14 October 1950 Portsmouth 2 Blackpool 0
Gallant defence yields twice in last five minutes
GEORGE FARM’S DAY
Portsmouth 2, Blackpool 0
By “Clifford Greenwood”
“PORTSMOUTH’S HOODOO TEAM,” THEY CALL BLACKPOOL AT FRATTON PARK.
One is not surprised. It was as long ago as August 31, 1938, since Blackpool had lost to a Portsmouth team either on the south or north-west coasts.
Intent on ending this remarkable sequence, Portsmouth relied for only the second time this season on the men who won the League championship last season for the second successive time.
It was a team strengthened by the return, after the 4=0 defeat at Bolton a week ago, of Reg Flewin and Jim Dickinson, the English international half-back.
Blackpool, who had expected to be playing Harry Potts in this match, had in the field 10 of the 11 men who beat Chelsea last week, with Stanley Matthews back again as the 11th.
It was a continuance of the Indian summer on the south coast today, with the sun shining since early morning and the temperature higher than it had been for months.
EARLY QUEUES
Queues as early as noon forecast an attendance which was soaring towards 50,000 half an hour before the kick-off.
Teams:
PORTSMOUTH: Butler; Hindmarsh, Ferrier; Scoular, Flewin. Dickinson; Harris, Reid (D), Clarke, Phillips, Froggatt.
BLACKPOOL: Farm; Shimwell, Garrett; Johnston, Hayward, Kelly; Matthews. Mudie, Mortensen W. J. Slater, Perry.
Referee: Mr. J. B. Jackson (Watford).
LIKE A CUPTIE
Mascots parading with banners, the band playing the famous “Pompey Chimes,” ambulance squads constantly being called to the packed terraces, the sun painting the field a brilliant emerald green, the rattles and the bells - the scene before 3 o’clock resembled a Cuptie.
The reception of both teams, too, was as turbulent as at a Cup match, with the Fleet in port cheering Blackpool to the man, as if the entire Royal Navy had been born within a stone’s throw of Blackpool Tower.
First half
Two Canadian tourists, Harry Johnston and Reg Flewin, faced each other for the tossing of the coin. Blackpool won it , and Portsmouth defended a goal facing the unfamiliar sun.
It was the other goal that was first menaced with a raid which ended in Clarke shooting a long way wide of a post, with 50,000 people 'in a regular hubbub.
The next half-minute, and trainer Johnnie Lynas was on the field, called out to Stanley Mortensen, who fell in a tackle and could not rise as half a dozen men went to his aid.
The centre-forward was soon pronounced fit again, and, in fact, direct from the free-kick which Mr. Jackson gave, W. J. Slater built a perfect raid, eluding three men and serving Matthews with a pass out, via Mudie, on to an unguarded wing.
WIDE OF POST
Over came the centre. Mudie darted to it and shot it wide of a post, where the flying ball escaped Perry by inches as the South African hurled himself at it.
That was a picture-book attack. Portsmouth retaliated at once. There was a raid on the left which Kelly repelled in the jaws of goal with a great headed clearance.
There was another on the other wing which ended in Phillips racing on to a long forward pass, taking it to within six yards of Farm, and lobbing up a ball which the goalkeeper held brilliantly.
BRILLIANT FARM
Three-man challenge, but he saves
Within another minute, too, Farm was in brilliant action again, holding a high centre from the right wing with three Portsmouth forwards challenging him.
Yet these advances were soon interrupted.
Blackpool made raid after raid afterwards. In one Slater shot high and wide and not, for him, a bit handsomely, with a clear field in front of him.
In another, Mudie hit a ball so fast that Butler lost it, lurched on his line, and retrieved it.
Within another half-minute the Portsmouth goalkeeper fielded superbly a Matthews centre which hit a full-back and cannoned back to him.
It was magnificent football by both front lines.
There was purpose m every move, design in every pass.
MUDIE SHOOTS
One attack was in possession of the match for a couple of minutes. Back went the other to harass the defence facing it, to open it, but never completely to split it.
Jackie Mudie was playing as if under orders to shoot every time and all the time, shot wide - a long way wide - twice from his partner’s passes but still shot, which was good to see in a Blackpool forward.
But it was in front of the other goal that there was the drama, almost nonstop at times. Repeatedly Farm beat out centres from both wings or held them either under the bar or inches outside a post.
