7 October 1950 Blackpool 3 Chelsea 2
Fighting display pulls the game round
PATCHY DEFENCE
Blackpool 3, Chelsea 2
By “Clifford Greenwood”
HALF an hour before the kick-off in the Chelsea match at Blackpool this afternoon there were signs that it was to be another capacity attendance for an Illuminations game.
Loudspeaker control was operating early in the afternoon, clearing the packed areas in the corner of the Kop and the eastern terraces.
There were 30,000 people inside the gates with 15 minutes to go, and the inevitable reports that a few of the gates were being closed shortly afterwards.
Chelsea, who had not won a game at Blackpool since the end of the war, had spent the week at St. Annes in preparation for the match.
Blackpool had W. J. Slater back in the attack, and Albert Hobson had his first game of the season in the First Division with Matthews away in Belfast.
SCOTS SELECTORS?
There was an unconfirmed report that Scottish selectors were among those present.
The sun made one of its unaccustomed appearances, but a high wind was blowing in gusts.
Teams:
BLACKPOOL: Farm; Shimwell, Garrett: Johnston, Hayward, Kelly; Hobson Mudie, Mortensen, W. J. Slater, Perry.
CHELSEA: Medhurst; Bathgate, Willemse; Armstrong Saunders, Mitchell; Campbell, Bowie, Bentley, Billington, Gray.
Referee: Mr. R. J. Leafe (Nottingham).
First half
It was a cross wind, and when Chelsea won the toss Roy Bentley, probably not knowing what exactly to do about it, decided that his defence should protect the south goal.
Harry Medhurst was twice in action in the first minute, holding a long free-kick by Shimwell before beating out at full length a shot by Mudie after the little inside-right had been put into shooting distance by Hobson.
That was in the first minute. In the second Blackpool might have gone in front.
A long clearance by Garrett found a big gap in Chelsea’s defence.
SHOOTS WIDE
Mortensen raced into the open space, found himself unexpectedly in a shooting position, and lashed far away from the far post a ball which in the end nearly hit the corner flag.
That was a chance - and a big chance - missed.
Fast, attractive football was played by both the forward lines in these opening minutes.
After a couple of brisk, crisp raids built on the short pass, Billington shot wide of a post and Bentley took a nosedive to a left-wing centre and headed down a bouncing ball which Farm parried and held as he fell to his left almost on to a post.
Goals seemed to be near all the time.
Hobson shot wide after Slater and Mortensen had made position for him, and twice afterwards Blackpool forwards hesitated and lost the ball to the fast tackling of the Chelsea defence.
CHELSEA GOAL
The wandering Bentley makes it
Jn the 10th minute Chelsea went in front. It was a good goal, created chiefly by the famous Roy Bentley wander act. The Chelsea leader raced out to the left wing, took half the Blackpool defence with him. and crossed into the centre a fast low ball.
JIM BOWIE darted on to it, and shot from a couple of yards inside the penalty area a ball which hit the underside of the bar and cannoned off it over the line.
Chelsea, in this one fast, disciplined move had taken a lead which Blackpool might twice have snatched earlier.
Yet it made no particular difference. Inside four minutes the teams were level. This was a good goal, too.
Slater Equaliser
It was Hobson who made it. Calling for a pass and running fast on to it when it was given him, he took it away half a dozen yards before crossing a centre which Stanley Matthews would not have disowned.
In perfect position, the tall SLATER leaped to it. and headed the ball fast into the far wall of the net yards away from Medhurst’s outstretched left arm.
Mr. Johnnie Lynas was required to attend Slater as he fell in a heap after heading the ball, but the inside-left was in position again before the kick-off.
The Blackpool forwards were good to watch afterwards and in particular on the right wing, where Hobson was taking his chance magnificently. Twice in a couple of minutes he outwitted his full-back and was once mightily unlucky not to win a corner.
IN FRONT AGAIN
Two men fall - and ball rolls into net
Yet in the 20th minute Chelsea were in front again. This time it was a goal fit for an album of football curiosities.
A Blackpool advance was repelled with a long clearance down the centre.
With the odds about 100-1 against him, BENTLEY chased it. Out to meet him, probably a fraction late, raced the deserted Farm.
The two men and the ball appeared to meet in a mass collision, and with both men falling the ball was left to roll on and on to an empty line and to cross it, with Shimwell chasing it in vain.
Mortensen, in a great leap, nearly put Blackpool level again within a minute as Kelly crossed a high ball into a packed goal area.
