24 April 1948 Blackpool 2 Manchester United 4
Blackpool lead twice: then fall victims to hammer blows
SEE-SAW GAME THRILLS MAMMOTH CROWD
Blackpool 2, Manchester 4
SO THIS IS WEMBLEY AT LAST. THE SUN IS SHINING. IT IS SO HOT THAT IN THE APPROACHES TO THE STADIUM HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE ARE SPRAWLING ON THE GRASS SLOPES.
THE HORSES OF THE MOUNTED POLICE LEAVE HOOF PRINTS IN THE MELTING TAR. UP AND UP ON THE SLOPES, SO HIGH THAT THE ROOF OF THE STAND HIDES THE TOP TIERS, THE THOUSANDS ARE MASSED.
EVERY FEW MINUTES THE VAST MULTITUDE SHIFTS AND SWAYS, SWAYS BACKWARDS AND FORWARDS, AND ALL THE RATTLES CHORUS THEIR STACCATO EXCITED RHYTHM. FROM THEM THE TANGERINE AND RED RIBBONS FLUTTER.
As I write, out into the sunshine has walked Harry Johnston and his 10 men. There is bedlam over the tunnel as they stroll past the white gate, over the crescent of concrete behind the goal, tread the famous Wembley turf which from the height of the Press box is as green and smooth as a giant bowling green.
Below the main stand the news reel camera batteries are perched on a platform circled with flower beds and baskets.
Out in the open, inside the centre circle, the band of the Grenadier Guards in severe khaki are playing.
The music has a lilt, an excitement in it, which makes them beat out the time on thousands of rattles and bells. This is it at last - Wembley, 1948.
BLACKPOOL’S ARRIVAL
Half an hour ago, which was at 1-45, and at least half an hour earlier than had been planned, the Blackpool coach crawled through the teeming thousands walking slowly up the hill which leads to this football mecca It took an hour from Ascot.
If the men’s nerves were frayed - as I suspect they must have been - it was never betrayed. The imperturbable Stanley Mortensen slept nearly all the way.
Everywhere over the last half mile the Blackpool fans were passed, often saw the coach too late, but raced after it, often under the heels of the police horses, cheering, waving and giving the “V” sign.
At 2-20 the community singing conductor climbed the stairs to his white platform, banked with its microphone, and for half an hour they sang all the old songs and a few of the new songs while the band of the Life Guards played for them.
They sang until they reached "John Brown’s Body" Then, as they reached the words “ Glory, glory ” all the programmes fluttered as if a high wind was blowing through a field of cotton and waved and waved long after the song had finished.
"ABIDE WITH ME”
It was all part of the ceremonial which prefaces those few minutes when Wembley becomes a vast cathedral, and with a simple reverence and sincerity the 99,000 sang “Abide with Me.”
They stood to sing it, every man, woman and child.
While the huge crowd, officially returned at 99,000, receipts £39,500 sang, Crosland was receiving the good wishes of Suart in the Blackpool dressing-room.
The unlucky left back and his equally unfortunate colleague McIntosh were to watch the fortunes of their side from the touchline.
Ten minutes to go and both bands were in the open facing the main entrance and its carpeted approach to the arena.
TEAMS COME OUT
But it was from the other entrance that the first great roar of the afternoon rose to the skies as the teams appeared.
Out they marched in two files, Harry Johnston, Blackpool’s captain, leading one file, John Carey, United’s captain, the other.
In front walked the two managers, Joe Smith and Matt Busby, two men who as players have endured this pre-match ordeal. The teams lined up in the two files close to the carpet. They waved to their friends as they waited.
Came a silence. Out on to the carpet came the King, accompanied by the Duke of Athlone, president of the Football Association
The King halted with all his subjects as the band played the National Anthem then he walked to the waiting teams.
The captains were presented to him. Down the line he walked, the Manchester line first, shook hands as man by man they inclined their heads in salutation, each man presented by his captain.
Two minutes later they tossed the coin. Blackpool won it.
BLACKPOOL: Robinson, Shimwell, Crosland, Johnston, Hayward, Kelly, Matthews, Munro, Mortensen, Dick, Rickett.
