3 March 1951 Blackpool 3 Portsmouth 0
Pompey defence worn down and riddled
BROWN A MASTER
Blackpool 3, Portsmouth 0
By “Clifford Greenwood”
BLACKPOOL had to play reserves in both wing-half positions and at inside forward for the visit of Portsmouth, League champions two seasons in succession, this afternoon.
Harry Johnston, the captain, who had not missed a match for the team since the Burnley game at Turf Moor on August 29 last year, was under treatment earlier today for a pulled muscle, legacy of the Stamford Bridge match three days ago.
By noon it was decided that it would be unwise for him to play, but there was every indication that he will be in the Cup semi-final next weekend - and both Hugh Kelly and Jackie Mudie, I am told, are also almost certain to be, too.
George McKnight was the automatic selection as understudy for Johnston.
Blackpool, therefore, fielded three men who had played nearly all their football this season in the Central League.
All of which made the match a major test in spite of Portsmouth’s continual failures at Blackpool - not even a point won in four games - since the war.
Portsmouth announced “No change” after last weekend’s 2-1 defeat of Bolton Wanderers on the South Coast, including the Belgian wing-forward, Marcel Gaillard, who was playing in only his fourth game in a Portsmouth jersey.
25,000 CROWD
A cold wind blew over a field which had rolled out level and comparatively firm.
There were nearly 25,000 people waiting for the kick-off in the sunshine.
Teams:
BLACKPOOL: Farm; Shimwell, Garrett; McKnight, Hayward, Fenton; Matthews, Withers, Mortensen, Brown, Perry.
PORTSMOUTH: Butler; Stephen, Ferrier; Scoular, Froggatt, Dickinson; Harris, Reid, Thompson, Phillips, Gaillard.
Referee: Mr. J. B. Jackson (Watford).
THE GAME
First half
After winning the toss Eric Hayward, Blackpool’s understudy captain, decided to defend the south goal. Nearly all the early football was played towards this goal, Gaillard volleying the ball high over the bar from the only shooting position which Portsmouth made.
Yet, strangely, it was Blackpool who were nearer a goal in the first raid the front line produced.
Matthews took a pass from Mortensen almost on the touchline and crossed from the narrowest angle a centre which was bouncing out by the far post as Perry shot it back and compelled Butler to a clearance which was more instinctive than anything else.
This Blackpool raid continued, too, until that shooting half-back, McKnight, took a bare sort of chance, and shot only an inch or two over the bar.
FROGGATT’S DASH
The offside whistle terminated Portsmouth’s next raid after Jack Froggatt, an England wing-forward who has become a centre-half, had raced 20 yards over the halfway line before releasing his pass.
The Portsmouth defence was wide open when Mortensen took Perry’s short pass as early as the seventh minute, and, with the goalkeeper left alone, hooked a fast shot wide of the far post when a placed shot would probably have scored.
Yet within another minute Blackpool’s goal would have fallen when Peter Harris cut in fast from the wing and passed Farm with his short squared centre, if McKnight had not cleared it almost under the bar and then headed away again in a flying leap.
GOOD FOOTBALL
Fast, aggressive - with low passes
It was at this time great football which both teams were playing - fast, aggressive football. Seldom was there a pass anywhere except on the grass - or whatever little grass there is at Bloomfield Road these days.
Ernest Butler twice made punched clearances in the sun’s glare with the peak of his cap pulled low over his eyes before in the 18th minute Portsmouth had another escape.
Always in this game, George McKnight made the position. Withers raced after his perfect pass and was within shooting range as he fell under the sort of smash-or-grab backward charge which most referees punish.
This one Mr. Jackson, after a swift glance out for a linesman’s signal, allowed to pass. Otherwise it would have been a penalty.
GAILLARD SHOOTS
Gaillard finished a Portsmouth raid with another thundering cross drive which went out by the far post and cut a big gap in the population of the south paddock.
But it was still the Blackpool attack which was making the positions with the menace of a goal in them.
Stanley Mortensen raced in pursuit of a long downfield clearance, eluded Froggatt as the ball bounced high over the centre-half’s head, and hooked his shot far away and wide as the ball, still bouncing, escaped him.