BLACKPOOL RAIDS
Forwards twice near to scoring
In front of him, too, I saw Garrett make one grand clearance, and his partner, Shimwell, thunder another away.
Yet after all Portsmouth's pressure - and while it lasted it packed a mulekick punch - it was Blackpool who were twice near a goal in the 16th and 18th minutes.
The first raid was a curio. Kelly was its architect, took a pass out on to the wing, crossed the ball as if he were a wing forward.
Mortensen moved deliberately out of its path, left a shooting chance to Perry, who lashed in a fast, rising shot which seemed to brush Butler’s fingers as he leaped desperately at it.
The second move should have produced a goal, I think.
MORTENSEN DASH
Bill Slater opened the Portsmouth defence, and Mortensen went after the pass, swerved one man, outpaced another, and, after making position for himself brilliantly, hooked inside from a scoring distance a ball which Butler reached as he fell to his right and punched wide of a post as he sprawled on his line.
That was a corner - Blackpool’s first - and it was followed by another as Scoular, without a trace of apology, hooked over the line a bouncing ball which had escaped both Portsmouth’s fullbacks and left the goal wide open.
Twice afterwards the fall of the Portsmouth goal was imminent.
In the first raid Butler snatched Mortensen’s astute pass away from the pursuing Mudie.
PERRY’S EFFORT
Shot doubles up the Portsmouth ’keeper
In the second raid - and at this time Blackpool were advancing constantly - the wandering Perry tore down the centre after a loose ball and reached it as the goalkeeper hesitated on his line and at last came out.
The winger shot a ball which hit the man in the green jersey and doubled him up like a jackknife, but which was still held in a firm grip as the goalkeeper fell at the forward's feet.
It was still 0-0 at the end of half an hour. There could have been three or four goals and not fewer than two of them for Blackpool, whose football was still as good as it always seems to be on this ground.
GARRETT CLEARS
In front of the Blackpool goal Garrett twice headed down and away high centres from the left wing on to which the greyhound Harris was racing.
Then, after a Blackpool raid in which Hugh Kelly became a forward again had been repelled, Reid built a raid and finished it from his partner’s pass with a shot which would have shattered the bar if it had hit it instead of missing by an inch or two.
With the Portsmouth forwards almost dictating the day again, Hayward headed back into Farm’s hands as if at Tuesday morning practice.
Yet still neither team could assume anything approaching a dictatorship.
No sooner had this attack been repulsed than Blackpool escaped on the right.
SURPRISE SHOT
And the marksman was Matthews
A perfect pass reached Matthews, and the outside-right, instead of outwitting two men and crossing a centre, outwitted only one instead and shot a ball which Butler, surprised by its pace, seemed to punch over the bar. even if Mr Jackson refused to give a comer That was in the 35th minute of this mile-a-minute match. In the 37th minute Portsmouth as nearly went in front as ever they had done.
There was a raid on the right flank, a high centre which escaped Blackpool’s defence and which not even George Farm, brilliant this afternoon, could reach,
AN ESCAPE
Down into an open space the ball fell.
Big Doug Reid was on the grass near it, could not have heard Froggatt’s call, and hooked the ball backwards and inches over the bar as the fairhaired outside-left was racing in
That was an escape for Blackpool and yet to be frank, the first major escape the Blackpool goal had had, so strong in the tackle had been the defence.
In a Blackpool breakaway - and Blackpool had been reduced to break aways in the closing minutes of the half - Slater headed low into Butler’s hands from Matthews’ centre.
MORTENSEN LIMPS
Portsmouth’s pressure continued until the interval, Shimwell, in one raid heading out, a thunderbolt of a shot from almost under the bar,
I noticed that Stanley Mortensen was limping, often went out on the right wing as the halftime approached, with Stanley Matthews for the first time in his life in the centre.
Half - time: Portsmouth 0, Blackpool 0
Second half
Blackpool opened the second half with Stanley Mortensen still limping but back in the centre of the front line.
After the offside whistle had halted Portsmouth’s first raid Kelly brilliantly retrieved his first major error of the afternoon.
Racing back to protect his flank after his back pass had gone wrong, he closed the gap and, to a thunder of cheers, repelled the raid unaided.
As soon as Mortensen was given possession of the ball by Johnston’s great forward pass in the second minute of the half he fell to earth, and, after the trainer had been called to him, hobbled out on to the left wing.
