17 March 1951 Blackpool 2 Newcastle United 2
Cup Finalists stage wonder show in clinging mud
DRAW-BLACKPOOL BETTER TEAM
Blackpool 2, Newcastle United 2
By “Clifford Greenwood”
THEY CALLED IT A CUP FINAL REHEARSAL AT BLACKPOOL THIS AFTERNOON.
It was a rehearsal, but with understudies - three for Blackpool, including that star lead Stanley Matthews, and two for Newcastle.
And yet there was all the noise and excitement which prefaces Wembley, and half an hour before the kick-off a packed Kop and terraces were disgorging dozens of little boys on to the side lines.
Everywhere, too, there were thousands of citizens from the North-East, making no end of a hullabaloo, with all the rattles they will take to Wembley at the end of next month, singing their war chant, too.
Black clouds were thick over the ground, and yesterday’s rain had left a thin crust of mud through which, from goal to goal, moisture was still seeping.
RESERVE WINGERS
Undefeated since Boxing Day, Blackpool had on view two reserve wing forwards and the Army left half Ewan Fenton. The United had the versatile Stokoe at right half and the Irishman Hannah at inside-right.
Teams:
BLACKPOOL: Farm; Shimwell, Garrett; Johnston, Hayward, Fenton; Hobson, Mudie, Mortensen, Brown, Wardle.
NEWCASTLE UNITED: Fairbrother; Cowell, Corbett; Stokoe, Brennan, Crowe; Walker, Hannah, Milburn, Robledo, Mitchell.
Referee: Mr. T. Seymour (Stanley, Yorks.).
THE GAME
First half
Nearly 30,000 were inside the gates when Harry Johnston lost the toss. They were soon watching Blackpool build a raid on the right flank which continued after one of Johnston’s long throws, with the United’s defence massed in front of the south goal.
Blackpool attacked almost constantly.
Eddie Shimwell, who seems to be intent on entering his name on the scoring sheet these days, finished one raid with a shot hooked wide of a post.
The United, in fact, were never over the halfway line during the first four minutes except in pursuit of passes which no forward on earth could have reached.
In the fifth minute the United goal had a big escape.
UNDER THE BAR
Johnston opened the raid, which continued with Brown and Mortensen passes until Wardle, almost from the line, crossed a ball which skidded away from the United’s two full-backs and from two Blackpool forwards, too, almost under the bar.
Twice afterwards the Newcastle left wing, given a lot of freedom, escaped, and George Farm made two magnificent clearances, snatching away flying centres almost under the bar before racing out to repel a down-the-centre raid and halting it with a full-back’s clearance.
These, however, were mere interludes in pressure by Blackpool which continued at times almost nonstop and included one raid which Mortensen ended by heading down Wardle’s centre into the hands of the crouching Fairbrother.
CHURNED GROUND
But football of high quality
With the rain falling again and the ground churning into a morass, the football might excusably have been of much lower quality than it was.
Blackpool’s game for a time, in fact, had nearly all the virtues except for the right flank’s failure in defence to hold the elusive Mitchell - a spindle-shanked artist moving fast on to a ball and fast away with it whenever he was given a pass.
From his long, flying centre, which Garrett missed in a wild lash at it, Walker raced in fast from the other wing to shoot barely wide of a post at a great pace.
A minute before, the Newcastle goal had been nearer downfall as Wardle, from Mortensen’s pass, hit Fairbrother with a shot which the goalkeeper parried more by instinct than anything else.
Yet with the first quarter-hour gone, the menace in this Newcastle forward line was soon revealing itself. Twice in rapid succession Farm fell to and reached shots loosed at him by forwards who knew how to take a chance and to shoot without hesitation.
It had been a grand first 20 minutes. Give them this sort of football at Wembley, and it could be another classic next month.
In the 21st minute United were nearly in front. There was another raid on the right.
Walker raced into a big gap.
Out raced Farm to the wing forward.
The two men collided, fell in a heap. The ball glided away from them and missed the far post of an empty goal by inches. It was as near as that.