Afterwards the Portsmouth forwards were in the game a lot. One raid followed another, but none threatened to break the resistance of the Blackpool defence until Phillips took one pass with his wing-half out of position and shot wide of a post.
INCHES OUT
Yet a minute later the Blackpool forwards were at it again. Perry crossed a ball which Mortensen glided perfectly onto Withers, who took his chance without hesitation, as he takes all his chances, and was inches only off the near post with a rocketing shot.
Two minutes later, too, Withers was in the game again. Shooting from 30 yards a ball which Butler, in the glare of the sun, was glad to lift over the bar for Blackpool’s fourth corner in the game’s first 26 minutes.
What a grand game this was! Back went the Portsmouth forwards two minutes later. Phillips raced on to a low centre in a space for once left open by Blackpool’s vigilant defence, and shot so fast that Farm had to make a backwards leap at the ball to punch it over the bar for a corner.
FREE-KICKS
And crowd make a noise about them
It was to be regretted that one Portsmouth player, Scoular, was concerned in the concession of so many free-kicks.
Mr. Jackson appeared gently to chide him once. The crowd was not so long-suffering, made a great deal of noise about it.
Yet the next Portsmouth man to be penalised was, of all people, the goalkeeper, and Butler could not complain about it either. For when he went on a race out to the edge of his penalty area for a ball which Perry was pursuing his tackle of the wing-forward was not at all orthodox, which is to put it politely.
GREAT CLEARANCES
The free-kick, which was worth nothing, interrupted a series of Portsmouth attacks in which both the Blackpool full-backs, Garrett and Shimwell, made great clearances.
But with three minutes of the half left Stanley Mortensen had another chance and rejected it, taking away a bouncing ball direct from McKnight’s long lobbed pass and lashing it high over the bar after his speed and the ball’s bounce had beaten Froggatt.
Half-time: Blackpool 0, Portsmouth 0.
Second half
The Portsmouth forwards began the second half as they had opened the first, attacking almost continuously but arriving nowhere.
The first time Matthews was given a pass in an unguarded space the Portsmouth defence settled for a corner.
Yet direct from the corner Portsmouth raided again, and Blackpool, content to concede a free-kick almost on the penalty area line, massed to repel one of Doug Reid’s famous dead-ball shots.
Within a minute in this grand, dramatic game the Portsmouth goal was near downfall.
CANNONED OUT
The ball ran loose. The alert Withers raced after it all on his own, and shot a ball which cannoned out off Butler as the goalkeeper fell in front of him.
The ball spun away. Mortensen shot it, and it cannoned out again, and, in fact, no sort of peace was restored in front of the Portsmouth goal till two Blackpool men impeded each other almost under the bar and the ball ran at last out over the line.
Nobody could say there was no incident in this game.
Another one-man Blackpool raid followed, Brown revealing remarkable speed in possession of the ball and racing 40 yards with it before reaching shooting distance and shooting again a ball which hit Butler’s knees and came spinning out off them.
Blackpool’s football at this time was completely outplaying Portsmouth, who were fortunate again not to be punished with a penalty when Matthews came tumbling head over heels down on to the grass under a reckless tackle,
THE LEAD
Two Blackpool goals in three minutes
Nineteen minutes of the half had gone and it was still 0-0. It could have been 3-0 or 4-0, for Blackpool’s football was still causing a nonstop Portsmouth retreat.
Inside the next three minutes it was, in any case, 2-0. Both goals, as I saw them, were goals out of a freak show.
With 20 minutes of the half gone there was a long clearance down Blackpool’s right flank.
Mortensen and Froggatt waited for the ball, and as it fell went after it. It seemed from the Press box that the centre-half lost balance and fell on top of the centre-forward as both men collapsed in a heap.
Without hesitation Mr. Jackson, who had earlier refused a couple of penalty demands which seemed completely justified, gave a penalty this time without a demand for one at all.
From the spot Brown scored with a shot as fast as the one which won the Fulham tie, but yards farther away from the goalkeeper.