MUDIE LEADS
Mudie went into the centre, and immediately Matthews built a raid for him but in the end hit a full-back with his pass after swerving 30 yards down field.
Froggatt headed barely wide of a post in one Portsmouth advance, but, strangely, it was Blackpool for a time who, with virtually four forwards, set the pace everywhere.
The Portsmouth defence might, in fact, have surrendered a goal in the 10th minute of the half to the magic of Matthews, who beat two men in the space of the proverbial sixpence out on the line, rammed the ball inside, and crossed it low to Mudie, who had it whipped off his boot by Reg Flewin’s last second tackle.
TOO HIGH
Slater lashes ball over the bar
A minute later, too, this Portsmouth goal nearly again fell as Mortensen hooked inside another centre and Slater lashed it over the bar from a scoring position.
Down swept Portsmouth after this escape, and would definitely have gone in front if Bill Perry, racing back into the right back position, had not flung himself in the path of Froggatt as the outside-left was running in fast on to a loose ball with the goal gaping wide open in front of him.
Half the Blackpool defence patted the young forward on the back for this resolute tackle.
Another minute, and with Portsmouth all out for the elusive lead, the goal to make it 1-0 was near again.
FARM’S CLEARANCE
This time Phillips went through from a position which looked suspiciously offside. Out to meet him raced Farm.
The two men met. The ball ran loose, with Shimwell back on the empty line, and was scooped up and cleared by the goalkeeper as he fell at the lone forward’s feet.
There was an immediate Blackpool breakaway in which Mudie shot Slater’s pass wide of a post, but for minutes afterwards all the traffic was on the Blackpool goal, and furious traffic it was, too.
Bill Perry made another clearance in a full-back position, and Farm dived brilliantly to reach and hold a Doug. Reid free-kick which pierced the rank of men massing for it.
On and on the raids stormed. In one of them Farm jerked out a leg to repel a fast low shot by Reid.
In another, Hayward smashed out a scoring shot almost under the bar.
Seldom have I seen Blackpool under such a storm of raids.
Seldom have I seen Blackpool defence so sound, so fast into the tackle, playing with such grim, dauntless resolution.
And all the time nearly 50,000 people - the official figures were 47,821 - were chanting the “Pompey Chimes” and the old goal war cry “One, two, three, four.” Yet still a goal would not come.
And in the middle of this hurricane there was a Blackpool clearance, a pursuit of it by Mudie, the centre-forward, all alone in front of the Portsmouth goalkeeper, and a shot sliced yards away from a post. The Blackpool defence surrendered at last five minutes from time. Strangely, the goal came after Blackpool had been attacking non-stop for four of the intervening five minutes.
CLARKE’S GOAL
There was a - long clearance. Came a raid down the right wing, a duplicate of a dozen raids before it.
This time Harris delayed his centre until a man was in position, and the man waiting for it, CLARKE, in a great leap headed wide of the gallant Farm’s outstretched right arm to end the Blackpool hoodoo on the champions and to send 50,000 people wild.
It was merely the inevitable when two minutes later PHILLIPS shot a brilliant No. 2 from 20 yards out.
Result:
PORTSMOUTH 2 (Clarke 85, Phillips 87)
BLACKPOOL 0
COMMENTS ON THE GAME
They will always call this George Farm’s match.
The Blackpool goalkeeper had a game of international class in a Blackpool defence which in the second half, of this game won back all the medals it lost at Derby and in the match a week ago.
Not a man in it but was all resolution, and sometimes in the last half-hour every fit man in a tangerine jersey - 10 in number, with Stanley Mortensen a limping passenger - was in it.
Dominating the day was Blackpool’s brilliant goalkeeper.
The irony of it was that after a 50-50 first half, which was as good a half as I have seen this season, the skeleton Blackpool forward line had chances, chiefly created for it by the superb Matthews, which could have won [ the match.
OFF TARGET
These forwards were prepared to shoot today, shot a lot in the first half, but could not shoot on the target.
Bill Perry had an afternoon in which his mileage must have bordered on a record, was one of the men of the match, and in the centre of Blackpool’s defence Eric Hayward was the dominating personality of old.
It was a strange game. Blackpool had to produce one of the greatest rearguard actions for years to hold the champions at all and yet it was a game which they might have won before the Portsmouth front line snatched both points in those last dramatic five minutes.
