10 February 1951 Blackpool 2 Mansfield Town 0
Mansfield never look like winners
OUTCLASSED AND OUTPLAYED
Blackpool 2, Mansfield Town 0
By “Clifford Greenwood”
THE SPION KOP GATES WERE CLOSED AN HOUR BEFORE THE KICK-OFF AT BLACKPOOL THIS AFTERNOON.
SCORES OF PEOPLE, DOZENS OF THEM WEARING MANSFIELD TOWN'S DISCONSOLATE, BLUE AND AMBER, HUDDLED OUTSIDE THEM
At the other end of the ground for another quarter of an hour the east side turnstiles were still in commission. Then they closed.
It was "House full," with nearly 32,000 people in the ground with half an hour to go. Such is the magic of the Cup - the Cup which lured by coach, train and motor brake nearly 8,000 people from Mansfield.
Behind closed gates - gates outside which as early as 11 a.m. hundreds were waiting - Eddie Shimwell had a test, which he passed, and which allowed Blackpool to disclose the guarded secret that all week the full-back, hurt in the Stockport Cuptie, had been under treatment.
That enabled Blackpool to play a full strength team.
Mansfield moved the 32-year-old Syd Ottewell to inside-left, probably with a brief to shadow Stanley Matthews, and introduced for the first time Eddie Barks at outside-left.
FROST BEATEN
The 80 tarpaulin sheets which carpeted the pitch all night defeated the frost.
There was the familiar Cuptie hullabaloo and parade of mascots, nearly all of them in Blackpool's tangerine and white.
The "Atomic Boys" introduced new features, and the "Ten Old Faithfuls" marched with a board on which was printed 44 Mansfield for coal and boots" and "Blackpool for the Cup." Teams:
BLACKPOOL: Farm; Shimwell, Garrett; Johnston, Hayward, Kelly; Matthews, Mudie, Mortensen, Brown, Perry.
MANSFIELD TOWN: Wright; Chessell, Bradley; Antonio, Grogan, Lewis; Coole, Reeve, Steele, Ottewell, Barks.
Referee: Mr. W. J. Edwards (Yeovil).
First half
Both teams appeared to a tumultuous reception, the Town led by their boy mascot, seven-year-old Peter Wright, son of the Mansfield goalkeeper.
Blackpool won the toss, and the Town defended the north goal.
With the new sector on the north-east corner of the Kop it was probably the biggest attendance ever at a football match in Blackpool.
It was soon obvious that Eddie Barks had been given the watching brief on Stan Matthews.
In the first minute the wing forward was at the England man's heels, and in the next 30 seconds, too, chased him three-quarters of the width of the field in the second of a couple of Blackpool raids which led nowhere.
MORTENSEN HURT
First major incident ended in a Blackpool casualty as Mortensen chased a half-hit clearance, collided with the man racing to meet him, fell, and for the next half minute was under trainer John Lynas' attention.
The Town were a little inclined to take the man instead of the ball.
It was, as I saw it, no deliberate offence on Mortensen which reduced the centre-forward to half-speed for a couple of minutes, but it was a deliberate case of obstruction which led to a free-kick in the fourth minute, and the free-kick cost the Town a goal.
The ball was punted down the left wing. Mortensen went after it, appeared to be hit in the face by a half-clearance, and fell again almost out for a count for the second time in four minutes.
MUDIE'S GOAL
Bill Perry darted on to the loose bait, left his centre-forward sprawling near him, and crossed a high centre.
Half a dozen men leaped at it - this perfect falling centre - and the smallest of the pack, JACKIE MUDIE, higher than all the others, headed fast into the roof of the net, with Dennis Wright impeded and unable to reach the flying ball.
Blackpool seemed to make a speciality of these early goals against the little teams.
Other goals threatened afterwards, with the Town retreating.
For a time, in fact, it was a carbon copy of the early minutes of the Stockport tie.
It was a duplicate even to the pursuit of Matthews everywhere by one man - this time a man numbered as a wing forward, but playing almost everywhere except at wing forward.
STERN TACKLING
The tackling of the Town's full-backs and half-backs was at times remorseless, but the Blackpool forwards continued to raid.
Nothing of any consequence happened until Shimwell volleyed a great clearance into the Mansfield goal area and Mortensen, leading at the flying ball, brushed it far away from the post.
It was not until the 14th minute that George Farm was in action.
Then, twice in rapid succession, he fielded the ball, the second time as one of the Town's half-backs punted forward haphazardly a pass which not a greyhound could have reached.
NO QUARTER
They were pulling no punches anywhere.
Twice Sam Chessell, the Town's right back, took the ball and with it nearly the man with tackles which had no compromise whatever in them.
And out on the other wing Shimwell went thundering into the fray again as a sort of attacking half-back, and with the second of two smash-and-grab clearances hit Lewis and felled him as if he had been struck by a pole axe.
It was still traffic all one way on the Mansfield goal. The Town, whose peculiar formation had left the front line with only four forwards and often with only two, could not build a raid at all.
It took Blackpool a long time, too, to build one with a discernible design in it.
