20 January 1951 Blackpool 2 Sunderland 2
Open play would have given Blackpool win
STEPHENSON GOAL
Blackpool 2, Sunderland 2
By “Clifford Greenwood”
STANLEY MORTENSEN COULD NOT LEAD THE BLACKPOOL FORWARDS AGAINST SUNDERLAND THIS AFTERNOON.
Ill with a chill yesterday, he consulted a doctor, who, diagnosing a mild attack of bronchitis, ordered him to remain at home during the weekend.
There is no reason to think, I am told, that the centre-forward will not be back in circulation in time for the Cupties.
As a result of his absence, Blackpool for the second successive week gave a First Division baptism to one of the club's young school.
With Willie McIntosh, the recognised reserve for the position, already in Wolverhampton for the Central League match, Len Stephenson, the ex-Highfield forward, was given his first game in first-class football.
SCORING RECORD
Stephenson has a scoring record which includes six goals in the nine Central League games he has played this season.
Standing 5ft. 9in. and weighing 10st. 8lb., he has the build of a centre-forward. Recently demobilised from the RAF, he ranks as one of the club's best young prospects.
Spearhead of one attack, therefore, was an almost unknown apprentice.
His opposite number in the other was £30,000 Trevor Ford in a Sunderland front line which had Willie Watson, the England wing-half and Yorkshire cricketer, at outside-left, and behind it a centre-half, Fred Hall, who was coming back into big football after an eight-month absence.
HEAVY GROUND
The pitch was still as thick as a treacle dumpling after the recent rains and frost, both goal areas sanded and sand scattered, too, on a few gluepot patches elsewhere.
On a grey winter afternoon the Kop was packed, but there were not 23,000 inside the gates at the kick-off.
One wondered where all those people were who, according to their Cuptie ticket applications, have never missed a match at Blackpool for 30 years!
Teams:
BLACKPOOL: Farm; Shimwell, Garrett; Johnston, Crosland, Kelly; Matthews, Mudie, Stephenson, Brown, Perry.
SUNDERLAND: Mapson; Hedley, Hudgell; Walsh, Hall, Wright (A.); Wright (T.), Davis, Ford, Shackleton, Watson.
Referee: Mr. A. W. Leuty (Leeds)
First half
Blackpool lost the toss, Sunderland defended the north goal and inside 90 seconds Sunderland took the lead.
That was the dramatic opening after Blackpool had won a corner in the first minute.
The goal was a chapter of accidents, surrendered by defence obviously unprepared for the first fast swooping raid which descended on it.
There was a mishit clearance by Garrett. Trevor Ford took the forward pass which followed it, headed the ball down and sideways to Davis, called for the return pass, and chased it.
Crosland was those few yards too many downfield which make all the difference, pursued the centre-forward but, with all his speed, could not reach him, and in the end left FORD to entice the deserted Farm out before steering a grand shot away from the goalkeeper's right hand.
The Blackpool defence, after being so abruptly torpedoed, flew for a time a few distress signals.
HOOKED CLEARANCE
Shimwell hooked one clearance across the face of his own goal, and other clearances were either mishit or half-hit.
Yet, in the intervals between these Sunderland raids, there were almost non-stop assaults by the Blackpool front line.
In one of them Matthews centred a ball which seemed to skid away from young Stephenson with the understudy centre-forward racing on to it in a perfect position.
Otherwise, none of these attacks - and they continued - had the menace of a goal in them.
Sunderland's frontline football was crisp and attractive, as the football of such a costly line should be.
It was left in the end to Stanley Matthews, of all people, to come nearest to making it 1-1.
MATTHEWS SHOOTS
Then, with exactly 11 minutes gone, the wing forward took one of Allan Brown's precision passes, cut inside with it into an open space, and unexpectedly shot a ball which flew out by the far post.
There were signs that the Blackpool defence was steadying and almost continuously the forwards continued to raid.
Yet hesitation in the Blackpool defence nearly cost another goal in the 12th minute - and a goal it would have been if, after Crosland had lost the ball in the slime, Farm had not come galloping out and made a full-back's tackle on Davis as that forward was racing in to an open position presented to him.
ESCAPE
Farm dives at Ford's feet
Another minute, and Johnston, guilty of a back pass, compelled Farm to take a dive at the feet of the advancing Ford.
Another minute and in a game of remarkable pace and not a little drama the Sunderland defence forfeited a free-kick without any ceremony to halt Brown, and from it was in such confusion that in the end a full-back, with even less ceremony, hooked the ball over his line for a corner.
