17 April 1948 Charlton Athletic 2 Blackpool 0

CUP HOLDERS CRASH HOME EARLY GOALS

Much more dash than Blackpool

TOOK THEIR CHANCES

Charlton Athletic 2, Blackpool 0

By “Spectator”

THE team that won the Cup last year met this afternoon at The Valley the team that hope to win it next week.

Such is the box office attraction of Blackpool these days that every seat for the stands was sold for the match two months ago, even before the Blackpool men qualified for Wembley.

When the teams appeared there were nearly 50,000 people present.

General impression was that Blackpool were giving a dress rehearsal to the Final forward line. Two reserves, a full back, Gordon Kennedy, and the ex- Fleet Air Arm centre-half Johnny Crosland. were the back division for Blackpool.

CHARLTON ATHLETIC: Bartram; Campbell, Lock, Revell, Phipps, Whittaker, Hurst, O’Linn, Vaughan, McCrae, Fenton.

BLACKPOOL: Robinson, Crosland, Kennedy, Johnston, Hayward, Kelly, Matthews, Mortensen, McIntosh, Dick, Rickett.

Referee Mr. A. Baker (Crewe)

Five thousand people were left in the streets outside when the gates were locked.

Blackpool played in white, not as a preparation for Wembley but to avoid a colour clash with Charlton’s red jerseys.

In the first minute Fenton cut in fast to the line where Kennedy’s tackle halted him.

Lock cleared from Mortensen in Blackpool's first advance.

There was not a lot of excitement in the opening minutes, although one Charlton raid built all the way on the long pass had a bit of menace in it until Kelly intercepted the last pass at the cost of the game’s first corner.

SNAP GOAL

In the fifth minute the Athletic took the lead with a snap goal in two moves.

McCrae opened the raid with a long curling pass out to Hurst. The outside-right took it at full gallop in an open space, raced to the line as McCRAE calling for the return pass took it, shot low past Robinson as Crosland crossed too late to close the gap.

Another corner for Charlton succeeded the goal, and yet another with Blackpool under hammering pressure - a pressure which continued as Robinson held high over his head a shot from O'Linn.

PLAYERS COLLIDE

Still the Athletic attacked. Crosland took the count heading out for Charlton’s fourth corner as Vaughan, leaping at the flying ball too, collided with him.

Charlton, desperate for points, were going all out to win the game early.

OVERWORKED

Blackpool defence has gruelling task

Charlton's fifth corner came before the first quarter of an hour had gone.

A free kick close to the flag came next, Crosland heading out almost under the bar.

It was not often that Blackpool’s overworked defence could clear the ball as far as the for wards.

Yet when those forwards were ever given possession the line played with a plan which had everything in it but a decisive shot.

Dick stabbed wide a pass from his partner in a raid which opened on the right and finished as if by clockwork on the other flank.

But with 20 minutes gone Sam Bartram in the Charlton goal had scarcely ever been under fire.

CHANCE LOST

This red-haired goalkeeper fielded a long falling centre by Dick and held a high cross from the other wing before the biggest chance of the half was lost by Blackpool’s front line.

It was another raid which was a carbon copy of all the raids which had prefaced it, the ball being passed from man to man with the precision of a machine.

In the end Rickett took a long pass from the right, crossed it high. Down the ball fell, appeared to be deflected to Mortensen, who half fell on the slime which greased the penalty area, hooked it wide with the goal almost wide open.

ATHLETIC AGAIN

The price which had to be paid for that missed chance in the 23rd minute was a goal for the Athletic less than a minute later.

Direct from the goal kick the Athletic’s forwards raided. Hurst crossed the ball low inside. Away from Hayward the ball appeared to skid, left VAUGHAN in a position on his own a couple of yards outside, the penalty area.

Without hesitation the centre-forward shot fast and the ball was in the net.

Blackpool went all out again with Matthews repeatedly zigzagging past a full back who seemed reluctant to tackle football’s electric eel.

PERFECT CENTRES

Four times in two minutes the England outside-right crossed perfect centres into the Charlton goal.

Three times after these centres had been lobbed into the danger zone a goal was near.

The first time Dick hooked a fast ball into Bartram’s arms and nearly rocked him over his own line. The second time Rickett thundered over the bar a ball which almost grazed the wood.

The third time Mortensen - this was direct from a corner - raked the Charlton goal with a volley taken on the half-turn which missed one post by inches with Bartram penned by his own men on his line near the other.

This was good, almost classic, while it lasted.

But once it ended the direct Charlton front line nearly made it 3-0, Fenton taking up the unexpected position of a centre-forward and hitting a great shot which shook the bar and cannoned out 20 yards off it.

Blackpool were making the passes. Charlton were shooting.

Blackpool’s game had been clearly the football of a team playing in a match one week and thinking nearly all the time of a match of infinitely greater consequence a week ahead.

Half-time: Charlton Athletic 2, Blackpool 0.

Second Half

A fervid demand for a penalty when Hurst corkscrewed into shooting position before falling under Kennedy’s tackle in the first minute of this half was refused.

The Athletic were still assertive in the early minutes and won a corner before Matthews decided to become an inside forward, cut into the centre, left three men sprawling in his wake and crossed a long pass to Rickett which the outside-left lost under Campbell’s hurricane tackle.

Every time Matthews was given a pass or went foraging for the ball on his own the Charlton defence went into a semi-panic, but there was still no forward taking advantage of the passes he released.

A constant succession of passes by Johnston had Blackpool’s right wing in action almost without interruption for a time, but McIntosh and Dick twice lost the ball inside shooting distance.

A lot of football which led nowhere in particular followed.

In the 15th minute of the half, which up to that time had contained singularly little drama, trainer Johnny Lynas was called on the field for the first time as Kelly crumbled up, but within half a minute he was back in the game.

SHOT WIDE

In the next minute Crosland lost the bouncing ball under pressure, and Fenton shot it wide of the far post at a great pace.

Robinson made a grand punched clearance from Revell with a pack of men swarming near him under the bar.

Twenty minutes of the half had gone and there was a remarkable incident. Three Blackpool men, among whom I could distinguish Hayward and Kennedy, crossed the path of Vaughan. A couple of yards inside the area the centre-forward fell.

Mr. Baker gave a penalty, ignored all Blackpool’s protests. Revell took the kick, shot high and wide of Robinson into the far wall of the net. The kick was taken with such force that the ball cannoned out again.

Immediately, an infringement which I could not detect - it seemed that the right-half may have taken the kick before the referee signalled - Mr. Baker ordered it to be retaken.

Again Revell shot, but this time low and fast into Robinson’s arms.

Two minutes later Hayward came up among the forwards for a corner, headed it fast over Charlton’s bar.

Another two minutes and Vaughan lost a skidding ball in front of an open goal.

Blackpool’s forwards raided a lot in last quarter of an hour but there were still too few shots.

Result:

CHARLTON ATHLETIC 2 (McCrae 5 min, Vaughan 24 min)

BLACKPOOL 0

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COMMENTS ON THE GAME

Athletic were all out in their lust for points. 

Blackpool were never all out. The two understudy full-backs were outpaced for a time in football faster than they ordinarily play.

The two wing half-backs had far too long to play a rearguard action, reinforcing the full-back division.

Matthews was at times as elusive is ever.

But there was no punch or finish in forward line. It was always making the one pass too many. Charlton deserved points tor first storming half-hour.

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WHICH PLAYERS FOR WEMBLEY?

It would have been easy five weeks ago, but -

By “Spectator”

ONE of the proudest men in these isles next weekend will be Mr. Joe Smith, the Blackpool manager, presenting his team at Wembley on the 25th anniversary of his appearance as the first winning captain in the history of the Stadium.

That will be at 3 p.m. Whatever has happened by 4-40 p.m., there will be no particular reason for him to be less proud It is sufficient that his team is the first from Blackpool ever to play in the star fixture on football's calendar.

Yet I do not envy him. I would not be Joe Smith next week for all the tea in China - and all the Cup Final tickets in the black market.

Why? Because sometime during the week he has to select the team which will take the field in the new white jerseys at Wembley.

Five weeks ago, immediately after the Villa Park semi-final, when Blackpool had qualified for Wembley and in five games en route had called upon only 12 players, it would have been a formality.

“No change would have been announced - and nobody would have quarrelled with the decision. Today, whatever the final verdict may be, roughly half the population will be in dispute with it

No mercy

FOR Blackpool teams - all sorts and conditions of teams, two of them containing five reserves - have played nine games in those five weeks, lost five of them and won only two. Six points only have been won out of 18.

