18 April 1949 Arsenal 2 Blackpool 0
BLACKPOOL HAD NO MARKSMEN AT HIGHBURY
There was little punch in forward line
Arsenal 2, Blackpool 0
By “Spectator”
WITH the temperature still soaring into the 80’s thousands of people milled outside Highbury this afternoon a couple of hours before the Blackpool game. Dozens of mounted police had to be summoned to clear all roads within a quarter-mile radius.
In the intense heat it was an inferno everywhere, and the dust was rising in choking clouds.
In the long queues people were fainting every few minutes. Yet no gates were being closed and there were not 50,000 inside them when the teams appeared.
And a strange team it was that Blackpool fielded, with a forward line which included a centre-forward on the right wing, a fullback in the centre, a wing-half at inside-left, and an inside-left at outside-left.
In almost as big a shuffle by the Arsenal during an Easter whose baked pitches have laid out men like ninepins in a skittle alley, Denis Compton, the English Test cricketer, was chosen instead of Tom Vallance, Stanley Matthews’ brother-in-law.
Teams:
ARSENAL: Swindin; Barnes, Smith, Mercer, Compton (L), Forbes, McPherson, Logie, Lewis, Lishman, Compton (D).
BLACKPOOL: Farm: Shimwell, Suart, Johnston, Hayward, Kelly, McIntosh, Mortensen. Garrett. Fenton, McCall.
Referee: Mr. S. E. Law, of West Bromwich.
THE GAME
A cool wind was beginning to blow into the oven of this vast stadium at the kick-off, and clouds were drifting at last over the sun.
Blackpool played in white, lost the toss, and lost a goal in exactly 45 seconds.
It was a freak goal. Denis Compton made it with a high lobbed centre which crossed in front of Farm, who. impeded by his own men, was out of position as the ball bounced towards an empty line.
Suart raced to it, hooked it out, hit a man in Blackpool’s white jersey.
Out cannoned the ball again to LISHMAN who darted to it and shot into an empty goal. It was one of the fastest goals I have ever seen and one of the most curious.
YARDS OFFSIDE
Within another minute Lewis had the ball in the net again from a position yards offside, order in it.
Denis Compton raked Blackpool’s goal with a succession of centres as if he had been playing football at Highbury all the winter instead of cricket far away in South Africa.
Barnes headed out McCall’s fast rising shot after McIntosh had raced into the centre to open another raid which was followed by still another with Mortensen in such fast pursuit of McCall’s long forward pass that he catapulted over a squad of photographers on the line.
Immediately, too, McIntosh’s pace enabled him to win Blackpool’s first corner in the 17th minute. It was no longer one-way traffic on Blackpool’s goal.
The Blackpool defence afterwards lost position repeatedly against a line of Arsenal forwards never holding the ball but releasing it fast from man to man.
It was the sort otf direct football the Highbury men played at Blackpool on Good Friday - not elegant, but serving its purpose in outplaying Blackpool at times.
Yet Blackpool’s new left wing built raids of neat design repeatedly.
One of them nearly caused the Arsenal’s goal downfall, the wing man crossing a centre which Swindin lost as it curled away from him, chased out. and parried at full length near the penalty area line as McIntosh raced to the loose ball, hit it, and hit the sprawling goalkeeper with it.
The Arsenal lost command of the game completely for minutes afterwards. Mortensen shot a free kick into a packed defence before Leslie Compton brilliantly hooked away McCall’s centre with Garrett racing in to meet it in a scoring position.
Suart lashed another free kick into a massed red line assembled to keep the ball out.
The Arsenal, with 30 minutes gone, were going back everywhere and, in the process, losing all their earlier conviction.
STILL RETREATING
Blackpool’s pressure with a patchwork team and after losing a first-minute goal was remarkable.
Swindin beat out McIntosh’s rising shot from a position which a perfect pass by Mortensen had created with the Arsenal still retreating.
Yet Blackpool’s constant exploiting of the offside trap nearly cost a goal in the 35th minute as Lishman beat the no-back game and from an open position shot wide.
Two minutes later the Arsenal were 2-0.
This was a goal in which both the Arsenal’s wings were concerned, Denis Compton passing another of his text book centres which McPherson returned in a slow motion lob for LISHMAN to leap at the high ball and head a perfect goal.
Half-time: Arsenal 2, Blackpool 0.
Second half
Blackpool nearly repeated Arsenal’s first minute goal in the first half minute of the second half, Garrett heading inches wide of a post a centre which McIntosh had crossed to him as, unexpectedly, the centre-forward stood unmarked within half a dozen yards of the unprotected Swindin.
That was an escape for the Arsenal. Afterwards, it was for minutes a duel almost in slow motion in the sun between the Arsenal defence and a Blackpool forward line making good passes, but too many of them.
Ten minutes of the half had gone before the Blackpool goal was in peril. Then, after Logie had refused to shoot in a scoring position, Denis Compton rocked the side net by shooting at once.
CHANCE LOST
Mortensen heads wide near goal
This was as tame a half as I have seen for a long time. The two goalkeepers were almost spectators.
The football had an authentic class about it, but no punch whatever until Swindin punched out a McIntosh centre, fell full length and was still sprawling as Mortensen shot the ball over the bar.
A minute later, with the game waking up. Farm beat out Forbes’ low scoring shot in a sideway dive at a ball bouncing fast away from him.
Blackpool had still not lost, should have made it 2-1 15 minutes from time as Mortensen shot wide a ball headed to him by Fenton not half a dozen yards from Swindin. Fenton shot into the Arsenal goalkeeper’s hands with Blackpool still pressing, but finding few shooting positions.
To the end constant Blackpool raids were repeatedly halted by the tall Arsenal defence. You could dismiss it as an end-of-the- season game. It was the first Arsenal had won since the end of February.
Attendance 47,000.
Result:
ARSENAL 2 (Lishman 1, 37 mins)
BLACKPOOL 0
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