26 August 1950 Blackpool 0 Charlton Athletic 0
IT IS THE SAME OLD, OLD STORY TODAY
All Blackpool, but no goals
MARKSMAN NEEDED
Blackpool 0, Charlton Athletic 0
By “Clifford Greenwood”
HARRY JOHNSTON, THE BLACKPOOL CAPTAIN, COULD NOT PLAY THIS AFTERNOON IN THE CHARLTON ATHLETIC MATCH.
HE CONTRACTED A CHILL DURING THE WEEK, AND AS HE STILL HAD A TEMPERATURE THIS MORNING THE YOUNG SCOT, EWAN FENTON, WAS CALLED IN AS HIS UNDERSTUDY.
The Athletic also had to make a change in a team that came to town with four points out of four, a 100 per cent, record held by only two other teams of the First Division after only a week of this relentless combat which present-day football has become.
Into a vacancy at outside-left was drafted Chris Duffy, the forward who scored the goal that beat Burnley in 1947 Cup Final. Half an hour before the kick-off the sun was shining and there were a few blue patches in the sky, which sufficed to ensure an attendance bordering on capacity.
Spion Kop packed
Loudspeaker control was marshalling people on to a packed Spion Kop and the eastern terraces as thousands still shuffled in queues to the box offices,
A fresh wind was blowing, but the field showed little sign of the recent continuous rain.
Teams:
BLACKPOOL: Farm; Shimwell, Wright; Fenton, Hayward, Kelly; Matthews, McCall, Mortensen, W J Slater, Wardle.
CHARLTON ATHLETIC: Bartram; Shreeve, Lock; Fenton (B), Phipps, Forbes; Hurst, O’Linn, Vaughan, Cullum, Duffy.
Referee: Mr F W Chadwick (Leicester).
THE GAME
First half
Eric Hayward captained Blackpool, won the toss and decided to defend the north goal.
It was a goal under immediate menace, Hurst escaping right away as a high ball soared over the full back’s head, cutting in and crossing a low centre which Farm held as he fell on to it a long way outside his goal.
It was a fast hit or miss Charlton opening. In this first minute, against a line of fast raiding forwards, Hayward made two grand split-second interceptions, heading away from a free kick and again taking a ball from Vaughan as the centre- forward ran on to a forward pass.
CHANCE MISSED
In the next minute, only the second of the afternoon, Blackpool could have taken the lead.
A raid was built on the left, was continued by Wardle with a delayed crossfield pass and ended in McCall crossing from near one post a bouncing ball which Slater missed completely as it crossed him near the other.
In the next minute, too, after Matthews had left his full back asking the familiar question “Now where’s he gone to?” Fenton lobbed forward a ball which Phipps missed in a great leap at it and which grazed off Mortensen’s head inches wide of a post as big Sam Bartram lurched across to close the gap.
DEFENCES
They reel back under forwards’ raids
Both defences were reeling back under full-line swift advances by the two forward lines.
The South African, Syd O’Linn, revealed the opportunist he can be when he shot wide of a post from the sort of position where forwards too seldom shoot these days.
Yet it was in front of the other goal that the lead was twice nearly snatched in less than five minutes.
The first time the amateur Bill Slater jerked out a long leg which deflected the ball away from the unprepared Shreeve.
It passed Bartram and was cleared off an empty line, but was only half cleared to the waiting McCall who shot it back into a defence which had raced back fast to pack its goal.
Three minutes later Slater was in the game again, and in it for the second time only because he thinks fast, because he is those few inches taller than every other Blackpool forward.
NEARLY A GOAL
This time Kelly took a free kick, hit it too low, but nearly made a goal out of it as the amateur inside-left took a nosedive at it and headed it fast and wide of a post which Bartram was not guarding.
Afterwards Blackpool’s pressure was almost continuous, the front line’s football almost the quality it reached on Monday evening.
Farm was twice in action, the second time brilliantly as he held Duffy’s long falling centre near the far post, fell backwards and held the ball grimly with a pack of men almost on top of him.
Otherwise, it was for a time nearly one-way traffic on a Charlton goal which might have fallen again as Mortensen first chased a forward pass, with Phipps at his heels, and then took his partner’s pass in a right wing raid, and from a narrow angle nearly tore a hole in the side net.
MANY SHOTS
But Blackpool were missing by inches
Young Fenton co-operated with Matthews in one raid as if he had been playing with the famous wing forward for years, and when the forward’s last pass came back to him was unprepared for it and shot a long way away from the far post.