BLACKPOOL LEAD
Goal that would have graced Wembley
Yet with 22 minutes gone Blackpool went in front, and went in front, too, with a goal which would have graced Wembley or any other Stadium.
It was a goal clear cut as if etched in the thick slime.
Allan Brown was the man who built the raid. Up he glanced, saw Blackpool’s right wing open, and found the open space with a pinpoint pass square across field.
oung Hobson was on it as it reached him, put it inside to his partner.
Back Mudie gave it. On to it again Hobson darted, raced 10 yards upfield, cutting in all the time, crossed a high, flying centre.
Up to this ball - and not a Newcastle man had been within half a dozen yards of it from the opening of the raid - STANLEY MORTENSEN rose, and headed it away from the leaping Fairbrother’s right hand into the far wall of the net.
What a goal that was. What a game this was. Inside the next five minutes two more goals came.
MILBURN’S REPLY
Within three minutes of taking the lead Blackpool lost it.
There was a raid on the United’s right wing. The wandering JACK MILBURN was on a loose ball like the opportunist he is, and shot from the penalty area edge a ball which, as Farm fell to it, appeared to skid away from the goalkeeper and shoot out of his grip into the far corner of the net.
The Newcastle thousands were still singing “Blaydon Races” about that one when in one fast, direct raid Blackpool snatched the lead again.
This time it was the left wing that was in it, with Billy Wardle its star and principal.
The raid appeared to have been repelled. The wing forward was fast on to a second chance, crossed a fast centre half the post’s height.
MUDIE hurled himself at it in a flying dive, and headed it far away from the falling goalkeeper.
Brilliant was the only word for some of the football played afterwards on a field thicker in mud every minute.
The forward lines were cutting through both defences like the famous knife through butter.
A third goal nearly came to Blackpool with 10 minutes of the half left and would have come if Fairbrother had not made the save of the season, flying through the air to beat out a ball which was rising wide of him as it hit Mortensen’s head from Johnston’s speculative shot.
BEST FOR YEARS
A minute after Milburn - a grand, fast, roaming forward - had made position for Robledo to thunder in a shot which Farm cleared superbly, Mortensen was after Mudie’s long forward pass and shot a ball which Fairbrother reached with his clenched fists as he dived full length at it.
It was the best half I have seen at Blackpool for years. The teams were given an ovation as they left the field.
Half-time: Blackpool 2, Newcastle United 1.
Second half
Rain was pouring in torrents when the second half opened. It was a game still surging backwards and forwards at a hurricane pace.
The Newcastle goal nearly fell again with only four minutes of the half gone.
Mortensen stabbed a forward pass out to Hobson, who cut in from the open space and shot deliberately at such a pace that Fairbrother, clutching at the ball, lost it under Brown’s challenge and watched it sail off his finger-tips over the line for a corner.
Back the Blackpool front line came, and this time Hobson, flighting over a perfect centre, watched Johnston leap at it in an inside forward position and head it over the bar.
GREAT SHOTS
Twice in rapid succession afterwards, with Newcastle penned in their own half, Fairbrother fielded great shots by Shimwell and Johnston.
The quality of the football on a field which was rapidly becoming almost a morass under the rain was remarkable.
Pass after pass found its man as if they were playing on velvet turf.
The United were in the game only in breakaways - menacing in them but still only breakaways.
How these Blackpool forwards shot today. After a comparatively eventless patch, Wardle lashed the ball fast into Fairbrother’s hands.
EQUALISER
Robledo goal catches Blackpool napping
Yet in the 18th minute of the half the United were level again with another goal which had a presentation quality about it.
What happened to the Blackpool defence when Stokoe crossed a speculative centre into it, nobody, I suppose, will ever know.
Every man in it appeared to come to a standstill waiting, probably, to discover exactly what a ball which was sometimes skidding and sometimes halting dead was going to do.
In the end, GEORGE ROBLEDO was given time to take it, and make almost a slow-motion about-turn before lashing it into the net, with half a dozen men moving at last on him but that second too late.