There are several reasons for this abrupt and yet somewhat expected eclipse. One stands out a mile.

Desperate teams in or on the fringe of the relegation zone at the time the matches were played - Liverpool, Bolton Wanderers, Sunderland and this afternoon Charlton at the Valley - have shown no mercy to a team which has been haunted by a fear of the casualty list so near to the golden goal of Wembley.

Taking care

WHEN a man has played himself into the Final, which so few men whatever their fame, can reach in the brief career of the professional footballer. there is a natural disinclination to take chances for a £2 bonus in a League match, within a week or two of the Wembley fixture.

Once only in those five weeks have I seen a Blackpool team playing as if careless of all consequences, intent only on winning a match and forgetting all about the Final.

That was when Arsenal came to town and were made to bite the dust- League champions as they might be - by 11 men who achieved heights for 90 minutes which no other Blackpool team has ever scaled - not even in the Cupties - this season.

It is that game which has complicated the issue

Public demand

FOR ever since there has been a public demand “Play the team that beat Arsenal a demand, I admit, which I felt inclined at times to approve.

For, unquestionably, since the ’Spurs semi-final, the loss of point after point, whatever the primary cause may have been, has affected the team’s confidence in itself, has had a disturbing influence on the football of one or two men in the team who in the middle of last month seemed as certain of being at Wembley as the King and Queen.

It was no surprise, therefore, when at Sunderland this week the team that humbled Arsenal took the field again.

Too small?

IT is betraying no secret, I think, to reveal that if this team had come off it would probably have been at Charlton this afternoon in a dress rehearsal for next week’s game.

But it did not come off. It was always an ominously small line - the smallest, I think, that Blackpool have ever fielded. And, from all I hear, it was played utterly out of the game by a tall and fast-tackling Sunderland defence which is almost a counterpart of the rear divisions of Manchester United.

So where do we go from here?

I talked to Manager Smith this week after his return from the north-east.

Triumph, and-

“YOU can’t select Cup Final - teams on sentiment, I know,” he said.

“Naturally, if I were not concerned about the result - and naturally I’m concerned about it a lot! - I’d never hesitate, whatever has happened since March 13, about playing at Wembley the men who have taken us to Wembley.

“Common decency would dictate that. And now I’m not so sure that commonsense doesn’t dictate it also. The Arsenal game front line has had one 'triumph, but it has had a failure almost as complete. I feel inclined to begin again where we left off at Villa Park.”

This afternoon-

THE constitution of the forward line for the match at Charlton this afternoon indicates that this may be the pre-Final policy. It -is, I think, a policy which will only be forsaken if at Charlton there has been an utter and abysmal black-out.

Could such a team win? It has not the Cup reputation of Manchester United. It has not - on paper - the strength all along its front line which the Manchester attack possesses.

But Wembley is such a lottery that anything can happen on its rich thick turf. And so often whatever happens is precisely what the prophets said could not conceivably happen.

Blackpool can upset the odds and win. But I am glad that I have not to select the Blackpool team.

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Jottings from all parts  

BY "SPECTATOR" 17 April 1948

HE WON'T BE THERE

A LOT of people will be at Wembley next weekend who know as little about football as the Einstein theory - and 51 weeks in every year care less - but there will be one man not there who ought to be there.

Mr. Sam Butterworth, G.O.M. of Blackpool football, who has been serving the club since its cradle days, in adversity and prosperity, has decided that at his age London is too far away.

“I’d love to go,” he said when I was talking to him this week, “but I’m afraid I can’t manage it.” Life-president of a club and unable to watch his team in its greatest match - and yet he tells you, “ Never mind, it might be worse: I’ll listen to it on the radio.”

A grand gentleman is Sam Butterworth.

There are too few Sam Butterworths in present-day football

***

ONE of football’s little ironies is that Tom Garrett should have won his first £2 bonus in a match which has put him out of the game for the rest of the season.

The Middlesbrough game was this 20-year- old pitman’s seventh in the First Division, including the Stoke City fixture last season. Blackpool did not win one of the first six - five of the six were lost - and yet in every one of those engagements Garrett played football which will one day make him a big name in the League.

It works out that way sometimes. Now he has won his £2 - and the price is a disablement which pint him out of last week’s match a few minutes after halftime.

***

THE Two Inseparables - Louis A Cardwell and Bob Finan - were at Blackpool’s headquarters when I walked in this week.

The centre-half was on the dressing room table being treated by assistant trainer Jack Duckworth. He was crippled in Crewe’s last match, but the Alexandra still defeated the Northern Section leaders, Lincoln City, by three goals, and one of the goals Bob Finan scored.

This result may decide the promotion problem in the Section, and it may be - who knows? - a blessing in disguise for the City whose present team might not live long in the Second Division.

Look what has happened to Doncaster Rovers - and a few other teams who have risen out of the Northern Section in recent times. It is preferable to be winning in the Third Division than losing in the Second.

***

MANAGER JOE SMITH went to watch Manchester United last weekend for the second time in a couple of weeks.

He was impressed the first time, I know. “They’re a smooth working team,” he said. “Good to watch - and they’ll take a lot of beating.”

Mr. Smith is too wise a campaigner to attach any particular importance to the recent apparent decline of his club’s Cup Final opponents.

Neither Blackpool nor the United have threatened to set the Thames on fire since they qualified for Wembley. t It’s next weekend that every man in the 22 will be all out from the first second.

***

THERE were fewer than 15,000  people at the Blackpool - Burnley match last weekend.

It was a cold windswept evening. Blackpool fielded only a skeleton team. But where were the 20,000 I am constantly being told never miss a Blackpool match - constantly being told by the 20,000?

Somebody said during the evening “They ought to lock the gates and issue a voucher entitling all the people here tonight to a Cup Final ticket. These are the people who deserve them - not merely say they deserve them.”

Not practicable," I know - but there would have been a lot to be said for it. Even in Blackpool too many tickets are going to too many folk to whom Wembley is merely a social occasion.

***

THE latest in strikes happened at a match in which a Blackpool team played the other day. After the referee had refused to halt the game every time one of them waved his flag - and they were waving them all the afternoon - both linesmen at halftime hurled their flags to the ground and said. “We’ve finished.”

And they had, too. A couple of taxi-drivers had to be recruited as deputies for the remainder of the game.

There is not yet a N.A.T.F.L.. which is a National Arbitration Tribunal for Linesmen. But, if this goes on, there may soon have

***

TWO men who made good: Johnny Crosland and Tom Buchan when they were given their chance last week in the First Division.

The football of both these halfbacks was of authentic First Division quality. I ranked the centre-half as the star of the Burnley match, the wing-half as the best wing half-back on the field three days later against Middlesbrough - and when Hugh Kelly is playing in a game these days that is a high compliment.

Strange how Blackpool can always find good half-backs. There is almost an embarrassment of them at Bloomfield-road.

Now scoring forwards . . . . . well, that’s a little different - and not at Blackpool only but at half the clubs in the country. Goals are as wide as ever, but glancing at the scoring table you wouldn’t think so.

 ***

WHAT'S the betting that Harry Johnston will be in the England team for the Continental tour at the end of the season?

Nine out of every 10 football writers were in agreement before the match that he should have been playing at Hampden Park behind the Blackpool right wing, completing the triangle. After the match even the 10th was converted.

“Harry Johnston should have been there” was the theme with scarcely one variation. It is probable now, I should think, that the selectors will agree. And it is not too improbable, either, in view of the crippling of George Hardwick, that Eddie Shimwell may be invited to make the tour, too.

Four men out of one club must approach a record - Matthews and Mortensen are the other probables - but when the season is ended and a club’s interests in Cup or League are not prejudiced, the F.A. team-builders would not hesitate to take them

 ***

I AM told that Billy Slater played a fine game for Blackpool “A” at Chorley last weekend.

If ever there was a player of the future it is this forward. He intends, I understand, now that he is demobilised, to enter a University for three years, but present indications are that he will still sign a professional contract for Blackpool, whose directors do not want to lose him.

Slater should be playing this summer for the, Blackpool cricket team, too - and they’ll be as glad to have him, for he is a natural cricketer as he is a natural footballer - and those are the men who make the grade.

Nobody could ever have taught Stanley Matthews to play as he plays. He’s doing almost what comes naturally - even if only constant practice and the strictest training have produced the finished article.