ON THE TARGET
Yet this understudy was on the target with one shot, after Matthews and Mortensen had torn apart the left flank of Charlton’s defence and created position for Wardle to win a corner.
Inside another minute Slater thundered the ball fast over the bar from a position where a forward, who can shoot as he shoots, has scored before today.
Another corner came two minutes later, conceded by a full back making an excitable back pass to give a little succour to a defence which, under this almost continuous hammering, manifestly required it.
It was a hammering which went on and on with Mortensen taking McCall’s pass from the penalty area line and volleying a shot at a great pace over the bar.
Nobody could complain that the Blackpool forwards were not shooting this afternoon. The only complaint was that nearly all the shots were those few inches off the beam which make all the difference.
It was only in infrequent forays that the Charlton forwards moved, and only about once every five minutes that Farm was in action at all.
When he was in the game at last he held brilliantly a high centre with the sun - yes it was the sun - glaring into his eyes.
GOALKEEPER WINS RACE
Twice afterwards, McCall and Mortensen escaped into the open spaces which were appearing in Charlton’s defence.
The first time McCall ran 30 yards before stabbing a shot wide.
The second time Sam Bartram, racing out with his full-backs far away, beat the advancing Mortensen by inches to a long bouncing forward pass.
O’Linn shot a disputed free kick over the Blackpool bar with Charlton’s forwards coming into the game a little belatedly with the first half hour over.
A minute later, too, Hurst cut in from the wing and shot a ball which hit the outside of a post and cannoned away again.
Lock was a great full-back for Charlton. He was passed now and again by the elusive Matthews, but was always in position and once made a grand clearance as he sprawled on the grass.
SO NEAR, YET . . .
Both forward lines, and Blackpool’s in particular, had been so near to and yet so far from goals. And so it went on, Mortensen heading a Shimwell clearance backwards and those few inches wide of a post. Then Wardle shot a rising ball which Bartram parried with a complete serenity.
ESCAPES
Shimwell and Farm save Blackpool
For minutes it was almost a stalemate as the first half neared its end.
Yet, with five minutes of the half left Charlton would have been in front if Shimwell had not hurled himself into the path of O’Linn as the South African was preparing to shoot from a position where he could scarcely have missed, and, as the ball ran loose, if Farm had not beaten down Cullum’s shot from short range.
GOAL DISALLOWED
Two minutes later Blackpool had a goal disallowed.
There was a raid on the left with McCall and Wardle its principals. Wardle crossed one of those perfect falling centres in which he specialises.
Up to it leaped Mortensen; headed the ball away from Bartram’s right arm into the net, The celebrations were brief. A linesman’s flag, which had been lifted a couple of seconds before the ball entered the net, persuaded Mr. Chadwick to refuse a goal without consulting his lieutenant.
Half-time: Blackpool 0, Charlton Athletic 0.
SECOND HALF
The Mortensen-McCall partnership was still the spearhead of the Blackpool attack.
To repel another of these down- the centre raids Shreeve gave a corner in the second minute of the half. It went the way of all the corners which had pre- faced it, Bartram clutching it and repelling every challenge to dispossess him.
One centre by Wardle was missed not only by Mortensen but by Matthews, who had unexpectedly moved into the centre to meet it.
It was still nearly all Blackpool, and, in spite of Mr. Chadwick’s persistent refusal to give free kicks for obstruction, the pressure continued.
BARTRAM AGAIN
Another corner came as Wardle’s shot hit Shreeve and cannoned out, but again Bartram cleared it, this time with his heavyweight’s fists.
Yet a third corner followed - all in the first seven minutes of the half—an indication of the intensity of Blackpool’s pressure, but the third was worth only what the others had been and that was exactly nothing at all.
It was rapidly becoming a game of corners. Almost the first time the Athletic’s forwards crossed the halfway line during the half yet another was conceded, making four in 10 minutes.
And this corner nearly had a goal in it, Shimwell making a desperate tackle at Duffy’s, feet as the wing forward raced in to a loose ball.
BATTERING AWAY
Another couple of corners - still they came - for a Blackpool forward line battering away at a compact defence,
They prefaced a raid in which a goal was nearer than it had been all the half, Slater leaping to a high flying centre and heading down a bouncing ball which appeared to be passing inside the far post Bartram dived at it and reached it.
