5 May 1951 Blackpool 1 Manchester United 1
United start brilliantly, then lose punch
LAST-MINUTE ESCAPE
Blackpool 1, Manchester United 1
By “Clifford Greenwood”
SO THIS AT LAST IS THE END OF THE LONG LEAGUE SEASON.
AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING SO IT WAS AT THE END, WITH A COLD WIND BLOWING AND WITH A FIELD SOAKED AFTER 24 HOURS' CONTINUOUS RAIN.
Manchester United came to town trailing clouds of glory, second in the First Division for the fourth time in five years, defeated in only one game - the Stoke match a month ago - since the dawn of 1951.
Johnny Aston, former England full-back, made in this game his 26th successive appearance as a centre-forward in a line which in its last six games had scored 19 goals and threatened a big test for Blackpool's Wembley defence.
In the absence of Stanley Matthews, nursing an ankle hurt in a charity match on Thursday - he should be fit for England's match against the Argentine - Blackpool fielded a forward line with 20-year-old players in three positions and with Rex Adams, only three years older, at outside-right.
That almost made Stanley Mortensen a GOM of the game!
The attendance was approaching 25,000 as the Atomic Boys and the Fleetwood Comic Band paraded, collecting for the British Legion.
Teams:
BLACKPOOL: Farm; Shimwell, Garrett; Johnston, Hayward, Kelly; Adams, Mudie, Mortensen, Withers, Perry.
MANCHESTER UNITED: Allen; Carey, Redman; Cockburn, Chilton, McGlen; McShane, Pearson, Aston, Downie, Rowley.
Referee: Mr. G. Black (Kendal).
THE GAME
First half
The United, who played in the blue jerseys of the 1948 Final, won the toss and defended the north goal.
The old offside trap, which is so nice when it comes off and not a bit nice when it doesn't, halted the Old Trafford team's first raid, but no man was near Jack Downie when, in the inside-left position, he shot before a minute had gone a ball which Farm fielded as he lurched in a heap on it.
Inside another minute Blackpool were near to a lead which would have been as brilliant as sensational if a goal had come.
Perry made the position brilliantly, outwitted Carey, brushed past Cockburn, and, as the ball was rolling away from him, crossed it high.
ALLEN'S LEAP
Reg Allen leaped out to it, appeared to be juggling with it on his fingertips as it skidded away either off his fists or off the catapulting Mortensen, and flew out by a post, with the centre-forward sprawling in the mud beneath the bar.
It was great football in the opening minutes.
Harry Johnston raced fast across the path of Pearson as the inside forward was chasing a pass into a shooting position, and the corner which was forfeited was cleared only by Farm holding magnificently under the bar a high ball which came curling in at him amid a pack of men.
Both forward lines played for a time afterwards almost as if inspired.
There was no rest for either defence, with half-backs and full-backs chasing a ball constantly eluding them.
It was seldom that a forward put a pass wrong.
The Manchester front line was a machine. The Blackpool front line achieved its purpose with less elegance but with no less punch.
Again in the 10th minute the United's goal was near downfall as Withers almost impudently steered through Chilton's open legs a pass which Mortensen chased and shot so fast that Allen could not hold a rising ball which in the end Perry shot back wide of a post.
Tom Garrett made one superb overhead clearance to repel one of the several United raids which followed, three of them in rapid succession coming to a standstill in offside positions.
OFFSIDE TRAP
Still faithful to the offside formation is the Blackpool defence.
It was a defence, nevertheless, which was standing reasonably firm against one of the best front lines seen in action at Blackpool for a long time.
Eddie Shimwell once lost a bouncing ball to Jack Rowley - the forward who has led an England front line but these days plays on a wing - and almost lost with it a goal as the wing raider, closing in fast, shot the ball at Farm as the goalkeeper fell in front of him.
With 15 minutes gone, this Manchester front line was as menacing as ever.
In another Manchester raid Rowley shot over the bar as wing forwards too seldom shoot these days. In two others Eric Hayward was there at the last critical second to halt a man in a shooting position.
MUDIE HURT
Falls under tackle, goes on the wing
Twenty minutes had gone and Jackie Mudie, in the wars again, fell under a tackle, and after treatment went out to a wing position.
Manchester's pressure was for a time almost continuous and nearly every raid had a shot to end it.