MANCHESTER UNITED: Mitten, Pearson, Rowley, Morris, Delaney, Cockburn, Chilton, Anderson, Aston, Carey, Crompton.
Referee Mr. C. J. Barrick (Northampton).
THE GAME
All Blackpool in the early minutes Johnston said “We’ll attack the goal in front of the players’ tunnel.”
That was no figure of speech either. Blackpool were attacking it constantly, all the time on the right, in the first couple of minutes.
Twice in those minutes Jack Crompton had his fingers on the ball in that first clutch at it which goalkeepers at Wembley always hope will come early.
The first time, Crompton snatched away a long fast ball down the centre which Mortensen was pursuing, after Munro had given Matthews a gem of a pass in an open position.
The next minute Rickett raced into another great gap on the other flank of the Manchester defence, tore in fast, forced the United’s goalkeeper to come galloping out to collect a ball bouncing fast at him as he ran to meet. it.
OUTPACED
This United team are notoriously slow starters, were being outpaced everywhere in the next two minutes by a Blackpool forward line moving fast to the ball and crossing it from wing to wing
Rickett gave Matthews a crossfield pass.
Almost studiously, as if Wembley were a village green and nothing was at stake, the England forward waited for Aston, swerved him, stabbed inside a ball which Munro half lost and half sliced away half a dozen yards inside the penalty area.
Blackpool had to repel one advance on the United’s left which ended in Hayward halting Rowley, losing the ball as the referee impeded him, calling back for aid and watching Shimwell head away anywhere in a great last-second clearance.
ONE WAY TRAFFIC
That was in the fifth minute. Between the fifth and eighth it was one-way traffic on the Manchester goal. In the eighth the United’s forwards escaped, won a corner on the right which Hayward disputed.
Over from the flag the ball came, flew about from head to head. Up to this leaped Rowley, headed a fast rising ball which Joe Robinson punched out with a left arm hook which a heavyweight champion would not have despised as the Manchester centre-forward hurled himself at him
There were no signs of panic in the Blackpool defence. As Manchester’s forwards raced in fast on Crosland according, I suspect to a plan, Hayward, Kelly and Johnston passed back to their goalkeeper with an ice-cold composure.
Blackpool’s early command had so soon waned. On to Blackpool’s goal the Manchester front line stormed. Every raid ended in a shot, shots of all sorts of quality, but they were shots.
Down to them as they flew in low Robinson fell repeatedly.
Then in the 14th minute came a sensation.
Another Manchester attack was built and repelled. Out flew a long clearance, Mortensen was after it. as fast as a hare, too fast for Chilton.
Past the centre-half he swerved, was racing on as the man in the blue jersey jerked out a leg for Mortensen to catapult over.
PENALTY
Down went the centre-forward. Up the field raced Mr. Barrick, pointing summarily to a scar in the fresh green grass a couple of yards inside the area. The United protested in vain, but with no great vehemence.
From the fullback position they called SHIMWELL.
In a grim silence the fullback half strolled to the ball, shot it fast and low Crompton dived in vain at it.
Every man danced about the ex-Sheffield fullback in glee, hugged, mobbed, him.
That was in 14 minutes.
NARROW ESCAPE
In the 17th it was nearly 1-1 down stormed the Manchester forwards. Over flew a centre from the right. Robinson leaped at it over a pack of men, punched it out high. Up to it on the edge of the penalty area Pearson leaped, headed back the ball.
Into the empty goal Shimwell raced, was leaping at the ball as it curved over, hit the bar, bounced up and high and was headed almost out of Robinson’s clutching hand by Hayward for a corner.
This corner was followed by another and yet another as the United’s pressure, built on fast, open, assertive raids, continued.
Mitten compelled Robinson to make a grandstand clearance with a shot which rose high near the post.
Twice Delaney cut down the right wing of this nonstop Manchester attack, won another corner in the 26th minute as Crosland hurled himself in his path.
UNITED STILL ATTACK
Another corner came, United's sixth, m the first 25 minutes - and a goal was near again as Robinson. Hayward and Morris came to earth in a heap as, of the inside-right’s head, the ball flashed wide of the post of an empty goal.