NO ONE THERE
A goal simply would not come. When Mortensen’s pace enabled him to beat Bartram in a race for the ball yards away from the goalkeeper’s left post, there was only a big open space with no forward in it when the ball was crossed in front of an open goal.
Yet another corner was surrendered by a Charlton defence still in a desperate but never disordered retreat - it was actually Blackpool’s seventh in the first 20 minutes of the half.
It was almost superfluous to report that nothing came of it. but in the winning of it Slater was hurt and for the next couple of minutes limped out on the left wing.
Nothing of any particular consequence happened afterwards until Mr. Chadwick found himself entangled in a forest of legs, in the end came to earth himself and had to summon both trainers on to the field before the game could begin again.
And when it began it was still moving all one way, almost continuously on to the Charlton goal
THAT GOAL
It just would not come
Hayward and Shimwell repulsed isolated breakaways by the Charlton forwards, but there were no shots whatever from Blackpool, in spite of the pressure on Sam Bartram’s goal, until the two wing half-backs had a little shooting practice on their own, the goalkeeper half losing but ultimately clearing Fenton’s shot and watching Kelly’s long range volley fall away from a post.
Fifteen minutes were left and not less than an hour’s pressure had still produced no goal for Blackpool.
Yet 14 minutes from the end the elusive goal was near as Slater headed McCall’s pass on to Bartram’s fingertips, and within less than another half minute Matthews had actually almost brushed the bar with a ball which may have been intended for a centre, but which was almost the goal which Blackpool had for so long been hunting in vain.
ON THE BAR
Ten minutes were left and Mortensen leaped to a Matthews free kick and headed it on top of the bar.
As the game neared its end, Mortensen was twice near a goal and twice deserved one, brushing a post with one great shot and compelling Bartram to a cat’s leap save near this post almost in the last minute.
Result:
BLACKPOOL 0,
CHARLTON ATHLETIC 0
COMMENTS ON THE GAME
This match was the old story of Blackpool raiding a goal for threequarters of the afternoon and still not scoring once.
It seemed incredible that a team could outplay another team as Charlton were outplayed this afternoon and still lose a point.
Yet' it happened. The inevitable conclusion must be again that until this line has another marksman all this will often happen again. There was nothing wrong with the line man for man in the open. There may have been a few too many close passes, but not all that too many.
Stanley Matthews obviously missed the passes of his captain, although Fenton, a young reserve out of position, played competently.
One result was that there was no riddled wing of defence facing the front line, but Charlton, nevertheless, were in such complete retreat that not all their resolution should have salvaged a point for them out of the match!
The Blackpool defence had no great test, but acquitted itself with almost a complete efficiency. The tackling of Shimwell, the pace of Wright and the alert interceptions of Hayward made it a barrier on which an attack aften reduced to three men, could make no great impression.
CAN Blackpool avenge the Burnley defeat at Turf Moor on Tuesday evening (6-30)?
If it is avenged it will be the first time that Blackpool have won on the Burnley ground since the war.
Yet five teams won there last season and seven took a point home. So it could be done and, on the evidence of the first match, for whatever it may be worth, Blackpool may win - if only the forwards acquire that little extra punch.
Not that Turf Moor has been exactly a happy hunting ground for Blackpool forwards in postwar football.
A goal has yet to be scored on the ground by Blackpool since Burnley rose into the First Division, for the first two games were lost 2-0 and 1-0, and last season the match ended in a goalless draw.
It’s about time that famine ended.
Another all - Lancashire match is on the card for next weekend - a visit to Manchester United at Old Trafford, where Blackpool created a sensation last season by winning 2-1 with a team which had Harry Johnston at centre-half and not a few reserves in it.
That was not the first time, either, that Blackpool had beaten the United in Manchester in postwar football. A year earlier a first- minute goal at Maine-road had snatched the points in a 4-3 game, and a point was won there in a 1-1 match in 1947-48.
It is, in fact, only the 1946-47 game that has been lost - and that was by 3-0 - in the after-the-war series.
So if, on the horses-for-courses theory, Blackpool cannot score and therefore cannot win at Burnley, Blackpool are a good away selection for Old Trafford.
If only forecasting were as easy as that!
THEY SAID “STANLEY MATTHEWS IS FINISHED"
Well, what have they to say about him now?