BLACKPOOL RAIDS
Blackpool, without completely outplaying Chelsea, were still raiding in a proportion of about four raids to one.
The Blackpool defence was still not so impressive as I have seen it. Bentley’s inclination to roam about and often to find the unmarked man with his pass was opening gaps in it.
Nothing, however, of any moment happened for a time after those three goals in 20 minutes, yet a fourth goal should have come with exactly 31 minutes gone.
Then Medhurst for once mis-fielded and mishit a pass by Hobson, lost the ball, fell forward on it and lost it again to Mortensen.
The Blackpool centre-forward, cutting inside on a goal which had two full-backs on its line, smashed a shot into the side net from a narrow angle.
LEVEL AGAIN
Hobson pass makes a second Slater goal
It was still only a goal deferred, for two minutes later Hobson made his second goal of the match, and a neat precise goal it was.
The outside-right put a pass Inside to Mudie, who squared it inside again to SLATER. The inside-left, racing on it, half sliding, stabbed it past Medhurst before a split-open defence could close the gap in front of him.
Five minutes later Blackpool were unlucky not to take the lead for the first time.
A free-kick was conceded by a pressed Chelsea defence on the edge of the penalty area. Shimwell came up for it.
CHELSEA ESCAPE
A mass of men positioned themselves in expectation of one of the old thunderbolts.
Instead, the full-back almost rolled the ball between them, and the unsighted Medhurst was still falling to it as it hit the base of post, cannoned out, and was furiously hooked across the face of an open goal by Johnston.
The rest of the half was almost completely Blackpool’s, with Chelsea going back everywhere.
Two minutes before the interval in a Chelsea breakaway one was left admiring the chivalry of Bentley, who never seriously challenged Farm as the goalkeeper dived at his feet after a bouncing ball had once eluded him.
That was good to see.
Half - time:
Blackpool 2, Chelsea 2.
Second half
After a number of moves leading nowhere in particular, one of Eddie Shimwell’s free-kicks nearly produced goal No. 5 in the fourth minute of the half.
This time, after his first shot had been repelled, he hit back a second which Medhurst half lost as he fell at the foot of a post and retrieved brilliantly with a couple of Blackpool forwards on top of him.
It was nearly all Blackpool afterwards, with Mortensen constantly moving to the ball and losing it to fast tackles which he could not escape.
SHIMWELL THERE
Chelsea forwards still need watching
A corner was won, and, after it had been half-cleared three times, Kelly shot barely wide of a post from Perry’s neat pass.
Some of the pace had gone out of the football, and some of the incident, too.
It required a desperate tackle by Shimwell to dispossess Bowie after the inside-right had taken a pass in the inside-left position.
They still needed a lot of watching, these Chelsea forwards. They were not in the game a lot, but their football always scorned the conventional.
I noticed Garrett make two peat clearances after big gaps had been torn in the centre and open territory exposed yards in front of George Farm.
MORTENSEN HURT
With nearly 20 minutes of the half gone, Mortensen, after failing under a tackle and being given attention, limped for a time at. outside-left, with Bill Perry in the centre of the line.
Blackpool still attacked, and, in fact, after a brilliant little raid by Slater, nearly went in front, Hobson s centre being beaten out by Medhurst desperately, with Mortensen and Perry leaping with him to a high ball.
The retreating Chelsea defence conceded two free kicks in rapid succession as Mortensen went back into the centre again,
A third came for a case of obstruction on Slater which nearly everybody missed except the vigilant Mr. Leafe.
This free-kick, too, led to a corner.
And the corner had not been cleared before Mortensen, in his old manner, headed back a ball which escaped Medhurst and flew out by the far post,:
AHEAD!
A goal in the Mortensen manner
Within two minutes - the 23rd of the half - Blackpool were in front for the first time in the afternoon.
This was a goal as STAN MORTENSEN was scoring them not so long ago.
A raid was built on the left. A centre was crossed too fast for the leader, who went after it, reached it, and from a narrow angle hooked it far away from Medhurst’s right hand into the far wall of the net.
Nobody could deny that Blackpool’s pressure had entitled the team to the lead.
It was a lead which afterwards Blackpool were constantly threatening to increase, with Chelsea’s forward line in the game only in isolated raids.
NEARLY A PENALTY
The Chelsea defence was being forced to desperation and sometimes even to ruthlessness. It was only by a yard that a penalty was escaped when Johnston was smashed to earth as he manoeuvred into a shooting position.