All this time the Blackpool front line had been in only two direct raids, yet both were menacing.
And in each, inevitably, the spearhead was Mortensen, a centre-forward sowing panic in an outpaced Manchester defence in the first.
He put Rickett in possession all on his own on the left wing, called for a pass, and when it came raced after it out towards the corner flag, reaching it and hooking it back on to the roof of the net.
ALL OUT
But these were the only interludes in a United all-out attack. Yet when a goal, which for some minutes had been threatening, came it was a gift.
A ball was lobbed down the centre. Hayward moved to it as it approached him. A yard in his rear waited Robinson. In the last split second before it happened I had the impression that the centre-half decided to leave the ball to his goalkeeper, appeared to move out of his path.
Unprepared, Robinson half clutched at the ball and lost it. In raced ROWLEY and at once lobbed the ball away from the man in the green jersey and glided it over the line.
It seemed to require a goal to awaken the team which had lost it. As the United had torn remorselessly into Blackpool’s defence after losing the penalty, so the Blackpool front line began to assert itself again, at last.
LEAD RESTORED
Mortensen fires in a “special”
Five minutes after the United had made it 1-1 Blackpool were in front for the second time. Again it was a case of “ITMA” “It’s that Mortensen again.” A free kick reached the right wing. Matthews took it. glanced inside, saw his partner, gave Munro a direct pass.
The little man was on it fast, steered it through a gap in the Manchester full-back division. Waiting there was MORTENSEN, who spurted after it, shot it low and wide of Crompton as he fell in a futile dive to reach it.
It was one of Mortensen’s "specials.”
There was bedlam on the field and off it in the next second. Over behind the goal all the tangerine ribbons and banners lashed backwards and forwards.
On the field they fell on this amazing opportunist called Stanley Mortensen, mobbed him again.
That put the Manchester front line into eclipse for a time. Gone for minutes afterwards were the low passes which between the goals had made this line a menacing piece of clockwork every time it advanced.
CHEER FOR CROSLAND
When a brief siege of the Manchester goal was lifted and Delaney escaped on the right, Crosland met him on the line, waited for him, dispossessed him and won a great cheer for himself.
One great duel between little Walter Rickett and that calm, calculating tactician, John Carey, seemed to go on for minutes, as the wing forward advanced, zigzagging here, there and everywhere to seek an opening to goal.
It ended at last with Rickett winning a corner.
Two minutes later, too, the left wing man racing again to a long pass, shot it as it reached him, compelled Crompton to make the clearance of the half with a great leap as he punched the ball away as it was rising inside the near post!
NEAR DOWNFALL
From the corner, too, this Manchester goal was near downfall again as the ever-alert Mortensen shot low over the bar as the ball fell in front of him.
Mortensen by the way, has become the fifth player in the Cup’s history to score in every round of a series.
Blackpool deserved to be in front at the interval. Manchester’s defence was not comparable with the Blackpool half-back and full-back line as a compact force, and clearly it had a fear of Mortensen which betrayed itself everywhere.
Half-time; Blackpool 2, Manchester United 1.
Second half
The Blackpool forwards were out hunting for another goal in the first minute of the half.
In a nearly bewildering maze of passes which ended in Rickett taking a pass in the outside-left position, the ball was crossed into the goal area.
To the bouncing ball Dick thundered, lost it by half a yard to the desperate tackle of Carey.
When Manchester’s forwards came into the game Crosland halted one raid with a copybook precision, taking the ball almost at half pace into a clearing position before clearing it.
Yet this Manchester front line was in the game a lot in the half’s first five minutes. Eric Hayward made a neck-or-nothing clearance at the feet of Morris with the inside-right racing into a scoring position.
A MUNRO SAVE
It, cost a corner, nevertheless, and the corner might have cost a goal if little Munro had not catapulted himself in front of Rowley as the centre-forward pounced on a loose ball which Robinson had cleared but while clearing it had fallen.
There was little between two grand attacks afterwards. Matthews crossed one of those curling centres which goalkeepers hate, and which Crompton held in a leap at the angle of bar and post.
A minute later Rickett shot in a great rising ball which hit a pack of men and cannoned off them for a corner.