 ***

SEA PREFERRED

WHEN 16 of the Arsenal players fly to Portugal in an airliner for a two-match visit at the end of the season they will be insured for £390,000, which works out at £20,000 a player.

Blackpool are paying none of these premiums when they go to Denmark on May 16 for a. fortnight. The club prefer a sea passage for their members and most of the men prefer it, too.

 ***

Letting London know

PUBLICITY matter which Blackpool Corporation want football supporters to take with them to Wembley is now available at the Publicity Department, Town Hall.

There is a handy-sized brochure containing pictures of the Blackpool team on good quality paper, and 

“Blackpool, a sure holiday winner strips for display in motor coaches. Both are in the club's colours of tangerine and white.

The Corporation would like visitors to London to leave the brochure in cafes, restaurants and other public places.

 ***

10,000 WILL HIT WEMBLEY TRAIL

T'ODAY’S estimate is that A 10,000 Blackpool people will hit the Wembley trail next weekend for the Cup Final with Manchester United.

Special trains, will carry about 6,000 and at least another 4,000 will go by motor coach.

Many more would be going if there were more tickets available.

Three trains have already been booked up. The 7-45 a.m, for Saturday had every reservation taken within an hour of booking starting.

Local railway heads say it will be “a matter for head office” whether others run. That prospect is unlikely judging by motorcoach owners’ experiences.

In all more than 100 motor coaches will go. Yet for each one going three have been cancelled because parties have not been able to get tickets.

 ***

Lancashire WEMBLEY, and the big question -

CAN BLACKPOOL PUT BRAKE ON THAT
SEVEN-PRONG ATTACK ?

From our Manchester correspondent

ONE CAN BE SURE OF NOTHING WHEN TWO TEAMS - NO MATTER HOW GOOD V THEY ARE - ARE SET TO FACE EACH OTHER ON THE FAMED WEMBLEY TURF.

BUT LANCASTRIANS OVER THE WHOLE OF GREAT BRITAIN ARE ASSURED OF A CERTAINTY THAT THE CUP WILL COME TO THEIR BELOVED COUNTY.

To assess the qualities of a team such as Manchester United is indeed a difficult task. Success does not depend on individual effort, but rather on an all-out battle, with each player a cog in a wheel fighting for victory.

To reach the “terminus” of the “Wembley trail” United has not had an easy path, for they have fought all their ties against opposition drawn from the First Division.

Recall, too, the fact that all but one of these “battles” have been played away from “home,” and then remember that “home” to them is the ground of Manchester City - their own ground having been blitzed during the war years - and you have a story indeed.

Blackpool’s task, it must be admitted, has been considerably easier than that of their Cup Final opponents.

In any event, spectators can be assured that both teams will serve up the entertainment of which we know they are capable when they meet for what promises to be one of the most thrilling finals ever seen at Wembley.

Test for defence

BLACKPOOL’S defence will be taxed by the Manchester side’s seven-pronged attack, in which Anderson and Cockburn, the wing halves, are the extra attacking units, providing a supply of astute passes the way the forwards really like them.

The Manchester side, when at full strength, are formidable opposition, and include English internationals in Cockburn and Pearson, Carey (Ireland) and Delaney (Scotland).

As to the most dangerous member of the front line, my vote would go to centre-forward Rowley, whose habit of roving about and interchanging positions with both wing men can prove decisive.

In the United rearguard, Carey is an undisputed star, with Cockburn a close second, if only for his attacking qualities.

Promising reserves

OF late, Trainer Tom Curry has been exceptionally busy with a whole crop of injuries suffered in the “Easter rush” period - at one time as many as six members of the Cup side were receiving treatment - and this allowed the introduction of some promising reserves to senior football.

Manchester United are in a good position in the League table, lying, at the moment, second to the League champions, Arsenal.

Perhaps the criticism that they have slipped a little during the past week or so can be levied at them, but, on the other hand, so have Blackpool.

With the United’s progress in Cup and League football this season the name of Matthew Busby, their go- ahead manager, will always be linked.

Manager honoured

AT the mention of his name, football fans in Great Britain and in his native Scotland still enthuse over his sterling performances at halfback in English League and representative football not so long ago. He was “signed” by United on leaving the Army, and this season has been named as manager of Great Britain’s Olympic football team, for the coming games.

Yes, indeed, the Blackpool team will certainly have to “pull something out of the bag” to beat the United.

Well, now it’s on to Wembley to an all-Lancashire final, and may the best team win.

FOOTNOTE.  - The last time United won the Cup was in 1909, when they defeated Bristol City by 1-0. This was at Crystal Palace, and the date April 24. Coincidence, perhaps ...

 ***

THEY ARE SAYING -

THE Manchester United players and officials have no worries over the result. These views were expressed this week:

GOALKEEPER CROMPTON: “We’ll win all right, but we expect a really fine game.”

JOHNNY ASTON, who faces Stanley Matthews, and has perhaps the biggest task of all: “I think we’ll win through, but Blackpool are a fine team.”

TRAINER TOM CURRY, to whom a lot of the credit for the side’s success belongs: “We have a rosy chance, and I think we’ll bring the cup to Manchester.”

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LOCAL BOYS MAKE GOOD WITH -

‘Matt Busby United’

FOLLOWING are biographical details of the men Blackpool will meet at Wembley:

JOHN CROMPTON, goalkeeper. - 'This confident young player, who made his debut for United in 1944, is fast proving the adage “practice makes perfect " to be correct.

A product of Manchester Y.M.C.A. and a local junior side, Crompton had an indifferent period last season. A spell in the reserves followed, and then before the end of last season back into the league side where he has held his place since.

Although standing only 5ft. 8in., Johnny weighs list, and is a typical football enthusiast. Is most impressive when dealing with threatening high centres.

JOHN CAREY right-back. - Automatic choice for Ireland at full-back and half-back for many seasons past, Johnny - who is the captain of the “Matt Busbv United ” - received his highest honour in a brilliant career when he was chosen to lead the Rest of Europe last season against Great Britain.

A grand servant of the club, too - he joined them in 1937 as an inside forward from a Dublin junior team -  he hates to “find touch” with a hasty clearance, and will always try to keep the ball in play.

Carey is a magnificent defender, soundly constructive, and star of the team’s rearguard. Stands 5ft. 11in and weighs over 12st.

JOHN ASTON, left-back. - Another “local boy made good,” Johnny started as an inside forward in May, 1939, when 17 years of age. He was converted to full-back by Manager Matt Busby only this season, and. is often quoted, even now, as a coming international. 

It is perhaps significant to note that he was not disgraced when facing the “full-back’s nightmare,” Blackpool’s one and only Stanley Matthews, at Maine-road. last December.

Like his partner. Carey, is cool and efficient either in defence or attack. Stands 5ft. 11in., and weighs 12st. 71b.

JOHN ANDERSON, right-half. - Called into the league side in an emergency, Anderson was set the difficult task of facing Middlesbrough and England inside-left, Wilf Mannion. He came cut with flying colours after giving one of the finest half-back displays seen at Maine-road for many a year, and has since maintained an exceptionally high standard, and kept his place.

He waited nine years for his successful debut - though over six were spent in the Royal Navy - and is another local signing, who cost the club a signing-on fee of £10.

Johnny weighs list, and stands 5ft. 6in.

ALLENBY CHILTON. centre-half. - Regarded by many as the “perfect stopper,” Allen, too. is a cool defender and is now touching his best form since coming to the club.

He was signed from Seaham Colliery on the north-east coast - nursery of many fine footballers in the past - while an amateur on Liverpool’s books. Was a left-half, but for the past two seasons has proved the “stumbling block” for many fine centre-forwards.

He may look slow, but “flatters to deceive” with a good turn of speed.

HENRY COCKBURN, left-half. - Proud possessor of three international caps - against Wales and Ireland last season and Scotland this season - this dashing half-back is now reaching the peak of form which won him favour with the selectors last season.

Though standing only 5ft. 6in., Henry is a fount of strength in the team’s rearguard and a fearless tackier. This boy. too. is another local signing, coming to the club from a Manchester junior side.

Very forceful in attack, he links up well with the left wing combination of Pearson and Mitten, and must be regarded as the danger man in the United’s middle line.

He might have been a Blackpool player, but illness prevented his attending for a trial.

JAMES DELANEY, outside-right. - Still regarded as one of the fastest wingers in First Division football. Jimmy has made 31 appearances in his long career for his country, and was Manager Busby’s first signing on his joining forces with United.