But soon Blackpool were raiding again at a pace as great as ever, building one raid which ended in Hobson crossing a ball which flew out across the face of an empty goal.
UNITED RETREAT
The football was beginning to lose a little of its skill - and that, I suppose, was inevitable - but little of its pace, with the game approaching its last quarter of an hour.
Yet still the United were going back and back. Fewer scoring positions were being built, but the command of the game was still in Blackpool’s possession.
The closing minutes were a fiasco, with the ball almost impossible to dislodge out of the mud.
Result:
BLACKPOOL 2 (Mortensen 22, Mudie 28)
NEWCASTLE UNITED 2 (Milburn 26, Robledo 63)
COMMENTS ON THE GAME
WHAT a game this was - until the mud beat both teams.
It was played on a field which long before the end resembled less a football pitch than one of the primeval swamps and yet for an hour the football was almost classic in its design and incredibly fast.
The United, I think, were fortunate to take a point.
Both the Newcastle goals appeared to be the product less of design than accident, and there were periods when the North-Eastern team were completely outplayed and in defence almost outclassed.
Often they were outpaced, too, on the flanks, which may be significant, as Blackpool had two reserves there.
Often too - which was no less significant for Wembley purposes - their defence was torn wide open by fast passing raids.
There are not two Stanley Matthews in football, but the master has never had a finer understudy than young Hobson was today.
DIRECT ATTACK
All the time, in fact, until the last quarter-hour this Blackpool front line was as direct in its approach and as accomplished in the building of raids as I have seen it for a long time, with Mortensen not merely challenging constantly but building attacks with his passes.
The Newcastle forwards had a great leader in Jack Milburn, who, wandering everywhere, was still invariably in the open space for the pass.
And there was another elusive forward out on the left wing called Mitchell. Big Brennan closed the field’s centre when the rest of his defence was often being riddled.
Obviously there is not a lot between these teams, but if this game meant anything it should be a great match at Wembley and Blackpool should enter it with more than a 50-50 chance.
All-Lancashire Easter test for Blackpool
HOW many points in Blackpool’s Easter egg? asks Clifford Greenwood. They will be playing for six in four days next weekend.
All three games are in Lancashire, with Bolton Wanderers at Blackpool on Good Friday opening the short nonstop serial.
On Saturday Blackpool go to Everton, and on Monday there will be the return with the Wanderers at Burnden Park.
It is a nice, compact little test, this short-term marathon for a team which, when it finishes it, will have played nine matches in four weeks, with postponed games with the Albion and Manchester United still somewhere to be inserted into a fixture list which must be completed by the first week in May.
And afterwards come the Festival of Britain matches.
The Wanderers will play on Friday, where in two successive years Bolton teams have been defeated, last season by a couple of Stanley Mortensen goals, in 1948-49 by the first goal ever scored by Willie McIntosh for Blackpool.
What of Goodison Park?
The records reveal that Blackpool have won only one First Division match there since the war.
Last Easter, in a game which was probably the season’s all-time low for the team, Everton won 3-0. A year earlier it was the famous 5-0 snowstorm debacle.
The lone victory came a season earlier, and a 1-1 draw was forced in the first of the postwar football years when an Everton centre half obliged by heading the ball past his own goalkeeper late in the day.
Burnden Park, the scene of Monday’s match, has not been as barren of points for Blackpool teams in postwar football.
Blackpool’s record there, in fact, is as encouraging as the prospects on Merseyside two days earlier are a shade forbidding.
Four games have been played on the ground where Manager Joe Smith made his name.
One only has been lost. The three others have been drawn, the last one a year ago when not a goal was scored.
Last season’s three Easter games were worth three points.
Blackpool would settle for another three, I think, but if there were any other points to come they would still be glad of them.
IT’S GOOD TO SEE SUCH COMPLIMENTS
WHEN IT'S OVER
Handshakes all round
By Clifford Greenwood
IS THE BLACKPOOL PUBLIC UNGRATEFUL?
BY "CLIFFORD GREENWOOD" 17 March 19510
ANOTHER letter - they average two or three a week on this subject - complaining that the Blackpool football public is not sufficiently appreciative of its team, writes Clifford Greenwood.