That corner was followed by another, and this second comer might have been a goal for all the rattled United defence knew about it.
As half a dozen men leaped a high falling centre, the ball flew off a Manchester man’s head, hit the turf, rolled slowly towards an empty goal, appeared almost to brush a post as it crawled out.
There was the menace of a goal every time these two forward lines advanced.
Pearson lost a great chance by taking the ball with one boot and almost laboriously crossing it to the other before making a delayed shot which hit a phalanx of men massed in protection of the Blackpool goal.
A minute later following another of those corners which had been coming thick and fast all the afternoon, a high centre eluded Robinson’s leap at it and was brilliantly headed out of the shooting zone by Johnston.
Kelly had to make a desperate clearance within half a dozen yards of his goalkeeper in one raid which ended in Johnston chasing Delaney out to the flag before conceding a corner.
In the next minute Crosland brilliantly intercepted a pass to this Manchester outside-right with the United giving for a time a carbon copy of their first half precision in approach.
The pressure continued, and to end it at last Johnston had to cross fast to an exposed wing and clear anywhere.
MUNRO HURT
Terraces protest at tackle
When at last the Blackpool forwards came into the game again. Munro was halted by Chilton with the first tackle of the afternoon which made the terraces protest.
For half a minute the inside-right was under attention.
Then a free-kick was taken.
Crompton beat Mortensen by half a yard in a desperate race for a ball lobbed by Stanley Matthews with all his cunning into a defence unprepared for the move.
That raid continued until Crosland raced into the outside-left position and shot fast over the bar from far out on the wing.
Backwards and forwards it surged. Twenty minutes gone 25 minutes left and Blackpool still in front.
THE EQUALISER
Twenty-one minutes of the half had gone. Kelly crossed out to the left flank of his defence, presumably to give protection to Crosland. Delaney fell under his tackle.
Kelly protested when the referee gave a free-kick, but Mr Barrick was firm in, his decision. It cost a goal.
Anderson crossed the ball high. In to meet it ROWLEY raced, leaped at it as it flew across, headed it fast into the far wall of the net.
There was another of those mass jubilations in midfield, the men in blue capering about in a crazy celebration.
Then off they went away, these men in blue, raided twice on the right.
Yet this storm, fierce while it lasted, ended, and when Blackpool’s attack began to gear itself for action again Johnston made position for himself superbly before shooting over the bar.
HAMMER BLOWS
With 20 minutes left Blackpool began to retreat under the hammer blows of a forward line giving the Blackpool defence no peace whatever.
Yet with 17 minutes left Chilton lost Mortensen again, lost him out on the line, left the centre-forward to cut fast inside and to shoot a low ball which Crompton fell on to in a heap on his line.
Direct from the goal kick the Manchester forwards raided and took the lead with 16 minutes left.
Down the centre the United raced. Two fast passes were interchanged, split the defence open.
PEARSON took the last pass all by himself with all the goal in front of him, seemed to half hit, half slice a ball which hit the base of the far post and cannoned slowly over the line as Robinson dived despairingly.
UNITED’S FOURTH
Only a miracle would retrieve Blackpool after that goal. That was written all over the football now.
Then six minutes from time it - was settled. This was a gift goal. Robinson made a clearance, flung the ball out to one of his waiting men.
The ball was lost to United. Morris put a pass inside to ANDERSON, the right-half, who hit the ball as it reached him 40 yards out, and leaped high into the air in joy as the bair curled into the net.
The amazed silence broke into a tornado of cheers.
It was the Cup for the United.
Result:
BLACKPOOL 2. (Shimwell, pen 14 mins, Mortensen 35 mins.
MANCHESTER UNITED 4 (Rowley 30, 67 mins, Person 74 mins, Anderson 84 mins.)
COMMENTS ON THE GAME
BLACKPOOL STORMS LONDON
Cup Final tickets snapped up at
40 times the price
They painted town - TANGERINE
Week's holiday for one Final ticket
WITH THE KING
Blackpool men from both clubs!
High-hat
Two extra medals?