Glasgow Celtic, from whom he came two years ago, have much regretted parting with him. The fee asked was about £4,000.

Delaney holds Scottish cup and League medals. A 90-minute player this, and likely to cause a headache to the Blackpool defence.

JOHN MORRIS inside-right. - A former schoolboy centre-half, this brilliant inside forward joined United in August. 1939. and has twice been "capped” by the Football League this season. Has a sound shot in either foot, and has scored over 20 goals in cup and league games since the season started.

During war service, Johnny played alongside Tommy Walker, the famed Chelsea and Scottish inside-forward, in India, and is now regarded as an England probable and a brilliant postwar prospect.

He signed for the club when only 15, after a United scout had heard his name mentioned in a casual conversation in a train Johnny weighs list, and stands 5ft. 6in.

JOHN F. ROWLEY, centre-forward. - Holder of individual scoring records for Wolverhampton Wanderers - eight goals against Derby County- and Tottenham Hotspur - seven against Luton Town - which he made while a guest player with them in the war years Rowley is a member of a footballing family. His father kept goal for Walsall many years ago, and his younger brother now plays for West Bromwich.

Signed in 1937 from Bournemouth - Jack had previously been with Wolves - at a fee of £3,500. he came as an inside-left, but played on the wing, and for the past two seasons has starred in the centre-forward position, where his shooting power and roving style have made him outstanding.

He, too, is high up in the list of goal scorers. Standing 5ft. 9in., and weighing 12st. “Jack” is regarded

by many critics as the fastest centre- forward in the First Division today.

STANLEY C. PEARSON, inside-left. - An honour long overdue has just been bestowed upon this scheming inside forward by his inclusion in the England team which met Scotland at Hampden Park last Saturday. Pearson, the brains in’ United" star-studded attack. joined the club in 1937 when 17 years old. Cannot be described as “goal shy”  - he scored three goals in the semi-final against Derby County- as he, too. has netted over 20 times this season in cup and league games.

 

A consecutive run of 86 appearances for the club was only broken by his recent spell on international duty. A quiet forager, he is an opposite in style to inside man Morris, but equally as dangerous. He weighs list. 71b., and stands 5ft. 9in.

CHARLES MITTEN, outside - left. - Born in India - he is, therefore, qualified to play for England - Mitten did just that in the Disaster Fund international at Bolton in 1946.

A very clever ball player, he has a big swerve. He came to United after he had been “spotted” at the age

of 14 when playing in Scotland.

On his day. Mitten can be just dangerous as international opposite number Jimmie Delaney. Is 5ft. 8in. tall, weighing list, and during Army service played many times as a guest for Chelsea.

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AND THIS TELLS YOU ABOUT

The following description of the “English Cup" as it is sometimes erroneously described, is provided by the makers. 

IT is after the style of an antique Votive Urn, and weighs 175 ounces. It has a broad foot with fluted band, and the body springs immediately from the base, having a series of bold flutings above surmounted by four panels decorated with bunches of grapes and vine leaves.

These panels are repeated below the lid.

The body of the Cup is most graceful in shape, and is relieved by convex quarterlies. It has two solid and graceful handles; the ornamentation is in keeping with the other decoration.

The lid is decorated with grapes, vine leaves, and flutings to match the body, and is surmounted by a knob which is practically a replica of the Cup itself.

The only lettering upon the Cup is the inscription on the front, “The Football Association Challenge Cup.”

The Cup is 19in. high, exclusive of plinth, which is of ebony, bearing a massive silver band, on which are inscribed the names of all previous winners, leaving ample space for future inscriptions.

At different times it has been given out that the Cup was manufactured either in Bradford or Birmingham. The makers, Messrs. Fattorini and Sons, Ltd. (of Bradford), say that part of the work of making was done in Bradford and the remainder in Sheffield.

---

AND HERE IS THE STORY OF

The Cup - Snowball of Soccer

By W. H. Burke

To satisfy the public interest in the forthcoming Cup Final at Wembley between Blackpool and Manchester United it is estimated that about 400 journalists, photographers, radio commentators and operators will cover the event for the world - that is, just twice the total number of spectators who saw the first final ever played.

SINCE that season (1871-2) actual attendances at finals have risen from this bare handful of people to the 90,000 mark, while the number of fans who scramble for tickets each season runs into millions, as does the number of enthusiasts who will listen to the broadcast.

Contrast the 200 attendance and £20 odd receipts of the first final with that of the first Wembley final, where the official return was 126,047, and also with the net receipts of 1938 - £29,116  - which stands as the record. In 1946 increased prices for the final produced gross receipts of £43,378 - the record for any British football match.

Of this amount £19,840 went in entertainment tax. Will this, the 67th final, break any records?

In the final each club receives the same share as the Football Association. This share has averaged £5.000 per season since the final has been played at Wembley.

THE PIONEERS

'THE first competition for the “Football Association Challenge Cup,” very often popularly and erroneously called the ‘English Cup,” was held in the season 1871-72, when 15 clubs subscribed among themselves to provide the trophy, which cost £25.

These pioneers were Barnes, Civil Service, Clapham Rovers, Crystal Palace, Hampstead Heathens, Donnington School (Spalding, Lincolnshire), Hitchen, Marlow, Maidenhead, Harrow Chequers, Queen’s Park (Glasgow), Reigate Priory, Upton Park, Royal Engineers and The Wanderers.

Three of the clubs scratched, and eventually the Wanderers beat the Royal Engineers in the final at Kennington Oval by the only goal of the match.

NO CROSSBAR

AT the first final there were neither crossbars nor goal nets, the referee’s whistle was not used, and there was no penalty area.

Nearly all the players wore caps. The Hon. A. F. Kinnaird (Wanderers) played in long white flannel trousers.

Positions on the field called for a goalkeeper, two full-backs, two half-backs and six forwards. This formation was not altered until 1882-3, when Blackburn Olympic adopted the line-up we know today. 

Until 1882 the throw-in from touch was taken with one hand.

In the early days both Queen’s Park (Glasgow) and Glasgow Rangers were entrants, the Rangers reaching the semi-final once and the “Queens” entering the final twice, and on each occasion they were beaten by Blackburn Rovers, in 1883-4 by 2-1 and in 1884-5 by 2-0.

NINE GROUNDS

ECLUDING replayed matches, nine grounds have housed the final at various times.

After the first final at the Oval the next season it was taken to Lillie Bridge and then back to the Oval for the ensuing season and until 1892. In 1892-3 Fallowfield, Manchester, was the venue, and Goodison Park, Liverpool, was tried in 1893-4.

Then the following season started the Crystal Palace sequence, which lasted until 1913-14, a period of 20 years.

The final of 1913-14 was memorable for two reasons. It was the first occasion on which a reigning monarch attended the final, King George V and Queen Mary gracing the match with their presence, and it was the last time the final was played at the Palace.

The next season saw the outbreak of the first world war and the final was played at Manchester United’s ground at Old Trafford.

After the war Stamford Bridge was the choice up to and including 1921-22. Wembley was available for season 1922-23, and the final has been played their ever since.

---

FIRSTLY, the Blackpool Supporters’ Club extends its best wishes to the officials and players of the parent club for the Final next Saturday. May they return victorious!

The Supporters’ Club disposed of the allocation of Cup Final tickets last week - preference being given to members who joined early - and travelling facilities on two trains have been arranged for members.

Lunch packets can be had on the train for 2s. 6d. Tickets from Mr. T. Newton.

Mr. W. H. Orry kindly lent his shop for the disposal of tickets.

Meeting - and quiz

THE general meeting has been fixed to take place at the Spanish Hall on Tuesday, May 4, and will be. followed by another “ Sports quiz,” which, with sports writers and players taking part, will be broadcast. 

We hope that all members will come along and give support.

The two members of the committee who represented Blackpool at the National Federation of Football Supporters’ Clubs reported a grand meeting.

The federation’s annual conference will be held in Blackpool in September.

---

Evening Gazette - 20 April 1948

Blackpool Cup team known tomorrow?

CHOICE WILL BE FROM 14 PLAYERS

THE Blackpool team for Wembley may be announced tomorrow. The club’s present intention is to take 12 players only - the selected team and the 12th man - to Ascot on Thursday.

“I may be able to name the team tomorrow,” said the Blackpool manager, Mr. Joe Smith, this afternoon, after he had watched 13 players at ball practice on Lytham Green for an hour before noon.