Pass after pass to Matthews was being intercepted. Yet when one found a gap in the iron curtain flanking him another corner came.
The wing forward had cut in almost to the near post before passing back a ball which Hall again hit high on to the Kop for another corner.
FEW LOOPHOLES
This Sunderland defence is supposed to be as vulnerable as its front line is penetrative. There were few signs of gaps in it during the first 20 minutes of this match.
Excitement there was and often confusion, but a Blackpool front line in which Allan Brown was playing magnificent football was continually being repulsed.
That this Blackpool front line was such a lot in the game was in itself remarkable, for comparatively few passes were yet reaching it from its half-backs.
Kelly was continuously guilty of the pass to the wrong man and yet in one Sunderland raid it was the left-half who retrieved his goal from downfall, moving fast on to a loose ball after Shackleton had hooked it away from the falling Farm and clearing it under the bar of an empty goal.
Yet Blackpool's pressure was always predestined to produce a goal to level the scores.
EQUALISER
Perry scores after right wing raid
It came in the 25th minute, the indirect sequel of a raid on the right which ended in Mudie half-losing the ball in the mud, retrieving it, discovering an open space on the other wing and lashing out a pass to it.
PERRY raced into the open space, reached the ball a split second before the challenging half-back, and shot high into the far wall of the net at a pace which left Mapson standing.
Within a minute it was nearly 2-1, and it was another of those famous mashie-niblick shots by Len Shackleton - which have given him one or two goals at Blackpool in his time - which produced it.
This time he shot from 30 yards. Farm, leaping at the falling ball as it was dipping under the bar, reached it with his fingertips, and deflected it over for a fine save.
ROVING MATTHEWS
That, however, was merely an interruption of the almost continuous traffic on the Blackpool goal by a forward line which often had Matthews on a roving commission at inside-left and inside-right.
It was good football the Blackpool forwards were playing. It was so good that it was beginning at the end of half an hour to reveal that the Sunderland defence was in truth a force that could be taken by storm.
Perry, a great raider today, made one fine chance which was rejected, running fast away from his full-back before crossing a ball which Mudie appeared to shoot against a Sunderland man before Stephenson hit it back straight into the arms of the crouching Mapson.
BLACKPOOL GAPS
That was the end of one of many raids. Not, however, that Sunderland were outplayed completely.
These Sunderland forwards were still fast on to the ball, made every pass with intelligent intent and were still finding or tearing open gaps in the Blackpool defence. Sunderland, in fact, were close to another goal with five minutes of the half left.
This time Garrett had to concede a corner. Over came the ball from the right wing flag, and at it the fair-haired Davis hurled himself to miss the near post by inches with a ball which came off his head fast as a bullet.
Two Sunderland players were given words of warning by the referee in the closing minutes of a half which had never been conducted with drawing-room propriety.
Earnest as the football had been, some of it had been a little too earnest in the Sunderland defence.
Half-time: Blackpool 1, Sunderland 1.
Second half
First major incident in early football which Blackpool constantly played too close was a corner won by Matthews after he had been given the pass which produced it by Stephenson, gamely forcing the ball away from the two men shadowing him. A perfect raid followed, a raid out of the text books, with the long pass in it at last via Brown, Mudie and Matthews until the wing forward hooked the ball away from his full-back, cut inside with it, and crossed a low centre on to which Mapson fell in a heap.
In the next minute Sunderland were as near to the loss of a goal as they had ever been as Mudie darted to a loose ball with the defence in chaos all about him, chose the part of the net to hit, stabbed the ball in the slime, and lost it.
Another minute, and the Blackpool goal was as near downfall as Kelly lost a ball to the challenge of the aggressive Davis and Crosland, fast into the gap, made a great clearance with the fair-haired inside forward a shade late to the unexpected chance.
THE LEAD
Young Stephenson scores in first game
In the next minute, the eighth of the half, Blackpool took the lead with the Sunderland defence by this time reeling backwards. The architect of the goal was again Allan Brown. This time the forward pass was short but direct.
Young LEN STEPHENSON was on to it, ploughed a path through the mud with it, resisted the challenge of two men, and shot it away from Mapson to become another of those understudy forwards who make a habit of scoring goals for Blackpool in their First Division baptism.
There was a lot of fury in the football that followed - too much fury. One free-kick after another was given against a Sunderland defence which was sometimes losing position and sometimes its temper - and sometimes both - with Matthews harrying it without mercy.