The weekend timetable
HOMECOMING
SO FEW THIS NEW STARS SEASON
WITH THE END OF ANOTHER SOCCER SEASON ONLY
ONE WEEK DISTANT, THE TIME IS OPPORTUNE TO SUM UP THE EVENTS OF THE PAST NINE MONTHS ON THE FOOTBALL FIELD.
Season 1947-48 has seen the biggest boom in the history of the game.
Week after week attendances have exceeded the million mark, transfer fees have soared to fantastic heights - how long will the cheque for £20,050 paid by Sunderland to Newcastle for Len Shackleton remain a record? - and people wagering an odd shilling or two on the football coupon have been dazzled by the many colossal dividends paid to clients with an “all-correct.”
Against all this must be set the grim fact that, as far as actual football is concerned, the standard of play in the current year has been probably lower than ever before.
And the faithful follower who pays at the turnstile whatever the weather has every reason to ask why he has received such poor value, for without him the entire industry would collapse.
Unchallenged
THE Lawtons, the Swifts and the Matthews are still the supreme artists, absolutely unchallenged by the best that youth can muster. Yet go back to prewar days and you find Bastin, Lawton, Mullen and Matthews teen-age League players “knocking” at the England door.
War and continued conscription must take a large share of blame for today’s dearth of stars.
The youngest and most promising big-time footballers at the moment are Malcolm Finlayson, Millwall’s goalkeeper from Renfrew, and Derek Hines, who less than two months ago jumped from centre-forward in England’s youth team to lead Leicester City in goalscoring fashion. Both are 17.
Good turn
FEW are the other discoveries this season. A supporter in the Channel Islands who recommended centre-forward Leonard Duqemin certainly did Tottenham Hotspur a fine service, and north of the border Bobby Combe, 24-year-old Hibernian inside-forward has quickly blossomed out as a Scottish international.
Another 24-year-old, Stockport County full-back. Ronnie Staniforth, has pleased the critics, and at 22 Leicester’s ginger-haired Jimmy Hemon, frail but fanciful, promises soon to appear in the Scotland attack.
Add the name of Stanley Pearson. Manchester United’s inside-left and Cup hero, and the list of this campaign’s new headliners is almost exhausted.
Right training?
IN spite of wage agreements and other benefits recently secured by the Players' Union, a junior has many points to consider before turning professional,
Will he get the right training? Some League clubs work to no recognised schedule, but leave the men to their own training devices.
Will he be pitch-forked into the hurly-burly of the League too soon?
What are the prospects if, at the end of the season, he finds himself unwanted?
All are items of paramount importance to the budding star, and the possibility of being mishandled and not making the grade must deter countless youngsters from making football a career.
One big blemish on soccer today is the lack of coaching - an elementary but nevertheless essential factor.
Export fewer full-time coaches, improve this neglected aspect of the sport here, and Britain will again give the world lessons in the game which originated within these shores.
Next week: United again -
then curtain falls at Deepdale
GREATEST DAY
Blackpool - and United - can be proud
By “Spectator”
Jottings from all parts
BY "SPECTATOR" 24 April 1948
Evening Gazette - 26 April 1948
No Cup - but no depression
BLACKPOOL KNOW HOW TO LOSE
That was the theme of all the speeches. Here are extracts from a few of them:
Mr Harry Evans, the Blackpool chairman: We have not won, but we have not disgraced ourselves.
Mr. Joe Smith, the Blackpool manager: I am a proud man tonight. My boys gave a splendid exhibition.
I am still as proud of my team now - proud of them not only as footballers but as a clean-living lot of lads - as I was before the match.
Harry Johnston, the Blackpool captain: We certainly did our best to win the Cup for you. We could do no more. My team was magnificent in defeat.
The way the Blackpool men went over to shake the hands of the Manchester men was grand.
Thank you boys, for the way you took it
Mr. A. H Hindley, Blackpool vice- chairman: The better team won. We send them our congratulations.
Mr. W. S. Lines. Blackpool director: It was a match to be remembered by all who saw it.
It was all gay, even jubilant. An all-star cabaret ensured that.
“We’d nearly given it up when you were still in front with only 20 minutes to go,” admitted that grand sportsman, Mr. Matt Busby, the Manchester United manager.
