18 November 1950 Blackpool 3 Huddersfield Town 1
Huddersfield brilliant in attack but it’s goals that count
MATTHEWS THE STAR
Blackpool 3, Huddersfield Town 1
By “Clifford Greenwood”
IT WAS A CASE OF ACCENT ON YOUTH AT BLACKPOOL THIS AFTERNOON FOR THE HUDDERSFIELD TOWN MATCH.
For the first time ever Blackpool fielded a front line with three 20-year-old forwards in it, one of them Alan Withers, who had not graduated out of the Lancashire Combination at the beginning of the season, playing his first game in the First Division.
Stanley Mortensen led this young squad, with another English international, Stanley Matthews, completing the forward line.
The Town rested Gordon Hepplewhite, the strong-man centre-half, and Introduced Donald McEvoy into a defence which had lost 28 goals in nine away games this season.
The attendance was the smallest of the season for a Saturday game, and when th.3 teams took the field scarcely reached 20,000
STANDING POOLS
Inside the centre circle and in a broad pathway down the middle, the turf was waterlogged, with small standing pools on the centre line.
Teams:
BLACKPOOL: Farm; Shimwell, Garrett; Johnston, Hayward, Kelly (H.); Matthews, Mudie, Mortensen. Withers, Perry.
HUDDERSFIELD TOWN: Mills; Gallogly, Kelly (L.); Battye, McEvoy, Boot; McKenna, Nightingale, Glazzard, Hassall, Metcalfe.
Referee: Mr. G. Todd (Darlington).
First half
Blackpool lost the toss and faced the wind in defence of the north goal.
In the first minute this goal almost fell. Vic Metcalfe, that grand wing forward, was allowed almost casually to take position for a shot by a defence which appeared to be expecting a pass.
It was a shot that came - a shot so fast that Farm had to leap high at it, twisting in mid-air, before punching over the bar for a corner a ball which was rising in beneath the bar.
That corner was followed by another, and it had not been cleared either, before Battye had driven in a fast low ball which Farm held on his knees as if he were a cricketer crouching in the slips.
All the order was in the Town’s football in the opening minutes and good football it was, too, fast on to the ball, with every pass being made with deliberate design.
WITHERS RAID
The first Blackpool forward to escape into the Town’s territory was young Alan Withers.
When the chance came, the young recruit took it admirably, making great pace down the left wing before crossing a ball which skidded away from Mortensen and both the Huddersfield fullbacks.
This was great football. It continued, too, as Stanley Matthews, obviously not thinking of Parbleu at all, gave Mudie a picture pass which allowed the little inside forward to cross a ball which Mills reached as he fell forward at the feet of two Blackpool forwards.
AT LAST SECOND
Desperate tackle by Shimwell
Within a minute, a last-second desperate tackle by Shimwell put the brake on Metcalfe with this elusive raider almost strolling into a shooting position again.
Another minute, and within seconds of the corner being cleared, Perry was away like a hare on Blackpool’s left wing before centring a ball which in the end, missing Withers by inches, reached Matthews, who decided unexpectedly to shoot and hit Mills with a low skidding ball.
This was football as it should be played.
The next major incident was in the jaws of the Blackpool goal, where, after Farm had fielded a great low shot by Glazzard, the Town’s centre-forward stormed into the game again.
JOHNSTON’S SAVE
This time the raid was built on the right. Over came a high ball. The impeded Farm leaped at it, lost it on to it Glazzard darted and shot a ball which was crossing the empty line as Johnston hurled himself at it and repelled it as he fell in a heap in the slime.
A goal was always inevitable with such football as this being played. It was Blackpool who scored ’it with 11 minutes gone.
People who say that Stanley Mortensen is a selfish player should have seen this goal.
The centre-forward took a pass and with only one man fronting him made no thunder and lightning foray on the goal himself, but instead found Perry with a perfect pass.
WITHERS SCORES
Then gets second goal for Blackpool
The unmarked South African was fast on to it, even faster to cross it.
WITHERS, nearly under the bar, had merely to gallop full tilt on to it and almost walk it over the line for his first goal in top-class football.
Within five minutes this 20-year-old player had completed a sensational First Division baptism.
This time his pace off the mark gave him a remarkable goal.
WITHERS went after a forward pass, outpaced his wing half, and shot a low ball which obviously hit Gallogly’s hand.
It was a penalty all over, and one had the impression that everybody waited f0r the inevitable whistle - everybody except the inside-left, who went on after the ball and had it over the line after Mills had parried his first shot
The Town faded out as a raiding force almost completely under these two hammer blows, their defence often in utter panic
ONE FOR TOWN
Yet in 33 minutes the Town made it 2-1, and deserved to with as good a goal as anybody could want to see.
Hassall made it with a raid on his own over 30 yards. Nobody moved to tackle him, retreated away from him.