The 14th player, Ronnie Suart, the full-back who twisted his right ankle at Sunderland eight days ago, spent the hour at the end of the jetty bathing the ankle in the cooling waters of the Ribble.

“It’s still tender, but I think I shall be able to play,” he said.

An X-ray examination last night revealed that there was no fracture and no ligaments affected.

ACTED AS BALL BOYS

Nearly 100 Lytham folk came out of their homes to watch the players at practice, volunteered to act as ball boys, and collected autographs whenever the player had a leisure minute to sign them.

Afterwards all the players took brine baths fronting Lytham Green. In addition to the team that won through in the semi-final.

Andy McCall, Johnny Crosland and Alec Munro were in this training routine on the greensward beneath the famous Lytham Windmill. 

AT BLOOMFIELD-ROAD

Back at the ground in Bloomfield-road, South Shore, a queue which was 100 yards long when the box office opened at 10 a.m. and never less than 50 yards in length, waited to book stand tickets for the Final in miniature which Blackpool and Manchester United are to play in the First Division at Blackpool on Wednesday evening of next week.

For the first time for weeks all was quiet in the club’s offices, where the last of the 12,000 Wembley tickets were posted yesterday.

“The season ticketholders took their allocation 100 per cent,” I was told by a staff which has been working until the early hours of the morning day after day since the F.A. sent Blackpool’s ticket consignment.

“There is not a solitary ticket left. Every one has gone now.”

REFUSALS

Thousands of applications which have had to be refused are filed in stacks in one office. In the other another file discloses the destination of every ticket issued. Yet a black market in tickets is still operating in the town.

Three shilling ground tickets are being sold everywhere for prices up to £4 each.

Ten guineas arc being paid for guinea tickets.

It is known that a few dozen season ticket holders who claimed Wembley tickets but could not afford the rail or coach fare to London - or could not resist the tempting baits offered by the ticket racketeers - have sold at prices which will buy them season tickets for another couple of years.

OFF THURSDAY

Team will make tour of Stadium

Blackpool’s weekend itinerary was published today.

The team are leaving Blackpool Central at 9-55 a.m. on Thursday, will leave the train at Watford and take a coach via Windsor to Ascot.

They will be guests of the Wentworth Golf Club at Virginia Water, where the Wembley training will -be completed on the borders of one of the most exclusive golf courses in Britain.

After lunch on Thursday the players will go to Wembley and during a tour of the Stadium will visit the new dressingrooms which will be in commission for the first time this weekend.

The headquarters of the directors and players’ wives will be the Athaeneum Court Hotel in Park-lane, where the team will go by coach immediately after the match before the celebration dinner and cabaret at the May Fair Hotel.

FINAL DAY

I hear that the players will leave Ascot shortly after noon on Final Day to reach Wembley approximately 50 minutes before the kick-off.

On Sunday, after the club’s guests have returned home by the 10 a.m. train, the team will spend the day on a motorcoach tour of Surrey.

 ***

BLACKPOOL are not the first team to decide that Lytham has grass on its promenade fit for heroes to play on.

Early in the between-the-wars epoch the famous Burnley team which created a record by playing 30 successive League games without a defeat had a day at Lytham nearly every week, and spent the day - Tom Boyle, who has been dead these many years, Jerry Dawson. Bob Kelly and the others whose claret and blue was the most famous uniform in football in those times - punting a ball up and down the sward.

Barnsley went to Lytham, too in those days when, at the name of Barnsley all football shuddered - or, at least, all those teams who had to meet Barnsley in the Cup.

There’s a precedent for Blackpool’s visit today - several precedents. If Blackpool benefit from the visit as Burnley and Barnsley always seemed to - well there’ll be some rejoicings at the weekend, and they won’t be in Manchester.

 ***

AUCTIONEER STAN

BLACKPOOL and England footballer Stanley Mortensen took on a new role - that of auctioneer - at a sports quiz at the Jubilee Theatre, Blackpool, last night.

In a few minutes he persuaded his audience to indulge in a lively spell of bidding up to £2 for a 7ft. long snake skin, to part with £1 6s. 6d. for a dressed fowl, and tip up £3 for a large cake decorated to look like a football pitch.

“Any advance on 15s? If you’ll make it 20s. I’ll dance for you,” said the famous footballer when bidding for a cutglass water jug faltered.

“Twenty shillings,” was the reply from somewhere in the hall - and Stanley, keeping his promise, entertained everybody with a lively little tap dance.

THE QUIZ

Organised by Blackpool Cooperative Society Employees Sports Association, the quiz was to raise funds for the association war memorial. With Mortensen, were boxing champion Ronnie Clayton, sports writers Archie Ledbrooke and Edgar Turner, and former Football League referee, Arthur Ward.

Ronnie Clayton raised a cheer When, answering a “colour bar ” query, he stated that coloured boxers of British birth had a “perfect right” to fight for British titles.

The team was divided on the question of freekicks superseding throws-in at football, and Stanley Mortensen declared against substitute players moving into teams hit by injury.

Questionmaster was Mr. W. Wells.

 ***

CUP PINAL fever is raging with a high temperature in Blackpool today.

I am told that when Tommy Nicholson, the Odeon organist, played for the first time the little song-cycle about the Blackpool team - I quoted extracts from it in this column last week - there was nearly as much excitement in the house as if Mr Sinatra was making a personal appearance.

The Blackpool team will not be going to hear the parodies which have been written about them. It is not that they are too modest - although there’s not a man in the team with any great conceit of himself - but because the club management have decided that it is preferable in these last few days before the Final to reduce all public ceremonies. however informal, to a minimum.

There’s probably something in it, too. The tension increases day by day until as Mr Joe Smith will tell you, there have been times when in the Wembley dressing rooms one or two players have peen so near nervous prostration that they have had to have their boot laces tied for them.

 ***

THERE are no such highly sensitive characters in the present Blackpool team. Yet it is a fact that the Wembley preliminaries are almost a torment to the 22 men who make the match. 

Blackpool will have to reach the Stadium the club's headquarters at Royal Ascot not less than an hour before the kick-off. but they will not arrive a minute earlier than necessity dictates. The sooner they can go into action the sooner the tension will lift. "There is no doubt.” said Stanley Mortensen when I talked to him today "that the team that settles down first - in other words, the team that forgets all about Wembley and begins to realise that it's in a football match - will win this game."

There’s good sense in that Stanley Matthews admits that before a big match he's often on edge “But,” he says. “once I’m on the field I forget the crowd, forget everything except that I'm there to play football.” 

A few full-backs have often wished he'd forgotten the football part for a little longer.

 ***

ONE epilogue to the Final will be a broadcast from Blackpool for “Sportsmen’s Corner” which will be recorded on Tuesday; May 4, and put on the air two days later, from the annual meeting of the Blackpool F.C. Supporters Club in the Spanish Hall of the Winter Gardens.

The half-hour will be devoted to a session of one of those sports brains trusts which Mr. Harry Markland. the club s chairman, introduced at Blackpool.

Present will be two of Blackpool’s three England players and two of the Manchester United team. Allen Clarke will probably be the question-master.

Harry Johnston, the Blackpool captain has already made a couple of broadcasts and is booked for a third in the Blackpool dressing room at Wembley after the match.

There has been a proposal, too, that Eric Hayward’s wife, who will not attend the match but will listen in to it on the radio, will record a few impressions for retransmission in next Saturday’s B.B.C. programme.

---

Evening Gazette - 22 April 1948

Blackpool Cup team had wild send-off

BIG CROWD RUSH STATION BARRIERS

"I think it’s in the bag" - MORTENSEN

HUNDREDS of football club supporters broke through the barriers on to the platform in a cheering, surging throng when the Blackpool Cup Final team left Central Station for the south today - the first Blackpool side ever to take the gilded road to Wembley.

It was an excited, good-humoured crowd sporting the familiar tangerine and white favours, ringing bells, swinging rattles and crying “Up the Pool.”

A big crowd had collected in the main hall long before the train was due to leave and a little over 10 minutes before the departure players and officials had almost to fight their way through.

RUNNING GAUNTLET

Press cameras clicked as the players posed for pictures, and then, with whistles blowing urgently, they made for their coach half-way down the train.

They had to pass down a narrow gangway with so many handshakes and pats on the back as they moved along they might have been running the gauntlet.

Little Alec Munro got a huge cheer and a ringing cry, “Good old Alec. Put one in.”