Says “Kop Exile” from Kilsby, near Rugby: “For several years I regularly attended both First Division and Central League games at Bloomfield Road, and long ago I reached the conclusion that a number of alleged supporters were more ready to condemn the team than praise it.
“Since I have been in the Midlands I have watched games in all three Divisions and in minor leagues, and it has only served to strengthen my belief that the football public of Blackpool do not appreciate the wealth of talent assembled by Mr. Joe Smith and his directors.
“Blackpool have one of the finest teams in the country, and this opinion is shared by a lot of football fans in this part of the world.”
"It is, I must tell this correspondent, shared by a lot of fans in this part of the world, too. It is only an insignificant minority who make all those fretful noises - and write all those anonymous letters - and give the majority an unenviable reputation wherever in this country football is played.
And an unenviable reputation, believe me, it is. As somebody said at Maine Road the other day: “I don’t think the Blackpool team would get a cheer if they won the Cup, the League - and all five Tests.”
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It’s matter of £ s. d.
YES, it was wrong to go to Maine Road for the Blackpool - Birmingham City Cup semi-final - and for reasons other than the comfort of the spectators, too.
The receipts of £13,475 were, admittedly, not mere petty cash, but they were less than were taken at Hillsborough where nearly 10,000 fewer people were present.
And compare these figures also with the receipts at Villa Park in the 1948 semi-final between Blackpool and the Spurs.
That day the attendance was 70,687, and the sale of tickets produced £18,817. Over a thousand fewer people at the match than were at Maine Road a week ago, and yet the additional £5,000 - nearly £5,500 - was made out of it.
Why? Because the Manchester enclosure possesses such comparatively small stand accommodation. It was the wrong ground. It should have been Goodison Park the first time.
Having said that, one must in fairness also go on record with the fact that the Manchester City people organised the game most efficiently, and with courtesy and consideration for the Press, and, I hope, for everybody else.
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BACK TO FRONT
STRANGE to think that when Blackpool played Birmingham City in a First Division match two years ago:
Jack Badham, the full-back who faced Stanley Matthews in the Cup semi-finals, was fielded by the City at centre-forward, and that Cyril Trigg, who led the Birmingham forwards in the semi-finals, was played as a full-back.
People are still talking, by the way, of the Birmingham full-backs’ transfer of positions immediately before the match without notice being given to the announcer at the loud-speaker system.
Throughout the game thousands of people were unaware that the change had been made.
The City were entitled to make it, were entitled to delay it until the last minute - it was, in fact, an inspired move by Manager Bob Brocklebank as events worked out.
But the public who pay to watch football matches are also entitled to be told, however late in the day, the exact constitution of the team they are watching.
This should not be allowed to happen again.
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Only three among 72,000 knew
Last word on the extra-time anti-climax at Maine Road.
The rules governing the FA Cup contain no reference to extra time when the teams are level in a first meeting in the Cup semi-finals.
Blackpool and Birmingham City were both conversant with this particular clause in the Cup laws, but in the complete absence of definite instructions from Lancaster Gate, assumed - and this, presumably, is where they went wrong - that as extra time had been played in the 1948 semi-final at Villa Park, the last time either club had contested a semi-final, it would be played again.
I am not inclined to blame the clubs. The FA should have issued either to the clubs or through the Press a statement clarifying the issue before ever the match was played.
The Gilbertian position was created at Maine Road of 72,000 people watching and 22 footballers playing in a match the time of whose termination was known only to one referee and two linesmen.
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CURIOSITY of the first of the Blackpool-Birmingham City Cup-ties: The Blackpool forwards were not once halted on an offside decision. The Birmingham front line were five times in an offside trap.
And, according to one of Mr. George Sheard’s census charts, the number of throws-in totalled such a formidable figure as 68 - 37 for Blackpool and 31 for the City.
Is there any wonder that Mr. Norman Bassett, the West Bromwich Albion reformer, is still advocating the substitution of a free-kick for a throw-in whenever the ball is put out of play?
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