In the end, Hayward fell in the mud and left the inside forward to loft over a ball which Kelly appeared to deflect by an inch or two, in a last desperate leap, to GLAZZARD, who was able to head over the line.
Two minutes later, in fact, with Blackpool’s command of the game lost again, this Town centre-forward nearly made it 2-2. cutting in fast from the left - a wing which was never this afternoon being closely watched - eluding Hayward, and hooking in a shot which hit the outside of the post and cannoned out.
PENALTY CLAIM
But Huddersfield now on the attack
There was a demand - and a reasonable demand, I think - for a penalty the next time Blackpool raided, but for minutes after this Huddersfield goal it was the Town front line who were attacking.
The aggressive Jimmy Glazzard shot wide of a post in one raid when I think he might have shot inside it and put the Town level.
The Town were attacking almost continuously, and yet in one Blackpool raid a goal was near again and again it was Withers, fast as ever on to a chance, who nearly shot it for his “hat trick” after Matthews had left his bodyguard standing and crossed a ball which the young inside-left hooked barely wide of a post. Blackpool could not hold the Town’s brilliant left wing. It required Kelly to come to the aid of his defence’s right flank to repel one raid, and others constantly followed it.
GAP CLOSED
The Town were almost as aggressive, too, on the other wing as the interval approached, Garrett revealing a lot of speed and decision to close a gap which the wily Irishman, McKenna, had created.
It had been a grand half for both forward lines. For the defences - both of them at times - it had more nearly resembled a nightmare.
No sooner had I written those words than, a minute before halftime, there was a nightmare goal for a goalkeeper.
Down the centre went the wandering Matthews, saw WITHERS waiting in a wide open space, gave him a perfect pass. On to it the inside-left raced, cut inside; and shot a ball, fast and low which Gallogy deflected.
This caused Mills to fall so late that the ball was skidding away from him almost under him into the far wall of the net before he had hit the earth.
A “hat trick” for a First Division recruit in the first half of his first game had made it a sensational half - one young Alan Withers will never forget.
Half - time:
Blackpool 3, Huddersfield Town 1.
Second half
There was still a menace in every advance by the Town’s magnificent forwards.
Yet except for a debatable decision by a linesman it might have been 4-1 in the first two minutes of the half, a flag being lifted against Withers as the inside-left moved from a position behind the ball when it was played, with half the field wide open in front of him.
All that was wrong with Huddersfield was that the defence was too often wide open.
The forwards were still a great line on both wings, and had the Blackpool defence in such confusion after a corner that two shots were repelled by men massed under the' bar before Farm snatched up a loose ball and cleared it.
WITHERS HURT
A minute later, in the sixth minute of the half, Withers was hurt as he held bravely on to a ball with half a dozen men lashing at it.
With 11 men Blackpool had often been outplayed. With 10 it was all the Town, and the traffic was still nearly on the Blackpool goal even when Withers came back on the wing.
Another three minutes, and immediately after Glazzard had shot fast and low at Farm when he should have scored, Blackpool were reduced to 10 men again as the limping Mudie went over the line for attention.
Some of the Town’s tackling was almost ferocious, but this team from Yorkshire still continued to dictate threequarters of the play and a Blackpool forward line which soon had Mudie hobbling on a wing which Withers had vacated was not often in the match at all.
OUTPACED
Huddersfield worried by Matthews speed
Onlv two Blackpool forwards were at this time in the positions where they had opened the match, with Withers at inside-right and Perry at inside-left.
Still, Matthews outpaced the Huddersfield defence every time he was given a pass and won a corner for Blackpool.
And two minutes later Mo tensen chased a ball which bounced unexpectedly high, raced away from McEvoy, and as he fell hooked it high over the bar.
With 16 minutes of the half gone, Blackpool’s front line reverted to its opening formation, but the Town’s forwards were still hunting the ball all the time and making a lot of progress, and would, in fact, have scored 18 minutes after the interval if Garrett had not flung himself in Glazzard’s path as the leader moved into a shooting position.
HIT THE BAR
As it was, Blackpool were fortunate not to lose one goal of their lead from the corner which followed, Battye racing in on to a loose ball which came to him out of the scrum and hitting the bar with it from 20 yards out.
Within the next couple of minutes, too, with the Town’s forwards shooting, Farm held brilliantly shots by Hassall and Glazzard.
With 20 minutes left, Blackpool were still not certain of the spoils.
Yet this Town defence was still subject to flares of panic, McEvoy without any apology upending Mortensen less than a yard outside the penalty area as the centre-forward went after a long forward pass.
The free-kick led nowhere.
IN THE NET, BUT -
The Town had the ball in the net at last seven minutes from time immediately after Hayward had cleared off an empty line.
But before anybody could begin to cheer a goal which would have been deserved Mr. Todd disallowed it.
