. Exactly 20 years later they beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0.
Next Saturday they tackle Blackpool in the semi-final at Villa Park. It is the third time ’Spurs have reached this stage. It is Blackpool’s first semi-final and I do not think they will survive.
I will tell you why I have formed that opinion. Last December I saw Blackpool draw 2-2 against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, in what was one of the fastest First Division games I have seen.
Blackpool, on that day played, and looked to me, to be the best team in England. But in my view they have declined since then. There is not the same punch in their football.
Tottenham, in contrast, have improved, and there is still a possibility of their bringing off the double - the Cup and promotion to the First Division.
Joe Hulme, the old Arsenal right wing flier, holder of F.A. Cup winners medals, is Tottenham’s manager. Joe has trained and coached these home-produced players on the lines he played himself. He has made them experts in controlling the ball at top speed.
Although they play so fast they can pass to each other with uncanny accuracy. They shoot too, when the ball is on the move, and I doubt if the Blackpool defence can adapt themselves to meet this electric form of attack to which ’Spurs are accustomed.
Tottenham’s team is not studded with internationals, but it is studded with brainy footballers.
To reach the semi-final Tottenham have won two matches on their own ground, beating good Second Division teams - West Bromwich Albion and Leicester City.
Away, they have accounted few Bolton Wanderers a First Division team, and Southampton.
Blackpool have yet to concede their first goal in the competition, but I cannot see them holding out against the Hotspur sharpshooters.
HE IS MAN TO WATCH
OF Tottenham’s front line of sharpshooters, Duquemin, their ace centre - forward, is the man Blackpool will especially have to watch.
Dynamic in his leadership, he has scored seven of Tottenham’s 11 Cuptie goals.
Blackpool’s defence will have all their work cut out to hold him, particularly if he is on top of his form as he has been lately.
***
Fever heat excitement
ENTHUSIASM at Tottenham is at fever heat. Now that excursion trains are running, I think more people from London will be at Villa Park to shout for Hotspur than Blackpool will have from Lancashire.
Tottenham’s allocation of tickets is 22,000, of which 15,000 are for ground admission at 2s. 6d.
The officials at White Hart-lane believe they will sell all their tickets, including 2,300 at a guinea a seat.
When I asked Joe Hulme what he thought of Tottenham’s chances he said that Villa Park would suit his players a treat.
“Blackpool play good football,” he admitted, “but Villa Park will give our chaps the wide open scope they are used to.
‘I see no reason why ’Spurs should not qualify for the Final.
“Last Saturday, without Woodward or Burgess, two regular half-backs. ’Spurs won on Southampton’s difficult ground at the Dell.
‘It was a fine performance. But for the match with Blackpool they will have their strongest team out.
“Without being over-confident, the players say they can win, and as I say, I think they will.”
BIG DIFFERENCE
The inclusion of skipper Ronnie Burgess will make a tremendous m difference to the ’Spurs.
His injured ankle is responding fast to treatment and Woodward, the young centre-halfback, is now quite fit again
***
Who's Who at White Hart-lane
EDWARD DITCHBURN, goalkeeper -In 1938 Ditchburn signed as an amateur for Tottenham, became a professional the following year. Against Southampton in the Cuptie last Saturday
Ditchburn played a “blinder.’ One of the finest goalkeepers in the country, he has been selected to play for the Football League against the Scottish League at Newcastle on March 17. Height 6ft. lin., weight 12st. 9lb. Born at Gillingham, Kent.
SYDNEY TICKRIDGE, right back. - Born at Stepney. In 1937. when a mere youngster, he signed amateur forms for ’Spurs. Like Ditchburn was sent to Northfleet, at that time ’Spur’s nursery club, for development. He became a professional in 1946.
At one time Tottenham had so many full-backs on theiir books that Tickridge was loaned to Millwall to gain experience. Today, because of his brainy play, he is in the £12,000 class. Stylish he reveals intelligence in most of his moves.
Appears slow but, in fact, is very fast Should some day get an international cap. Sturdily built, he stands 5ft. 91ins., weighs 11 st. 6 lb. Tickridge was in the Navy during the war.
VICTOR BUCKINGHAM, left back. - This player was born at Greenwich, not far from Charlton Athletic’s ground. As far back as 1931 he signed amateur forms for Tottenham.
Buckingham graduated with Tottenham Hotspur Juniors before being sent to Northfleet. He became a professional in 1934 so is one of the oldest Hotspur players.
Deputy captain, he is a good solid player and quick in recovery. Last season, when ’Spurs played Stoke City in the Cup, the first game was drawn - Buckingham had two very good matches against Stanley Matthews.
A versatile footballer, he can play well in any position. Is 5ft, 10ins.. weighs 11 st. 3 lb. and is a registered coach with the Football Association.