The free-kick was negative, and, in fact, almost produced a goal for Chelsea, and would have done if Kelly had not been fast with his tackle into an open space left by a defence waiting for the offside whistle.
Afterwards it was Chelsea who were raiding as their forwards had never raided earlier in the half and with only 10 minutes left, in fact, and Blackpool leading only by a goal, the game was not yet won.
Blackpool, without having to withstand anything approaching a siege, were content to bold out in the end.
Result:
BLACKPOOL 3 (Slater 14, 33, Mortensen 68)
CHELSEA 2 (Bowie 10, Bentley 20)
COMMENTS ON THE GAME
IN spite of being twice in the lead, Chelsea met their usual fate at Blackpool today.
Blackpool deserved to win if only for the fighting qualities which the team revealed after losing two of the sort of goals which a Blackpool defence has not been in the habit of losing in recent times.
This defence took a long time, too long, to find an answer to the riddle which was presented in the centre of the field by the constant and intelligent wandering out of position of the Chelsea forwards.
It was never, to be frank, as sound as it has been while its present big reputation was being made.
RESOLUTE BACKS
All the time Shimwell was resolute, and his partner, Garrett, seldom allowed his wing to escape and in the end, in fact, was almost its complete master.
It was the half-backs who for a long time were not the line they have been, even if in the last hour Johnston had his great moments.
In the first half it was almost a case of an understudy stealing the show, so adroit and direct was Albert Hobson.
IN AND OUT
The front line, taking the game from beginning to end, was in and out, but when it was in the game it was making its chances, even if it could not always convert them.
The class of W. J. Slater was revealed, but there is not the punch in the middle which there ought to be, gamely as Mortensen and Mudie were prepared to go after everything.
Blackpool won without reaching 100 per cent - but deserved to win.
ARE the League champions - First Division title-holders for two successive years - ever going to beat Blackpool?
Portsmouth have not done it yet in postwar football; have, in fact, not won a game against Blackpool since August 31, 1938.
Since that long ago day before the war the clubs have met nine times, and in those nine games Portsmouth have played a couple of 1-1 draws at Fratton Park and in the other seven have finished without a point.
Now they clash again, far away on the South coast next weekend, on a ground where this' season, the champions are again undefeated, where three goals only have been lost in five games.
On contemporary records, therefore, it is a No.1 for the coupons at Fratton Park next Saturday. On the horses-for-courses formula it is everything else except a No.1.
Blackpool’s 3-2 win in this match last season, when Stanley Mortensen shot a couple of late goals to somersault the score from 2-1 for Portsmouth at a time when the end of the long sequence seemed near was, in my opinion, Blackpool’s best match of the season.
A repeat of that show and Blackpool can put the hoodoo on the champions again. The odds must be against it, but it is strange how Blackpool produce that little something extra when they meet this South coast team.
NEW AND HIGHER KOP IS FIRST PART OF MASTER PLAN
You won’t know Bloomfield-road when -
By Clifford Greenwood
Derby game Stamps Harry Bedford a prophet
BY "CLIFFORD GREENWOOD" 7 OCTOBER 1950
MET Harry Bedford at Derby, writes Clifford Greenwood.
The former Blackpool centre-forward who went to the County from these parts during the ’20’s has long ago played his last game, confesses, in fact, that he has Celebrated his 50th birthday,
But he still watches nearly every game at the Baseball Ground.
For years Bedford was landlord of an hotel near the enclosure’s gates. Now he is employed in a famous motor factory. He is one of the three Blackpool centre-forwards - the Others were Jimmy Hampson and Stanley Mortensen - who has played for England since the first world war.
Bedford is also apparently a prophet. For, before last weekend’s match opened, he said, “Jack Stamps will score four today - I can feel it in my bones!”
It was only a joke. It became for Blackpool a minor tragedy.
***
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 goal kicks 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.
***
A place for George
SO George Eastham is back in circulation again. And about time, too.
Football can still do with a few craftsmen in it these days when the race seems to be only for the swift, when the nearer a man speed approaching a greyhound’s meal, average over 100 yards the greater footballer he is supposed to be.
George has gone to Hyde United the club in whose goal Eric Roxburgh finished his career, was among the goals in a cup-tie last weekend.
Lincoln City gave him a free transfer at the end of last season, and there was a time when he had decided to call it a day.
Eastham can, I know, make the one move too many, can be a shade too ornamental, but he was once one of the game’s greatest ball players, and there are too few of them in football at present.
***
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