Almost to the end. Huddersfield raided, but it was all in vain.
Result:
BLACKPOOL 3 (Withers 11, 15, 44)
HUDDERSFIELD TOWN 1 (Glazzard 28)
COMMENTS ON THE GAME
BLACKPOOL won this match, but might have lost it. It would have been lost, obviously, if young Alan Withers had not made such a dramatic debut in big football by shooting three goals in his first big match.
Simple for the young forward from Nottingham? It may have been, but he was still in the position to score goals and that is a great virtue, even if after being hurt he pardonably faded out in the second half.
Blackpool’s best forward was again that remarkable evergreen specialist in football cunning, Stanley Matthews, who all the match appeared to be able to give the Huddersfield defence five yards start and beat it over 10.
Yet, to be fair, this Blackpool attack had seldom the order and purpose in it which the Town’s forwards revealed. That the Blackpool defence was often raced out of position by such a front line—one of the best I have seen at Blackpool this season - was no serious criticism of this defence.
Stronger rearguards would have surrendered before such football as the Town’s left wing in particular, played.
GARRETT FIRM
Garrett again refused to be disconcerted as the tide flowed against his team, and in the last half hour one noticed Kellv and Hayward fast into action to close gaps.
Farm, too, was magnificent, which he makes a habit of being.
Blackpool lucky to win? No, I don’t think so, for it’s goals that count, as Blackpool have often learned in the past, and for all their good football in the open Huddersfield could not score them.
A 20-year-old boy showed how that should be done.
SOME people may think Ayresome Park is a ground as wonderful as the actress is reputed once to have said that the London policemen were.
But not Blackpool, who play there next weekend and would probably prefer to be playing at half a dozen other grounds which could be named at random, writes Clifford Greenwood.
Blackpool have not scored a goal at Middlesbrough since 1947.
It was 4-0 for Middlesbrough in 1947-48, 1-0 in 1948- 49, and 2-0 last season, and the last of those three matches was played immediately after Blackpool’s sensational triumph at Portsmouth and at a time when Middlesbrough were decidedly under the weather.
All of which is sufficient to indicate that Middlesbrough is not a town for which Blackpool teams have any particular affection.
The odds appear to be higher than ever against the ending of this barren sequence next weekend, for never since the war have Middlesbrough been so high in the First Division table as Wilf Mannion and four other forwards have put them, and not for nearly as long have a Blackpool team been defeated in four successive away matches.
This, then, would appear to be a No. 1 for the coupons, and all the latter-day prophets in the Press will rank it as such.
Yet there are a few signs that Middlesbrough are fading a little - the home draw with Derby County confirmed the view - and it is conceivable that Blackpool, being Blackpool, and therefore, about as unpredictable as the British climate, may upset the coupons.
But the odds, I repeat, must be against it.
IS IT A DANGER SIGNAL?
Blackpool's record underlines need for scorers -
but they're desperately hard to find
By Clifford Greenwood
THEY are still box-office this Blackpool team, writes Clifford Greenwood. And if Stanley Matthews is playing at Stoke they are to football all that Mr. Danny Kaye appears to be to the British music-hall.
When Charlton were at Stoke a fortnight before the Blackpool match the attendance was 22,000. When Blackpool played in the next home game there were nearly 40,000 inside the gates, the biggest attendance of the season and only 2,000 fewer than the permitted capacity.
“It shows all that Stan, still means to the Stoke public,” acknowledged one of the City’s directors.
***
AND NOW FIGURE THIS OUT
WHAT a strange game it was at Stoke a week ago. The Blackpool forward line forced only one corner in the first 80 minutes and then won five in the last 10, three of them in two minutes.
According, to one of Mr. George Sheard’s census cards, too, Blackpool had such a lot of the game - and yet could not score even once - that the City goalkeeper had to take 14 goalkicks against George Farm’s nine.
The figures establish that this time the Blackpool defence forsook the offside trap.
The offside whistle went against the City’s forwards only once all afternoon, whereas the Blackpool front line was halted by it six times.
There were 49 throws-in. which is a lot too many, 25 for Stoke,
24 for Blackpool, and the City defence conceded 10 free-kicks for fouls, which also is a lot too many.
Yet it was not such a bad game. to watch.
***
GORDON KENNEDY, the full back from Blackpool, paid another little instalment off the £7,500 Bolton Wanderers spent on him in September during the Wanderers’ 1-0 win at West Bromwich a week ago.
It would not have been two points for the Burnden Park team if this full-back had not on his knees headed out a shot which had passed his goalkeeper.
Kennedy has not been out of the Bolton team once since he was signed, and the Wanderers have lost only once while he has been in the defence.
He has had to wait a long time for his chance in the First Division, this strong, earnest full-back, but now it has come he has taken it, as I always believed he would.
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