Then Mudie glided a pass away inside the full-back, gave Matthews position to chase it and cross a centre which Mortensen, in a flying leap, headed high over the bar.
REFEREE'S REBUKE
There was one rebuke by Mr. Edwards for Syd Ottewell as Mudie fell under a tackle.
Twenty five minutes had
gone. It had been nearly all fire and fury, and not a lot of it football, with the Town, except for occasional fast forays by Billy Coole, almost completely outplayed.
There had been 10 free-kicks against the Town in the first 25 minutes, which was a lot too many, even allowing for all the excitement.
I saw Tom Garrett head away brilliantly one of the few passes which would have reached a Mansfield forward in a shooting position.
OFF TARGET
With the first half-hour nearly gone the Town's forwards were for a time in Blackpool's territory as they had never been earlier, but all that happened was a long-range shot by Lewis which was nearer a corner flag than a post.
Once young Perry "sold the dummy" superbly to his full-back as he took a ball thrown out to him by Farm, raced 40 yards, and crossed a high falling centre which a massed Town defence repelled.
Again, too, at the end of another raid, crumbling as it met the massed ranks in front of the Town's goal, Harry Johnston shot a couple of yards wide.
Nobody would accuse this match in its first 35 minutes of being a classic. The Town were a lot too destructive to permit it to be, though there was still menace in the infrequent raids of Coole, brilliantly as he was being watched and tackled by Tom Garrett.
TWO ESCAPES
Mortensen, leaping at one flying ball, headed it out of Wright's hands and away from a post.
In the next half-minute, with the Blackpool front line again at close quarters, a ball appeared to bounce the wrong way for Brown, with the Scot almost under the bar as a full-back, a split second late to him, brushed him off balance.
Yet, in the end with only three minutes of the half left, the Blackpool goal had the big escape of the half.
There was a free-kick for a tackle by Shimwell which sent Ottewell sprawling.
Lewis took it, crossed to an unguarded right wing a ball which Coole hooked back so fast that Farm appeared to lose it in a pack of men, fell, and was still on his hands and knees as Barks shot it back and hit a full-back in front of an open goal.
That cannoning ball could have gone in. Instead, it rose high, almost brushed the bar, and flew out for the first corner the Town had won during the half.
BROWN'S FIRST
Yes, however fantastic it would have been, it could have been 1-1. Instead, two minutes later, with only a minute of the half left, it was 2-0 for Blackpool.
Stanley Matthews was in the goal, as he is in so many.
This time he took a pass, sidestepped his full-back, found the character called an outside-left lurking behind the full-back, and eluded him, too.
In the end, the Town settled for a corner, and the corner cost a goal.
The ball ran loose from the flag.
Mortensen was on to it in an open space, shot against Wright who fell on his knees under the impact, and was still clawing at the ball as ALLAN BROWN ran into it and shot it over the line for his first goal in England.
Half-time: Blackpool 2, Mansfield Town 0.
Second half
A corner conceded against the Matthews menace in the first half minute and a couple of raids on the other wing opened the half for Blackpool and had the Town in an early retreat.
The retreat continued, too, with Mudie taking a pass from Mortensen with only four minutes gone, half-hitting his shot, and yet watching it sail out only inches away from the far post, with Dennis Wright hurling himself desperately across to cut it off.
There was scarcely a sign of a Mansfield forward line in these opening minutes of the half, with Blackpool pressing so continuously that there were times when Shimwell was up almost among the forwards.
Garrett made one great clearance the first time Mansfield attacked.
LEWIS LOB
From a free-kick Jack Lewis lobbed the ball into Farm's hands, but it was still seldom that Mansfield were over the half-way line in a raid.
Wright held Johnston's centre brilliantly, leaping over a pack of men to reach the flying ball a minute before Mortensen, urgently seeking his usual Cuptie goal, headed a left-wing centre down into the crouching goalkeeper's hands.
It was what they call typical Cup football.
Chessell fell after a raging foray in Mansfield's packed goal area and went limping over the line for repairs with 20 minutes of the half gone.
He was soon back, but still limping - and so to be frank, were one or two others, too many with no punches still being pulled anywhere.
Chessell took up a half-speed job at outside-right, which left the Town in a stranger formation than ever, with the other wing forward still playing almost as a full-back on the Matthews shadowing game.
Strangely, in this patchwork line-up the Town were in the game as they had not been for a long time earlier and won a couple of corners.
But it was only an interlude, and twice afterwards in rapid succession Brown created great raids which faded out inside shooting distance, the second in a demand for a penalty which Mr. Edwards refused.
BROWN SHOOTS
With only 15 minutes left it appeared, for all practical purposes, to be over. Yet still Blackpool raided and twice Brown shot as few people think he can shoot before Shimwell, becoming a forward again, released a thunderbolt of a shot which went skidding out by the far post.
Why, a couple of minutes afterwards, Blackpool were again refused a penalty when Matthews was almost forced off the ball with a man's hand in his face - it resembled a bit of free-style wrestling - I shall never know.