EXCEPT for Burnley the teams which have visited Blackpool during the first two months of this season have been exclusively from London and the Midlands.
There is to be another visit by a team from the Midlands next week, when for only the second time since the war West Bromwich Albion come to town.
The last First Division match which the Albion played at Blackpool before their 1948-49 promotion was on April 30, 1938, when they were beaten 3-1. One of Blackpool’s three goals was scored by a wing-half playing as an experiment at outside- left. His name was Harry Johnston.
Nearly 12 years passed before the team from the Hawthorns reappeared beside the seaside. That was on March 11 this year.
There was nothing between the teams until the last 20 minutes. Then in rapid succession Stanley Mortensen scored one goal and W. J. Slater shot a couple, and the Albion lost 0-3, avenging the defeat by the only goal a month later in the postponed match which was played on the ground where in an earlier game, Blackpool had been winning 2-1 until the fog caused an abandonment.
Now what happens?
The Albion won a point in a 1-1 draw last week at Derby, where Blackpool a week earlier had lost 1-4.
If logic meant anything in football, which it doesn’t, the Albion should, on this basis, beat Blackpool next week, and it is a fact that a team which has a forward line with one Irish international, Dave Walsh, in the centre, and a defence with Jack Vernon at centre-half, will offer something other than a token resistance.
But the Albion have won only once away from home this season, and one can scarcely see them winning for the second time at Blackpool.
POTTS £20,000 MAY NOT BE LAST BIG OFFER
Bid for another star?
By Clifford Greenwood
TOP OF THE BILL IS BILL
BY "CLIFFORD GREENWOOD" 14 OCTOBER 1950
WHO IS LEVEL AS LEADING MARKSMAN FOR BLACKPOOL WITH STANLEY MORTENSEN THIS YEAR?
W. J. SLATER, THE AMATEUR INTERNATIONAL.
Slater has only four goals to his name, admittedly, which is not a total to set the Ribble and Wyre on fire, and yet, writes Clifford Greenwood, it is the first time in history that an amateur has shared top-of-the-billing in the scoring sheet for Blackpool after the first two months of a football season,
Nice work. Bill!
Slater will have no greater conceit of himself - and he has precisely none whatever at the present time - I put it on record that he is justifying all the faith Blackpool have had in him since he was persuaded by Jack Cross, the Bournemouth forward, to offer himself for a wartime trial at Blackpool.
Said a Chelsea director after the match last weekend: ‘‘He’s the best inside forward I’ve seen this season.
Slow? He’s not fast, I admit, but he’s not half as slow as he seems to be, for he’s thinking fast all the time.”
***
FIGURES TELL THE STORY
STATISTICS TELL THE TALE OF THE BLACKPOOL - DERBY COUNTY MATCH A WEEK AGO AS A COLUMN OF COMMENTARY COULD NOT TELL IT.
One of Mr. George Sheard’s census charts reveals that the County’s forwards compelled the Blackpool defence to concede six corners during the match.
The Blackpool frontline won only one - and that was as early as the eighth minute.
Harry Brown, the Derby goalkeeper from Notts County, took only six goalkicks during the match. George Farm had to take 10.
And the Derby frontline hurled itself into the fray with such fury that it careered into the offside trap no fewer than 10 times.
Yes, this was the County’s game almost everywhere.
***
THESE are the men who played for Blackpool in the last game - before this afternoon’s match - that Portsmouth ever won against Blackpool:
Roxburgh; Blair (D.), Sibley; Farrow, Hayward, Johnston; Munro, Buchan (W.), O’Donnell (F.), Finan and Dawson.
That was 12 years ago - on August 31 - and yet with the exception of Alec Roxburgh and George Farrow, who called it a day last season, all are still in the game.
Alec Munro and Danny Blair are on the Blackpool administrative staff. Eric Sibley is player- manager of Lytham, and Frank O’Donnell holds a similar post at Buxton.
Eric Hayward and Harry Johnston are still in the Blackpool half-back line.
Willie Buchan is scoring for Gateshead and Bob Finan for Wigan, and Ken Dawson is still in and out of the Falkirk front line.
Sometimes the years do not take such a relentless toll in football. But for nine out of 11 men who were playing in a First Division team 12 years ago still to be serving the game approaches a record.
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