PENALTY?
How or why this Sunderland defence escaped a penalty with 17 minutes of the half gone I shall never know as Matthews corkscrewed through it apparently intent on a goal and in the end was shaken off balance by the sort of tackle which the rule book forbids.
Immediately before, Mudie had shot a ball which hit Mapson at such a pace that it cannoned off the goalkeeper's chest and was retrieved only by his frantic clutch at it.
Twice before, too, I saw Crosland make great tackles - tackles made possible only by his speed - to halt Sunderland forwards in full cry on the Blackpool goal with Johnston making one desperate clearance almost under the bar.
ANOTHER GOAL
Davis equalises for Sunderland
The goal to put the score 2-2 had, in fact, been threatening for minutes before it was scored.
When it came, in the 21st minute of the half, it was, except for two important particulars, a repetition of Sunderland's first goal.
This time Ford gave the pass to DAVIS, who, fast on to it, shot it away from Farm before a scattered Blackpool defence could marshal its forces.
The Sunderland front line was often in the game afterwards, was constantly being halted by Crosland, with Johnston, too, repeatedly coming to the aid of his full-backs.
Yet when this brief siege was lifted Brown revealed that he could shoot as well as make shooting positions for others, hit from 25 yards a ball which Mapson was content, even glad, to punch over the bar.
NOTHING IN IT
With 13 minutes left there was still nothing in it - nothing in the goal sheet and nothing in the football either. It was still, as they say, anybody's game.
It was nearly Sunderland's, as Willie Watson shot barely wide of a post a ball which Farm, snared in the mud, could never, I think, have reached.
Everywhere, in fact, in the closing minutes Sunderland were moving fast to the ball and outpacing Blackpool.
Five minutes from time Perry missed the post by inches with Mapson falling late to the ball, but all the dying minutes were commanded by Sunderland.
Result:
BLACKPOOL 2 (Perry 25, Stephenson 53)
SUNDERLAND 2 (Ford 2, Davis 66)
COMMENTS ON THE GAME
SUNDERLAND have still not lost at Blackpool in postwar football, were entitled to the point they won out of this match.
There were times when the Sunderland defence was reeling.
Early in the second half it had lost the lead which a second minute goal had given the Roker Park team.
Blackpool, with an hour gone, seemed fated to end the Sunderland hoodoo. But all the afternoon the Blackpool defence was leaving gaps here, there or somewhere else, gaps which were repeatedly closed by the speed of Johnny Crosland.
All the time, too, the full-backs were being guilty of half-hit clearances and the wing half-backs were never in their customary close contact with the forwards, with Kelly repeatedly making the pass to the wrong man.
And all the time Blackpool were playing too close in the mud and slime against a Sunderland defence which obviously could have been torn apart by an open game.
Harry Johnston came back into the match as a third full-back when Sunderland began to raid for a winning goal, and during the time when the match was there for Blackpool to win it there was a pace and decision on both wings of attack which was never exploited as it should have been.
BROWN A STAR
Allan Brown as an inside-forward - on a day when Shackleton and Davis gave a lesson in inside-forward play - was one of the stars of the afternoon and young Stephenson, against a defence which showed him no mercy, scored a good goal and had no reason to reproach himself.
Open football would have won this game, good as the Sunderland forwards were, but Blackpool would not play it.
County’s great record last season
STOCKPORT COUNTY ARE REGARDING NEXT SATURDAY'S CUP CLASH WITH BLACKPOOL NEITHER OPTIMISTICALLY NOR PESSIMISTICALLY, BUT VIEWING IT IN THE LIGHT OF JUST ANOTHER GAME.
Obviously, the average football follower will give this Cheshire Third Division side little hope of survival at Bloomfield-road, but, then, very few people gave them any chance of coming through their Cup replay with Hull City at Hull in the fourth round in the FA Cup last season.
Yet they won handsomely by two goals to none, and gave a display of football that received general acclamation from the national Press.
It was Stockport's fighting success last season which earned them exemption until the third round of the competition this season, and, certainly, their followers can look back with pride on the Cup run which saw the Edgeley Park side defeat Billingham 3-0, Nottingham Forest at Nottingham 2-0, Barnsley 4-2, and Hull City 2-0 after playing a goalless draw.