And at the same moment came the opposite advice to goalkeeper Robinson, “Keep ’em out, Joe.”

Last man to reach the coach was Stanley Matthews, who was almost mobbed.

Just as he was stepping into the train an enthusiastic supporter lifted Stanley’s brown trilby off his head, and as the international winger grinned happily, waved the hat furiously in the air and gave a loud war- cry

RAILWAY SALUTE

A railway official retrieved the hat and handed it back as the train moved out to a roaring salute from fog detonators placed on the line.

Blackpool guard Mr. J. Hankey, of Toronto-avenue. Layton, gave a last cheery wave as the train steamed out.

Earlier Stanley Mortensen was the centre of a little tableau when his two years’ old nephew, Michael Jeffreys of St. Heliers-road. South Shore, handed him a silver horse shoe decked with tangerine ribbon.

‘Would you like to come with me?” asked Stan as he took the youngster in his arms.

And then, to a query from the crowd, he grinned as he declared, “I hope we shall win. I think it’s in the bag.”

He was moving away when one of Blackpool's best-known figures - a newspaper seller - battled his way to him and good-humouredly roared in a voice heard all over the station, “If you don’t score a ‘---- goal I’ll break your neck.”

As he passed through the barrier, Mortensen was handed a good-luck verse, parodied on “After the ball was over,” by a rosette-decked ticket collector on behalf of Central station staff.

As Manager Joe Smith reached the barriers. two women stopped him. shook his hand and said. “All the best. Mr Smith. We saw you win in 1923.”

One of the biggest cheers of all was reserved for Jim McIntosh as barriers.

“It’s just as it goes,” was Jim’s comment. “All I hope is they bring the Cup back.” 

BUSY STAFF

Personally supervising the send-off was Central Station- master Mr V. Hazeldine, who between now and Saturday morning, will, with his staff, be among the busiest men in Blackpool.

“Over 600 went earlier on the Fylde Coast express,” he said “and tomorrow morning’s trains will be strengthened to capacity. Thousands more will go on the specials tomorrow night and early Saturday morning.”

He saw them off

WATCHING the scene was one man who will not he at Wembley.

He was Mr. Sam Butterworth, life president of the club and a great worker for Blackpool in good times and bad since their early days.

Mr. Butterworth said he felt the journey would be too much at his age.

“But I shall be by the radio.” he added.

---

Evening Gazette - 23 April 1948

Cup Final: Today’s team decisions

SUART OUT, CROSLAND IN

Rowley will play for United

Blackpool: Robinson, Shimwell, Crosland, Johnston, Hayward, Kelly, Matthews, Munro, Mortensen, Dick, Rickett. McIntosh is 12th man.

Manchester United: Carey, Aston, Anderson, Chilton, Cockburn, Delaney, Morris, Rowley, Pearson, Mitten. Welsh half-back Warper is 12th man.

RONNIE SUART, HURT FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS SEASON AT SUNDERLAND LAST WEEK WHEN HE TWISTED HIS RIGHT ANKLE, IS OUT OF BLACKPOOL’S CUP TEAM AT WEMBLEY TOMORROW, IT WAS ANNOUNCED TODAY.

Off the first fairway at Wentworth Golf Club, Virginia Water, Surrey, he walked at noon today, the saddest man in Britain.

For half an hour he trotted and sprinted up and down the fairway and he said, “I feel fine.”

Then he was given a ball, punted it great distances, cleared it as it bounced at him from all angles, headed it as it was thrown high to him by manager, Joe Smith.

“IT’S NO GOOD”

Again “I feel fine” he said.

Then Jim McIntosh came out wearing football boots instead of the practice canvas shoes, took a pass from Johnny Crosland and ran towards the full back.

The centre-forward fell, the full-back was left standing but wincing with pain. They went into a second tackle.

“It’s no good,” said Suart. “It is all over. I feel the ankle every time in a tackle.” He was honest about it.

The first man to commiserate with him was Crosland, who, except for the 1940-41 season with St. Annes United, has had no other club but Blackpool, and is now to go to Wembley.

Not since Frank Swift, the Blackpool fisherman, went into the Manchester City goal against Portsmouth at short notice has a player so new to big football gone on the field at the Stadium.

Dr. H. F. Overend, one of the club’s doctors who went to Wentworth for the test, watched Suart every minute of the hour he was out.

TEAM FIRST

“I am thinking of the other lads,” said Suart. as he walked back to the clubhouse, dangling his right boot by its laces.

“If I went on the field and was crippled in the first minute as I might be it would be a tragedy.

The team comes first.”

SECOND TIME 

This is the second time Jim McIntosh has missed a Final.

When he went to Preston North End from Blackpool in 1937-38 North End had two men crippled on the eve of the Final against Huddersfield.

Preston took him to Wembley, wanted to play him but could not as he had already appeared for Blackpool in the Cup.

This afternoon the Blackpool players visited Wembley Stadium to inspect the Cup Final pitch, which is in its usual state of perfection.

Local boy’s chance

JOHN RONALD CROSLAND who will play for Blackpool in the Final is the only son of Mrs. R. A. Crosland of Kensington-road, Ansdell, and the late Mr. J. R. Crosland.

He served as a Lieutenant in the Fleet Air Arm during the war, and won the D.S.C. for outstanding skill and courage in air operations against the Japanese.

An old boy of St. Joseph’s College, he is 26 years of age, and before joining up - was articled in accountancy.

He is continuing his studies, and trains twice a week with the Blackpool team.

He played rugby for his school and soccer for the Fleet Air Arm.

Rowley passes test - MANCHESTER, Friday.

Manchester United centre-forward Jack Rowley passed a severe fitness test at Old Traf- ford today.

Under the watchful eyes of Trainer Tom Curry and Manager Matt Busby, Rowley showed no remaining traces of his groin injury, and will play in the Cup Final.

A large crowd saw the Manchester party off from London-road station today. All the players carried sprigs of white heather and miniature horseshoes.

This special goes tomorrow

GOING down to Wembley tomorrow are 10 disabled men in bathchairs - seven on the 7-22 a.m. and three on the 7-45 a.m. trains.

A guard’s van on each train has been reserved.

Organiser of this trip is Mr. C. E. Perkins, of Sycamore-avenue, South Shore.

Today Mr. Perkins said he had had disquieting news “unofficially.”

He had learnt from the War Disabled Association that bathchairs were not being allowed on the Wembley ground. He had not been able to get verification, as the Association trip left Blackpool today.

“If this ban has -been made,” said Mr. Perkins, “the disabled men in bathchairs propose going lip to the main entrance and demonstrating.”

Mayor, Mayoress leave

THE Mayor and Mayoress of Blackpool (Coun. J. R. Furness J.F. and Mrs. Furness) travelled to London with some of today’s rail excursionists.

Within an hour of his departure the Mayor’s secretary received an eight-page foolscap communication from the F.A. setting out the procedure which Coun. Furness must follow at Wembley tomorrow in connection with his presentation to the King.

Arrangements were made for another copy to be sent to the Mayor at his London hotel.

In Talbot-square today, Corporation workmen erected the 20ft. poles which on Monday evening will support the most colourful flags and bunting the Council can produce for a civic welcome home ceremony.

RIGHT EITHER WAY

BLACKPOOL Corporation have prepared alternative win and lose displays for their Regent-street, London, publicity bureau.

If Blackpool win: A 2ft. 6in. replica of the F.A. Cup will be placed on the Blackpool end of a miniature football field: with a slogan: The Cup comes to Blackpool. Why don’t you?

If Blackpool lose: The Cup replica will be placed on the Manchester end of the ground, and on the Blackpool side will be the slogan: Beaten at Wembley - but unbeaten for holidays.

Off they go

LONG queues formed well in advance for trains from Blackpool to London today.

There were rosettes and rattles and smiles at the windows as the trains, packed to capacity, left amid shouts of “Up the ’Pool'"

Wives and sweethearts of the Blackpool players had a special coach on the 9-55 train. Their little party was the least excited in the whole contingent.

Mrs. Stanley Matthews, accompanied by small daughter Jean, said, “I think Blackpool are going to win all right.”

Mr. A. H. Hindley, Blackpool Football Club - vice-chairman, who was also Wembley-bound, said, “I think we shall pull it off.”

Cheeriest passenger on the train was a young man wearing a huge tangerine and white rosette who had prepared for the long journey by taking half a dozen bottles of beer adorned with tangerine and white tops and a packet of sandwiches also bedecked in Blackpool's colours.