WILLIAM NICHOLSON, right halfback. - Tottenham discovered him as a boy, and sent him to Northfleet. He became a professional in 1938.
Nicholson is the most versatile footballer on Tottenham staff. A fine foraging wing half-back, he has played some sterling games at full-back. Last Saturday, in the Cuptie at Southampton. he performed grandly at centre- half.
He knows how to measure a tackle is a fine headwork player, and likes to make an individual burst through for a shot.
Nicholson was born at Scarborough stands 5ft. 9ins. and weighs 11 st. 7 lb.
JOHN WOODWARD, centre-half. - Went to Tottenham in 1939, was one of the first to be sent to Finchley, Hotspur’s present nursery club and became a professional in 1946.
A little slow in developing. Woodward came to the front all of a sudden. He has performed well consistently throughout the season, and was disappointed when injury prevented his playing in the Cuptie at Southampton.
Woodward is a fine player when he has the room to operate. His height is 5ft. 10ins. and weight 11 st. 11b.
RONNIE BURGESS left half-back. - A Welshman, he is one of the finest wing half-backs Wales has ever had. Burgess is regarded by many good judges as the best half-back in the world.
He represented Great Britain last winter at Glasgow. Burgess signed amateur forms for Tottenham in 1936, and two years later became a professional.
A grand enthusiastic footballer, he has wonderful control over the ball, dribbles skilfully and is a powerful shot. In international matches he has usually held his own against Matthews and Mortensen.
Because of an ankle injury he could not play at Southampton.
He is however expected to be a certain starter against Blackpool at Villa Park Burgess stands 5ft. l0ins. and his weight is iust 11st.
FRED COX, outside-right. - Signed as an amateur 12 years ago, this winger was brought out in the Tottenham junior team. He became a professional in 1938.
Cox is fast. He controls the ball well and centres admirably - right height and right pace. He is Hotspur’s penalty kick expert and rarely fails.
Born at Reading his height is 5ft. 7ins., and weight 10 st. 4 lb. During the war Cox joined the R.A.F. and rose to the rank of flight- lieutenant.
LESLIE BENNETT, inside right. - Cox’s partner was born at Wood Green, not very far from the Tottenham ground. Starting in the ’Spur’s junior team he signed as an amateur in 1935 and became a professional four years later.
After meeting with injury he could not regain his place, but was restored to the team last week.
He scored the all-important goal that put Tottenham in the semi-finals. A fine schemer, Bennett is a grand head- work player. He can get up very high to make a head flick, but is not so impressive in shooting. He stands 5ft. l0ins, and weighs 11 st.
LEONARD DUQUEMIN. centre-forward. - Born in the Channel Islands, he played for Vaudeleto Old Boys. In 1946 Mr. Ted Zebelia. of Guernsey, wrote to the Tottenham club and recommended Duquemin as a footballer well above the average.
Duquemin was invited to visit Tottenham’s headquarters and made headway in the club’s Football Combination team. Still quite young, he has an effective swerve and distributes the ball cleverly with both feet.
His brain works quickly and he is a good shot. Weighs 11 st. 11 lb. and is 5ft. 101-ins. tall.
EDWARD BAILY, inside left. - Another London player to be trained at Finchley. Baily is a native of Clapton. He signed as an amateur in 1940 becoming a professional in 1946.
His football improved while he was in the Services and on being demobilised he quickly won a place in Tottenham’s League team.
For his build - he is 5ft. 7ins. and scales 10 st. 2 lb. he is a particularly strong plaver Baily shoots well
makes astute passes and quick decisions.
LESLIE STEVENS, outside left. - Signed as an amateur in 1937, Stevens went to Northfleet. He became a professional in 1940. and is very fast,
He has the knack of cutting in for a surprise shot, but has been out of the side because of an attack of boils.
However, he hopes to play against Blackpool. His height is 5ft. 8ins. and weight 10 st 4 lb. He was born at Croydon.
BLACKPOOL SUPPORTERS’ CLUB have arranged for a special train and a fleet of buses to take members and friends to Birmingham for the Cup semi-final next Saturday.
A special train will leave Central Station at 8-55 a.m., and will call at South Shore, St. Annes, Ansdell and Lytham, and go to the station nearest Villa Park.
Paddock and ground tickets allocated to the Supporters’ Club will be on sale at the Liberal Club, Blackpool, from 10-30 a.m to 7-30 p.m. next Tuesday, and also vouchers which will enable members to book for the buses or the train.
The big dance
TICKETS are on sale for the big St. Patrick’s Night dance at the Tower on March 17. This is going to be a great gala night, with many spot prizes and novelty items.
Badges are now on sale, a new consignment having arrived. They may be obtained from the hut at Bloomfield-road, price 1s
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