A GIFT
Two minutes later came goal No. 2. This was another goal scored when it was least expected.
McKnight half-hit a shot into a packed penalty area. Butler went to meet the bouncing ball, lost it, and palmed it down, and Mortensen, with the ball at his feet like a gift from Portsmouth, shot it back over the empty line.
Twice afterwards - once, in fact, in the penalty area - Mr. Jackson refused to punish tackles by a rattled, desperate Portsmouth defence which deserved to be punished.
Again, too, inside the next five minutes, Perry crossed from the corner flag a ball which hit the outside of a post.
Portsmouth, in fact, were for 10 minutes after the second goal in a state so near chaos that anything could have happened and a lot nearly did, with the Fratton Park club’s defence riddled almost every time the Blackpool front line descended on it.
GOAL No. 3
The storm subsided, as this sort of storm has a habit of doing. Yet with 12 minutes remaining Blackpool went further in front and deservedly, too.
Another fast snap raid discovered the Portsmouth defence as open as the famous barnyard door.
Withers raced alone into the open space from Mortensen’s unselfish forward pass.
All that happened afterwards bordered on the fantastic. Out came Butler - there was nothing else he could do - and collided with the raiding forward.
Both men fell. The ball ran loose.
Into the gap raced a Portsmouth full-back to act as goalkeeper. But he had no chance to act as one, for Brown came up at a gallop and rocketed the ball high into the roof of the net at a pace which would have left any goalkeeper on earth standing.
TOO LATE
The only major incidents afterwards were the transfer of Jack Froggatt to the centre-forward position - a desperate move which came a lot too late - and the calling out of Blackpool’s trainer to Eric Hayward, who, however, within a couple of minutes, was pronounced fit for play.
Result:
BLACKPOOL 3 (Brown 65 pen, 78, Mortensen 67)
PORTSMOUTH 0
COMMENTS ON THE GAME
It was a freak penalty decision which sent Portsmouth tumbling to their accustomed fate at Blackpool.
After losing that first goal the South Coast team was for all practical purposes out of the match, lost two more goals, and, in the end, were glad that it was no worse than 3-0.
This defeat was complete. It would have come earlier if Blackpool had been able to complete raids which were repeatedly exposing the Portsmouth defence as a resolute but vulnerable force.
The difference was between the two forward lines. Blackpool’s attack had in it a master inside forward, Alan Brown, who made it a progressive unit with his passes and his hard labour, too.
PANIC
There was the old familiar panic on the wing which Stanley Matthews faced - and again the old familiar cause for it.
In spite of the presence of three reserves there was no perceptible disturbance of the confidence which is everywhere manifest in Blackpool's football today.
George McKnight, in fact, left a big impression on the match both in attack and defence, and Alan Withers revealed again his capacity for being in the open space when a pass reached it.
The defence was as strong as in recent weeks, with Eric Hayward playing again with all his old self-assurance.
This sort of football will win Cup ties or anything else.
Mr. Smith watched Birmingham
MANAGER JOE SMITH, of Blackpool, did not see his team in the Portsmouth match this afternoon. He was at Barnsley watching Birmingham, next week's opponents in the Cup semi-final.
ONLY ONCE IN THEIR HISTORY HAVE BIRMINGHAM CITY REACHED THE FINAL OF THE FA CUP - IN 1931, WHEN THEY MET WEST BROMWICH ALBION IN AN ALL-MIDLAND MATCH.
This year, with Wolverhampton Wanderers in the other semi-final, Birmingham are hoping that history will repeat itself, and that there will be another all-Midland final, with Birmingham more successful than in their last venture, when they were beaten 2-1. Before they reach their Wembley goal, however,
Birmingham will have to eliminate Blackpool - generally accepted to be their stiffest task to date, although they have already put out strong First Division sides in Derby County and Manchester United.
Here's what Birmingham manager Bob Brocklebank has to say about his club's Wembley prospects: "My boys are Cup-conscious this year, and so far they have always been able to pull out that little bit extra in the Cup ties.
" I know that Blackpool are a stiff obstacle, but we had stiff obstacles in Derby County and Manchester United, and we came through.