Blackpool Central station staff, headed by the Stationmaster (Mr. V. Hazeldine). were in cheerful mood as they saw the task of despatching the football supporters going off “according to plan.”

“See that they bring that Cup back and then we won’t mind,” grinned a porter as the 9-55 train pulled out.

And everybody round about was of the same opinion.

---

SO Eddie Shimwell is to take the penalties for Blackpool in future - and that includes Wembley tomorrow.

The full-back from Sheffield would prefer to let somebody else have this job, but nobody else wants it - not since in rapid succession Stanley Mortensen and Stanley Matthews missed from the “spot” in recent games.

According to my records, Shimwell has taken only one penalty in League football, and that was for Sheffield and not for Blackpool. He missed it and ever since has said. “I don’t want to take another.”

This week he has gone into practice.

In theory it is simplicity to shoot a ball past a stationary goalkeeper at penalty range. This full-back who scored a Cup goal against Chester from 60 yards ought to be able to score from 12. 

But nobody, nevertheless, will envy him if the referee points to the “spot” tomorrow afternoon.

 ***

TWO Finals between the wars have been decided by penalties. Each by a coincidence, was a Huddersfield Town-Preston North End match.

The first time, in 1922, W. H. Smith, the Huddersfield Town outside-left, falling under a tackle and tumbling full- tilt into the area - they have always said in Preston that he was outside it when he began his nose-dive - converted the penalty to give the Town the Cup by a goal which is disputed to this day.

Sixteen years later this defeat was avenged when George Mutch shot past Bob Hesford the Huddersfield goalkeeper from Blackpool Grammar School, in the last few minutes of extra-time.

That is as near as a Wembley Final has ever been to a replay - and they have been playing finals at Wembley since 1923. 

By the law of averages two teams, in spite of extra-time, are going to finish level It could happen this year.

 ***

"WHAT will happen at Wembley? Blackpool have lost already - lost to the newspaper critics and the B.B.C.

I am not so certain about all that. The United have a record in the Cup this season which makes Blackpool’s progress to the Final seem commonplace. 

Current form, too, apart from the uncertainties about Blackpool’s defence, must make the Manchester men favourites.

But what’s that worth at Wembley, where year after year form has been blown sky-high?

What’s it worth, too. while Blackpool have Stanley Mortensen facing a centre-half who went into a panic last time the men were pitted against each other, and while on the right flank of Blackpool’s front line the other Stanley can always, given the chance, win a match on his own.

I call it about evens. That, at Wembley, is what it always is.

 ***

THE inevitable rumours were circulating in Blackpool immediately after the omission of Jim McIntosh had been announced that the centre-forward had gone into Manager Joe Smith’s office and asked for a transfer.

He went into the manager’s office, but he was invited in so that he could be told in privacy - and not merely find out on the team sheet - that he was not to play at Wembley.

“He took it without a murmur,” I was told. “He’s such a good team man that all he said was, 'Well, I’d love to have played, but I’ll be content if the lads win'. ”

A grand sportsman. Jim McIntosh - as I wrote a year ago when a minority in one of the paddocks were barracking him out of First Division football, and everybody behind the scenes was becoming excited and indignant about such treatment - except Jim McIntosh.

Alec Munro never complained, either when he went out of the team at Fulham after playing in three ties. Now he’s back again. Virtue has its reward now and again - even in football.

---

Ascot is so peaceful - or is it?

BLACKPOOL’S quarters at Ascot are on the borders of Windsor Great Park, so close to the famous racecourse that the white rails where the horses gallop in the Gold Cup can be seen from the windows.

It is 35 miles from London, It might be the distance of a planet away, so remote is it from the traffic of the capital, so secluded in its trees on this April day, telephones “Spectator,” who is with the Blackpool Cup Final team.

Yet even in this lovely backwater on London’s outskirts the autograph hunter quests for his prey.

Dozens of the boys of Ascot waited a couple of hours outside the hotel before Blackpool’s coach from Euston arrived last evening.

For hours afterwards, even while the team were away at a cinema in Windsor, siege was laid to the hotel. Pressed against the glass panels of the front door were the noses of half Ascot’s population.

CHASED AWAY

Every few minutes white-coated waiters chased the intruders away up the Reading road. Back they came again, and off they were ordered again.

Ascot has not had such fun and games since the last race meeting. All the time, too, in and out of the hotel reporters and photographers are trooping. Flashlight bulbs have been blazing away nearly every minute since the team left town yesterday.

One photographer in the team’s saloon took candid camera studies every quarter of an hour from Preston to Euston, made a specialty of Stanley Matthews, took him playing cards, eating his lunch, talking, yawning, smiling, frowning and, in the middle of the afternoon, taking a siesta, fast asleep.

JIM McINTOSH

I talked to Jim McIntosh, the man who has been left out of the Wembley team. He was quieter than I have ever known him, but so is every other man of the 13 as zero hour approaches.

“That’s how it goes in this game.” McIntosh said. “Up one day - down the next. Yet I’ll still be happy if the lads finish in front tomorrow. That’s all that matters.”

Harry Johnston, the Blackpool captain, who, as a boy of 15 came from Droylsden with McIntosh to win football fame in Blackpool, said, “I am proud to be with a club which has such a man as Jim in it.”

League clubs from all over the country are sending messages of goodwill.

Grimsby Town not only sent a message but a box of fish which will be the team’s lunch before they go to Wembley tomorrow.

Even the Australian cricketers are interested, are to watch the final have all backed Blackpool at odds of 6-4.

CHANGED PLANS

Blackpool’s London plans, by the way, have had to be revised. The capital is so packed that accommodation cannot be found for the players in the West End after the match.

Now, instead of spending tomorrow night in London, the players will have to say “Goodbye ” to their wives and sweethearts after the celebration dinner at the May Fair Hotel and return to Ascot by coach early on Sunday morning.

After next Wednesday’s League match on Bloomfield-road, the Blackpool and Manchester United players will have dinner at the St. Annes Hotel, St. Annes.

---

Evening Gazette - 24 April 1948

This is Blackpool Football Club’s greatest day

ALL EYES ARE ON WEMBLEY

- and the F.A. Cup

ALL EYES WILL BE FOCUSSED ON WEMBLEY STADIUM THIS AFTERNOON, WHERE BLACKPOOL, HAVING REACHED THE F.A. CUP FINAL FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE CLUB’S LONG CAREER, WILL BATTLE WITH MANCHESTER UNITED FOR THE HONOUR OF WINNING FOOTBALL’S GREATEST TROPHY.

Thirteen Blackpool players trod the famous turf at Wembley yesterday afternoon after a nonstop day in Ascot, Wentworth and London, writes “Spectator.” The players were fascinated with their preview of the ground which they said would “just suit Stanley Matthews.”

They were instructed by police officers of the ceremonial to be adopted when the King arrives and how the teams, winners and losers, must leave the field at the close and pass before their Majesties - the winners, of course, leading - to accept the coveted trophy and medals.

HlGHLIGHTS of the day were:

1. A fitness test which put Ronnie Suart out of the Cup team and gave a Cup medal in the first F.A. Cuptie he has ever played in to 26-year-old ex-Fleet Air Arm Pilot Johnny Crosland, the only Fylde-born man in the team.

2. A visit to a factory in Ealing at which the players on a tour of the four floors of the building were cheered by a staff of 3,000 and in an hour signed over 1,000 autographs.

3. The preview at the Stadium, where, after walking over the field where the football classic of the year is to be played, the men were shown the new luxury dressing rooms, prepared for the Olympic Games, where they will put on their new white jerseys before their presentation to the King and Queen, five minutes before the kick-off.

Said Stanley Matthews: If you cannot play football on this grass you cannot play it anywhere.

TELEVISION

Outside the Stadium, above the gigantic car parks, the television unit was building its aerial and hundreds of workmen were engaged on a variety of tasks from the construction of telephone kiosks to the labelling of the entrances.

Later in the evening, back at their Ascot headquarters, the eleven men who will take the field, and the two who will be on the line watching - Ronnie Suart and Jim McIntosh - escaped the besieging swarm of autograph hunters as dusk fell, and went to a cinema where nobody expected them and few people recognised them.

Today they will be called at nine o’clock for a late breakfast, take a walk in the streets of Ascot, where they have been staying, lunch on the fish which Grimsby Town have sent as a Final gift, and will leave on the 25-mile journey to Wembley at 12-30.