Not that it made any particular difference with the minutes which were precious to the Town ticking away, the Town could still not build anything of a raid with a promise of a goal in it.
All the time in the closing minutes the football followed its pattern of the entire afternoon, with Blackpool raiding almost non-stop.
The end came unlamented and inevitable.
Result:
BLACKPOOL 2, (Mudie 5, Brown 44)
MANSFIELD TOWN 0,
COMMENTS ON THE GAME
MANSFIELD TOWN had only a gambler's chance when this game opened.
The Third Division team had, in my opinion, no chance at all when it was presumably decided before the match to play a game which was based almost entirely on a smash and grab defence and a complete disturbance of the forward line to seek an answer to Stanley Matthews.
It reduced the Town to a force rocking backwards in retreat for three-quarters of the afternoon and with only a patchwork attack in front.
The Town, in short, were no head and all tail, were outplayed, outclassed and strictly never in the race at all.
It was no great game. In such circumstances it could not be.
It was notable chiefly for its fury and for the flashes of class in Blackpool's football which ultimately decided the fate of the Town, who had a goalkeeper never guilty of an error, two long-clearing full-backs, a centre-half who never gave an inch and little else except resolution which was too often unlicensed.
TOO FAST
Blackpool were always too fast and elusive on the flanks, where, by the way, Bill Perry had a great afternoon as a direct raider whenever passes reached them, and there can be no questioning the quality of Allan Brown as a footballer.
For the Blackpool defence it was almost a half-day holiday. Or it would have been if Garrett had not been allowed to reveal his class in his duels with the one Mansfield forward, Billy Coole, who had menace in him, and if Eddie Shimwell had not played the sort of game the day demanded.
The Town invited defeat by their tactics, but Blackpool, in any case, I think, would always have gone into the quarter-finals.
BLACKPOOL have the biggest defeat of the season to avenge - if they can - when Derby County come to the coast next weekend, writes Clifford Greenwood.
On September 30 last year the County won 4-1 at the Baseball Ground, and all four goals were scored by big strong Jack Stamps, the Derby inside-right, who ran riot on a day when in the centre of the County's front line the new England centre-forward, Jack Lee, was held.
The County have yet to win a postwar game at Blackpool, and, somehow, I cannot see the present in-and-out team - a team that has lost seven of its 13 away games - winning this one.
Not that there has ever been a lot in it when these teams have met beside the seaside.
It was 2-1 for Blackpool in the first after-the-war season, 2-2 a year later, 1-1 two years ago, and 1-0 last season, when, in a day of gale and tempest, one goal by Stanley Mortensen was sufficient to take both points.
Eighteen goals on tour indicate that the County still know the direct route to goal, even without Billy Steel, but the loss of 26 goals in those games shows that the defence is vulnerable and may have an unenviable afternoon against a Blackpool forward line scoring in the League these days as it has not scored since the first postwar season.
The experts will take Blackpool as a "1" for the coupons. The experts are often wrong, but I do not think they should be this time.
And these are some of the men who have it
By Clifford Greenwood
IF Blackpool only played Aston Villa every week they would soon win the title of League champions. This is their record in postwar matches with the Villa:
Goals
P W D L F A Pts.
10 7 3 0 15 4 17
Three points only lost - and not one game - in 10 successive fixtures. And Stanley Mortensen has scored in seven of those 10 games.
So if the Villa have a bogey team it is, obviously, Blackpool. And if the Villa have a bogey man it is no less obviously Mr. Mortensen.
Yet it was all so different before the war.
In eight prewar matches between the clubs in the First Division the Villa lost only one, and in those eight games scored 29 goals, an average approaching four a match.
And it was at Villa Park that Blackpool lost the 1944 War Cup Final.
Blackpool seem to have been getting a little bit of their own back ever since.
***
WAITING FOR IVOR
MISSING from the cast at Villa Park last weekend was the Villa captain and Welsh international Ivor Powell.
They are impatient for his return but, I was told, it may still be a week or two before he is fit to take their field, is still nursing a knee which at one time caused a few grave shakings of heads all the Park.
Ivor introduced himself to Blackpool football during the war, married a Blackpool girl - one of the daughters of Tommy Browell - and has still an affection for the Blackpool club which is a legacy of those war years.
A great clubman is Ivor Powell - and a grand sportsman, too.
***
Pleased the experts
IN the cast of the star match of last weekend - Hull City v Blackburn Rovers - Neil Franklin's first match in England since the Bogota incident - were two men who have played in Blackpool's postwar team, writes Clifford Greenwood.
Both were at Wembley in 1948.
In the Hull goal was Joe Robinson, who is now first selection for the position in the team that Raich Carter has built.
In the opposing Rovers' defence was Ronnie Suart, a full-back who is now established in first-class football again.
Both were given credits by the tribunal of experts attending the game.
And the experts almost unanimously decided that once he has accustomed himself to the pace of the game again Neil Franklin will soon be challenging for the England centre-half position.
Will he play there again? Time alone can tell.
Should he be asked to play? If he deserves the honour it should be given him. He has expiated his offence, and that should be the end of it.
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