" It is a good draw, and if the lads play as well as they did in the last round against Manchester United we shall give Blackpool a good game, if we do not beat them."
Full-back problem
SERIOUS injuries, it is expected that Birmingham will be content, except at full-back, with the side which beat Manchester United.
Birmingham have three full-backs from whom to choose, the regular pair Jack Badham and Ken Green, and young Roy Martin, a reserve full-back who has given some splendid displays since he first came into the side just before Christmas.
Injuries, first to Badham and then to Green, gave Martin an extended run in the team, and he played in all the first three Cup ties. In the game against Manchester United, however, he was dropped to enable Badham and Green to resume their partnership, but the move was not wholly successful.
Green, who played at left-back, is a natural right-back, and he had a most unhappy game.
May be switched
WITH thoughts of Stanley Matthews in mind, Birmingham may well switch Badham and Green round for the semi-final, or bring back Martin at the expense of one of his more experienced colleagues.
With the rest of the team, though, Birmingham can have no complaints.
The hard, first-time tackling of half-backs Ferris, Atkins and Boyd unsettled the Manchester United attack right from the start, and the same tactics will undoubtedly be used against the Blackpool forwards.
Outstanding features of the forwards' play were the clever switching of centre-forward Cyril Trigg and outside-left Johnny Berry, the persistent raids of Jackie Stewart on the right wing, and the opportunism of the inside forwards which began with Jimmy Higgins' goal 20 seconds after the start.
By Clifford Greenwood
HARRY JOHNSTON'S six goals for Blackpool this season are an all-time First Division record for a Blackpool half-back, writes Clifford Greenwood. Yet the Blackpool captain is not all that excessively proud of it.
He denies that the goals are the product of a rehearsed plan with Stanley Matthews, and says "I'm scoring because I've happened to be in the right place at the right time when I've gone upfield."
Those six goals have actually made Johnston third leading scorer to Stanley Mortensen and Jackie Mudie in Blackpool's first team. Which happens to be another record for a Blackpool half-back at this time of the season.
It all means, I know, that if the present Blackpool front line should cease scoring there will be letters in every mail advocating Harry Johnston's inclusion in the attack.
And that also means that I shall write again "He's a lot too good a half-back to be put into the attack." Just as I have told other correspondents with team-building aspiration "Allan Brown is too good a forward to be put in the half-back line."
***
Started in stripes
PEOPLE often argue about Blackpool colours:
Few know that the club's first colours were blue-and-white stripes. That was as long ago as 1887, but, according to the late Mr. W. Hartley Bracewell's "History of the Blackpool FC," blue-and-white they were for Blackpool's first team.
Longest in service afterwards was white - the good old "Lily-whites." Then came tangerine. Then for a few years there were light and dark-blue stripes - the "Oxford and Cambridge Blues" as they were called. Then there was the reversion to tangerine - and tangerine - the only tangerine jersey among all the Football League clubs - it has been ever since.
Several people are credited with the selection of this uncommon and distinctive colour. According to Hartley Bracewell it was the late Mr. Albert Hargreaves, who was so impressed with it when the Dutch team wore it in a Holland v. Belgium match he was refereeing that he recommended it to the club when in later years he became chairman.
***
WHEN one of Belgium's class teams come to Blackpool during the Whitsuntide weekend for a Festival of Britain match, there will come with these distinguished visitors a Blackpool man who during the last decade has made his name in Continental football.
These days Mr. William ("Bill") Gormlie is one of the highest-paid executives in Belgian football.
A lot of water has flowed beneath the bridge and a lot of goals been scored since Bill Gormlie was on the Tower and Winter Gardens staff, assistant house manager at the Grand Theatre before he was lured away into professional football.
At Blackburn he was rapidly attaining the rank of an England goalkeeper when a serious accident on the field interrupted his career. He finished his playing days with Northampton Town, and accepted the offer of a coaching appointment in Belgium.
Bill will be coming over with his boys - one of the teams who play at the famous Heysel Stadium in Brussels. It will be nice to meet him again.
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