“I do not want them waiting in their dressing room too long,” said Manager Joe Smith, who has been in two Wembley Finals and knows what this zero hour vigil can be, tearing nerves to tatters.

THE MEDALS

Only the men playing are certain of them

Eleven medals only are presented to a team playing at Wembley and those 11 must be given to the men who take the field.

This means that unless Blackpool ask for permission to give medals to Suart and McIntosh - permission which may not necessarily be granted - both these men who have played in every round this season will finish the series with no souvenir of the achievement.

The players’ families will be there in force, but two will be absent - Joe Robinson’s father, who was seriously disabled in a colliery accident just before the semi-final and is still in a hospital ward, and Mrs. Kathleen Hayward, wife of the centre-half, who will be listening-in at their home in Banbury-avenue, North Shore.

A mobile broadcasting unit will be installed there and when the match is over and the dressing room interviews completed, she will give her impressions of the match as “a wife who could not be there.”

The only player in the West End last night was Stanley Matthews, who went to the dinner of the Football Writers’ Association for the presentation of the first statuette as “The Footballer of the Year.”

He told the guests: “We hope to win. We want to win. But all I say is ‘May the better team win!’

12,000 FROM FYLDE

THE Cup Final fever gripped the Fylde, and it is expected that 12,000 Blackpool supporters will be at Wembley this afternoon to cheer the “Tangerines.”

And judging by the various paraphernalia they carried, will make themselves heard.

Two thousand people will leave Blackpool by train early today to swell the throng already gone by road and rail.

Hundreds travelled through last night, and thousands more would have gone but for the scarcity of tickets, which people have hunted all over the town during the past fortnight.

The exodus began before the players left Blackpool Central on Thursday when over 600 people travelled on the Fylde Coast express, and over 400 on the train which carried the team.

Yesterday, there was an average of 700 on both early morning trains, with further large crowds on the two late night specials due in Euston in the early hours of today.

There were specials, too, from Blackpool North and Fleetwood, while between 6-40 and 7-45 a.m. today three further loaded trains ran out of Central bound direct Wembley.

NO KLONDYKE

BLACKPOOL'S golden trail to Wembley wall be no Klondyke.

En route to Wembley and in this afternoon’s classic 290,321 people will have watched Blackpool in this year’s Cupties and paid £76,409. including between £43,000 and £44,000 at Wembley alone.

Before this afternoon’s match the turnstile figures for Blackpool’s ties totalled £33,031. The club was richer after reaching the Final for the first time in history by a little over £8,000.

Quota of today’s receipts will be approximately £4,000.

Expenses, which are high for Cup teams, with all the attendant Wembley celebration, and compensation paid to clubs whose League matches with Blackpool have had to be postponed, will reach not less than £2,000.

That leaves about £10.000 - before the income tax collector calls

HOW PLAYERS BENEFIT

No fortune is won by the players in the Final.

The 22 men who play in front of 98,000 people this afternoon will be on their League pay of £12 a week with no extras except for the £20 bonus for each player in the winning team.

The Blackpool and Manchester United players have already won £35 in bonuses. In talent money they have received £40 per man, and the winners will each receive an additional £10 this afternoon.

Out of the Cup, therefore, a player who wins a Cup medal makes only an additional 100 guineas between the first ties in January and the Final in April.

TEAM’S TIME-TABLE

This is the Blackpool team’s time-table for today:

Between noon and 1 p.m.: Leave the Ascot headquarters for Wembley by coach, arriving 2-10.

2- 55: Presentation on the field to the King and Queen.

3- 0: The kick-off. If the teams are level at the end of usual time there will be extra play for 15 minutes each way. If the game is then still undecided, the teams will meet again on the Everton ground, at Goodison Park next Saturday.

6-0: Meet the wives and sweethearts at the Athaenum Court Hotel in Park- lane. where all the club’s guests are spending the weekend 8-0: Dinner and cabaret at the May Fair Hotel. Distinguished guests include Mr. A. V. Alexander. M.P.. Defence -Minister and director of Chelsea F.C., who is to respond to the toast, “Our Guests.”

Tomorrow the team will have a day’s motor coach tour in Surrey.

HOMECOMING

On Monday the team leave Euston at 11-50 a.m., and on arrival at Preston transfer to a motor coach, and from Clifton-drive, St. Annes, where they arrive at 5-20, tour Blackpool via the Promenade to Cleveleys, back through Layton and Marton and via Central-drive and the Promenade to Talbot - square, where, at the Clifton Hotel, there will be a civic reception and dinner at 6-20 p.m.

This happens whether they come back with the Cup or without it.

Last-minute messages

HERE are the last-minute messages of the manager and the captain:

Mr. Joe Smith: I call it an even chance. That is what it is in a Cup Final, and what it will be tomorrow. One break and you can win. A break against you - just one -and you can lose.

Harry Johnston: The lads will be all out from the first minute. We have every confidence in Johnny Crosland - and plenty of confidence in ourselves.

The Cup Final team recruit, Crosland, precipitated into fame, was chiefly concerned last night about the ill-luck of the man he is to understudy.

“I wanted Ronnie to play’ he said, “not because I do not want to play myself, because every player wants to appear at Wembley, but because Ronnie deserves to play.”

Gone to Wembley

A LOT of shutters that went up in Blackpool last night will not come down until Monday.

One set bears the cheerful message “Gone to Wembley.” It is superfluous. Everybody knows.

Blackpool is used to big events. Normally it takes as a matter of course excitements that would have other towns agog for weeks. But in the matter of the Cup Final even Blackpool has thrown its bonnet high over the windmill.

And why not?

If all the sensations of this modern age were as innocent and happy as this afternoon’s affair the world would be a much more pleasant place to live in.

Who is going to win? That, as Hamlet observed of another hardly more vital problem, is the question.

Students of form - those pessimists! - incline heavily towards Manchester United. But if form alone decided football matches, the pools would have gone bankrupt long ago.

The truth is that whenever First Division teams meet the result is a toss-up unless one is right at the top of the table and the other right at the bottom - and even then there is no foregone conclusion.

In a Cup Final the result is still more open because of the entrance of a new factor - nerves; and the strain on the players reaches its climax in the long-drawn-out preliminaries after the teams emerge and before the bright new ball bounces in the emerald arena.

If experience of big occasions is any help, Blackpool should have some advantage.

One thing all Blackpool hopes, and the hope will be shared by Manchester - that whatever the result, it is reached by decisive superiority of skill in the great game, unhampered either by injury or bad luck.

The appearance of Blackpool in the Final, whether for victory or defeat, is a grand finish to a grand season. Players, directors, staff and everyone concerned with the Football Club deserve the heartiest vote of thanks for the splendid entertainment and healthy sport they have provided during yet another winter.

And now - on with the rosettes, out with the rattles.

The finest compensation for having to stay at home will be to see Harry Johnston holding that Cup aloft from the Town Hall balcony within the next 60 hours or so.

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Days when Blackpool F.C. faced a crisis

WHEN Blackpool take the field at Wembley in their first F.A. Cup Final this afternoon a man who has worked nearly all his life for the wellbeing of the club will remember the days when times were so bad that players’- wages had to be found out of the directors pockets.

Back to the beginning of the club go the memories of 75-year-old Mr. George Andrew, of Gainsborough- road, who has followed the team for half a century.

Mr. Andrew, who hopes to be at Wembley, recalls the days when Blackpool played at Raikes Hall, and there was a danger of the team breaking up.

KEPT FLAG FLYING

“One of our gates in those days was only £17,” he told a “Gazette & Herald” reporter, but the stalwarts got together and somehow managed to keep the flag flying.

“It was a case of ways and means to find wages every Saturday. Some of our players in those days went on the field with as much as £40 owing to them.

“As far as I know, Mr. Edward Threlfall, now farming at Treales, Kirkham, is the only remaining member of the team we then had.

“We played such teams as Small Heath in those days, and I remember how, in an effort to increase finances, we raised the admission charge from sixpence to a shilling for an Easter game.

“Because of that the club was faced with the threat of a boycott, and we had to give in and bring back the regular charge. 

CUPTIE TRANSFERRED

“Once in those far-off days we were so badly off that we accepted £250 to transfer an F.A. cuptie with Sheffield United from our ground to theirs - and beat them!”

Mr. Andrew has only one wish today, and everyone knows what that is! But win or lose, it will be a wonderful day for this veteran of Blackpool football.

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