The County's fifth-round defeat by Liverpool, who won 2-1 and went on to Wembley, was of such a nature that the BBC commentator prefaced his report of the game with the words: "Lucky Liverpool!" and there was no doubt that on the day's play the Third Division side were the better team.
Thus, though the task they face next Saturday could scarcely be more difficult, their Cup-fighting ability must give them a chance and Blackpool supporters are likely to be surprised at the quality of football Stockport are capable of providing.
Successful blend
A SUCCESSFUL blend of youth and experience, the County side have three men in their forward line with First Division experience in George Dick, the former Blackpool, West Ham and Carlisle inside forward, Andy Black, the ex-Manchester City, Hearts and Scottish international inside-right, and left winger Alan Oliver, who sparkled on Derby County's flank until he lost his place to McLaren.
Probably Manager Andrew Beattie's only team selection problem will be the happy one of whom to leave out of the half-back line.
The intermediate trio is generally conceded to be among the strongest in the Northern section, and until last Saturday had played unchanged in 25 games this season.
Injury then forced Paterson to stand down, and his place at left-half was taken by Stockport's newest acquisition Albert Emptage, from Manchester City.
A player of vast experience, Emptage made a very satisfactory first appearance in Stockport's colours and whether he or Paterson will play against Blackpool is a question which only Andrew Beattie can answer.
Among leaders
THIS season Stockport have played well enough in the Third Division to retain a permanent place among the leaders and have been quite impressive away from home, having won five and drawn three of their 12 games, in which they have conceded only 11 goals.
In the last round they gained a 2-1 victory at Stockport over Brentford, their goals being scored by Cocker, a centre-forward as industrious as Mortensen himself, and Dixon, the "baby" of the side, who three months ago was playing in non-League football.
Since he and George Dick came into the Stockport attack on October 14, the Cheshire side have had a remarkable run of success, and, indeed, they have been beaten only twice since the end of September.
A Matthews plan?
Manager Beattie has "No comment"
NEVER very loquacious about what tactics he intends to adopt, Manager Beattie, of Stockport, who while playing for Preston and Scotland became recognised as one of the most astute defenders in the game, simply said: "No comment" when asked if he intended to evolve any special plan for the marking of Stanley Matthews.
Obviously, this negative reply indicates that something will be done to try to counter the brilliance of Matthews, but exactly how it is hoped to do this will not be evident until next Saturday.
Even Mr. Joe Smith says so
By Clifford Greenwood
NOBODY could accuse Mr. Stanley Cullis, the former England centre-half, of being a mere figurehead manager, writes Clifford Greenwood.
He never sits in the directors’ box wearing an air of benignity and a big cigar. No, sir, he is on the line with his trainer, whatever the weather, and directing operations from close quarters.
Is he any better manager for that? I would not say that necessarily he is.
As I see it, once a team is out on the field it should be left alone to work out its own destiny or salvation. There is plenty of time during the week or during a half-time visit to the dressing room to work out or revise tactics.
A manager too close to his men while they are in action could be an embarrassment, and if he is giving instructions all the time might even cause a little confusion in the ranks.
Still, Mr. Cullis doesn’t appear to think so, and the League table establishes that he gets results.
***
How right was Bill!
STRANGE that I should have had a letter from Bill Lewis, the former Blackpool full-back, a few days before Norwich City's long undefeated sequence was ended.
For Bill wrote in it: "We've beaten Liverpool, and we've not lost a match in the last 23. But we're not crowing. It's so often up today and down tomorrow in this game."
Less than a week later the City had taken the count, and taken it at Leyton, where the two goals that put a full stop to the all-conquering progress were scored by Jimmy Blair.
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Are the Wolves too young?
THEY must have a wealth of talent - and I suppose they have - at Wolverhampton to be able to field a reserve team with such forwards as Jimmy Mullen, Sammy Smyth and Jesse Pye in it.
No wonder the Wanderers' second team are running away with the Central League championship that Blackpool won last season.
But, without wanting to teach Manager Stanley Cullis his business, I cannot be persuaded that the Wanderers' front line I watched playing Blackpool last weekend would not have been a stronger line with one or two of those distinguished rejects in it.
It's a younger line as it is at present constituted, and I know that everybody is all for the encouragement of the young player these days, but it was, I shall always think, the sheer impetuosity of the line when it was winning everywhere out in the open that lost the Wanderers a point in the Blackpool match.
There was all the fire and the fury there always is in a Wolverhampton attack, but it was too undisciplined. Every one of those men now in the Central League team might have made all the difference.
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