Mr. Evans told the King all about Blackpool F.C.
“I am a disappointed man, but I am a proud man, too.”
Yesterday the players visited the Ascot Hospital, talked to the patients for an hour, and signed autographs by the dozen.
Later they went on a motor-coach tour through the lovely countryside of Surrey and Berkshire, with lunch at a famous old inn at Chiddingfold.
Most of them went to a Windsor cinema in the evening.
Team home this evening
Afterwards they will attend a civic reception and banquet at the Clifton Hotel.
Here is the programme:
Players detrain at Preston.
5-20 p.m.—Arrive Clifton-drive, St. Annes, thence to Starr Gate, along the Promenade to Fleetwood-road.
3-45.—Arrive Cleveleys, then start return journey, to Blackpool by way of Cleveleys roundabout, Kelso- avenue, and Fleetwood-road.
6-0.—Arrive Layton, by way of Bispham-road and Plymouth-road to Westcliffe-drive and Talbot-road, thence Talbot-road, Devonshire-road to Whitegate-drive.
6-5.—Arrive Oxford roundabout, Marton then by way of Waterloo-road to Central-drive.
6-10.—Arrive Central Station by way of Central-drive, thence to Promenade and Talbot-square, to arrive at 6-15 p.m.
6-20.—Clifton Hotel for civic reception and banquet.
CUP FILM RACE WITH CLOCK
The film was rushed straight up to the projection room and was on the screen at 7-38, exactly as scheduled.
Soon afterwards it was showing at the Winter Gardens.
The film is a fine pictorial record of the game with a lucid commentary by Raymond Glendenning. All the highlights are vividly and clearly portrayed.
The Winter Gardens audience greeted it with a burst of cheering and handclapping. Each goal - Blackpool's and Manchester’s alike - brought applause.
For Matthews fans there are some splendid shots of Stan’s wizardry and a smiling close-up.
Train “tour” after Cup Final
A third diversion took the train through Stockport on the Manchester line from Crewe, skirting Manchester and rejoining the main Blackpool-London line at Wigan.
Passengers on the 10 a.m. from Euston were an hour and a quarter late in Blackpool.
Mr. V. Hazeldine, station-master at Blackpool Central, said today, “There were engineering operations on the main line.
These are taking part now on most Sundays in a big effort to overtake arrears of maintenance.”
Want to run coaches to all away matches
“We want to help those supporters to get to away matches in reasonable comfort; not like the railways - drop them in the centre of some town and leave them to find their own way to the football ground,” he said.
Mr. W. Blackhurst (for Ribble Motor Services, Ltd.) said, regarding matches at Preston, that the excursions were “ridiculous” when Ribble Motors offered quarter-hour services to football fans wanting to get from Blackpool to Deepdale on Saturdays.
Mr. A. Logan (Manchester), on behalf of the Railway Executive objected to the applications.
Evening Gazette - 27 April 1948
Wheelchair men didn't see Cup Final
SADDEST story from Wembley is told in Blackpool today by Mr. Charlie Perkins, Blackpool's crippled mascot, and his eight companions in wheelchairs, who went to London with ground tickets for the Final and never saw the match.
“We had even to buy a newspaper to learn the result,” said Mr. Perkins, who says this is what happened outside Wembley on Saturday afternoon:
The nine men in wheelchairs were at the Stadium at 1 p.m., and were told at the first entrance they visited that wheelchairs were not permitted inside the gates.
Directed from one gate to another by commissionaires until eventually they reached the main offices, where they were told “You had been warned that you would not be allowed in the Stadium.”
Comments Charlie Perkins: We had not been warned. We had only heard a rumour.
DEMONSTRATION
When the teams took the field the nine were on the wrong side of the high walls. Blackpool and Manchester fans, who had gone to the Stadium without tickets, began to demonstrate against the ban on the cripples, surged outside the Stadium office and broke a few windows.
Mounted police dispersed the demonstrators, and the cripples were sent to a car park where a television van was operating, and Mr. Perkins, at the invitation of a BBC. commentator, recorded a protest which may or may not be broadcast;
Today both Blackpool’s M.P.s have been informed of the incident.
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