By Clifford Greenwood
SPORTS SNAPSHOTS
BY "CLIFFORD GREENWOOD" 26 August 1950
HE HAS GREAT FAITH IN BLACKPOOL
MINE HOST of the Squirrel, Mr. Billy Muir, is numbered among the minority whose faith in Blackpool football teams never wanes.
When the team went to play the League champions at Portsmouth in the first away match of last season, he sent a wire to Manager Joe Smith containing the three terse words, “Get ’em licked.’
And Blackpool obliged. Last week he sent a similar telegram on the eve of the match with the Second Division champions at Tottenham. And again Blackpool obliged.
Mr. Muir should address one of these telegrams to the Blackpool manager before every match. It would be cheap at the price.
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IT was nice of the Blackpool Cricket Club to send a telegram of good wishes to Eric Hayward and Bill Slater on the eve of the Blackpool match at Tottenham.
The centre-half appreciated it a lot, for his first game in the First Division since last February was inevitably an ordeal for him.
And the amateur international was encouraged by the message, too
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SALUTE to a sportsman.
Charlie Withers, the young full-back of Tottenham, had a nightmare of an afternoon against Stanley Matthews a week ago.
"I'd been told all about him," he said after the match, “but I never dreamed he had all those moves.”
Yet Mr. Withers had no reason to reproach himself. He was often deceived, but full-backs longer in the game than he has ever been have as often been left asking, “Now, where’s he gone?”
And not all of them have played against the king of all the will o’ the wisps with such scrupulous concern for the game’s decencies.
It was, in fact, an immaculately clean match everywhere.
***
MET Billy Steel, football’s problem forward, at White Hart-lane after the Spurs-Blackpool match.
With his Press conferences in Glasgow, his almost arrogant ultimatums to competing clubs, and his general flinging down of the gauntlet to authority!! people think of him as a conceited little cox-comb.
Yet when you meet him he is nothing of the I sort. He talks quietly, reasonably, comports himself with a disarming modesty, says,
"After all, I have to think of my own interests when all the glory’s gone and I’ve played my last game.”
What happens to Jim Blair, the ex-Blackpool forward, if the famous Scot signs for Leyton Orient?
At inside-left, which is Steel’s position, Blair scored the Orient’s only goal at Plymouth last weekend.
***
CONVERSATION piece on the track bordering the White Hart-lane playing pitch a week ago.
Policeman (surveying the green grass growing all around): It seems a pity to spoil it by running all over it.
Stanley Mortensen: Maybe; but what I want to spoil are those nice new nets!
Well, he nearly tore a hole in one of them,
***
INTERESTING to notice on the seasons first day that:
Eddie Burbanks made one of Hull City’s goals at West Ham.
Bill Ormond, the ex- Blackpool reserve, scored one of Oldham’s four against Rotherham in the 4-5 match.
Willie Buchan opened the seven-goal Gateshead avalanche against Accrington Stanley.
“Verdi” Godwin had a goal for Mansfield at Wrexham.
***
THE first of Mr. George Sheard’s census chart compiled during the Spurs-Blackpool match last weekend was as informative and interesting as ever. It revealed that -
(a) The Spurs forwards fell full-tilt into Blackpool’s offside trap eight times.
(b) In spite of the defeat, the Spurs won six corners to Blackpool’s two -one in each half.
(c) The goal-kicks were almost equal - 12 for the Spurs. 11 for Blackpool.
(d) And each team had 26 throws-in.
And this alert statistician’s stopwatch recorded that Mr. T. W. Rand played three minutes 35 seconds overtime in the second half - as because of stoppages, he was entitled to -and that Harry Johnston’s second goal was scored in the second minute of this extra time.
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Slater in the middle? - I say "No
TWICE inside a week, revealing how serious are his opinions on the subject, 1 have had a letter from Mr. Wilf M. Hall, of Hungerford-road, St. Annes a correspondent whose views on football I have good cause to respect =advocating W. J. Slater as Blackpool’s centre-forward, writes Clifford Greenwood.
“Once again,” he writes today, “ I ask for this forward line”:
Matthews, Mortensen, Slater, McCall, Wardle.
What do I think of it?
I agree with his general conclusion that the inside forwards should be scoring the goals that “Matthews’ scintillating play on one wing and Wardle’s craft on the other so richly deserve.”
I agree, too, that Bill Slater’s height might enable him to convert those high centres which both wing forwards cross.
But has he the pace, is there the “devil" in his football which are demanded of the present-day centre-forward? And, with all respect, I think the answer is in the negative.
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