Downie, Aston and Pearson all shot wide as the United still attacked, with Stanley Mortensen at one time back among the half-backs and Withers alone left to chase whatever passes could be released to him out of the retreat.
Seven times in the game's 25 minutes there were offside decisions against the United. The number became eight in 26 minutes as McShane cut in fast and glided back a pass into an open space as a linesman's flag lifted against him.
BREAKAWAYS
Except as a breakaway force pursuing long downfield passes, the Blackpool forwards were out of the game until Mortensen headed sideways a gem of a pass which Chilton cleared desperately, with Withers waiting on the wrong side of him.
And before another minute had gone another raid was built in which Withers, always prepared to shoot, shot again but far away from the post,
Still, with half-an-hour gone, Blackpool were in the game no less than the United, which was a compliment in itself, even if Allen's sole employment appeared to be the collecting of passes rolling away too fast from the man chasing them.
Obviously, this United defence was not impassable.
UNITED AHEAD
Sliced clearance - and Downie scores
Yet it was the United who took the lead in the 33rd minute. Curiously, after all the fine football these Manchester men had been playing, it was no planned raid which produced the goal.
An advance was made on the left. Eddie Shimwell moved to the ball, half-intercepted it, half-sliced it out to his left, chased it, and was a split second late to it.
In that split second JOHNNY DOWNIE was there, jerking out a boot to shoot the ball fast and low away from Farm as the full-back skidded full length at his feet.
Afterwards the United were all out for No. 2.
Twice it was near as Rowley shot another fast, rising shot over the bar and again as Farm fell bravely and desperately at a bouncing ball, with three forwards in blue jerseys tearing in at it.
MORTENSEN DASH
Yet after all this it was nearly 1-1 with three minutes of the half left.
Then at last the forward pass was released for which Mortensen had been waiting.
Jackie Mudie made it - made it perfectly. After it went the Blackpool leader, eluded Chilton, half lost the ball, and in the end came to earth, and the goalkeeper with him, in a head-on collision with Reg Allen. Both men required attention before the corner could be taken.
And then, almost direct from the corner, the United nearly went further in front as Aston raced the ball away from an unprepared Blackpool defence, won possession of it from Farm as the goalkeeper galloped out to meet him, and in the end crossed it in front of an open goal, where there was no other forward in blue to take it.
The half ended with Mortensen hobbling over the line and away to the dressing room.
Half-time: Blackpool 0, Manchester United 1.
Second half
Blackpool were at full strength, with Mortensen back leading the forwards, when the second half opened.
Twice in the first two minutes Farm was in action, almost casually snatching away a centre crossed by McShane before taking a ball headed into his hands by Downie.
Except that Blackpool were going back again and not often going forward it was almost passive after all the first half's excitement.
Two Blackpool raids finished with high passes which the tall Chilton headed away, and yet in the end it was an error by this centre-half that almost lost the United the lead with only five minutes of the half gone.
DESPERATE SNATCH
When Hayward punted forward a free-kick the bounce of the ball deceived Chilton, and in the sudden crisis which presented itself Allen had to race out to snatch the ball desperately away from the pursuing Mortensen.
Again, too, Perry gave Carey a yard start and beat him over a dozen before crossing a perfect centre which was lost in a pack of men.
When Mudie squared the ball inside Adams lost it, too, probably deceived by its bounce in a shooting position.
Afterwards, in fact, Blackpool raided often, and under the raids the United's defence again was revealed as a vulnerable force.
It was not, in fact, unexpected when Blackpool made it 1-1 with exactly 15 minutes of the half gone. The goal had been threatening minutes before it came.
EQUALISER
Bill Perry volley beats Allen
It was built on the right wing. There the roaming Alan Withers took the pass, and, as three men called for a centre, crossed the ball at the height of the bar.
Three, four, five men appeared to battle for it before Mortensen, in no shooting position himself, put it out to the left, where one man was in a shooting position.
That one man was BILL PERRY, and in the next half-second the South African had volleyed into the far wall of the net a ball which Allen and his scattered, outwitted defence could never have seen.
It was Blackpool's first goal in three games, and it was a good one.
But it was not over yet.
Three raids were built by the brisk Manchester line and repelled by a Blackpool defence fast into the tackle if still inclined to play at times a long way downfield.
PERRY'S PACE
Yet definitely one had the impression that the United's earlier command of the game had gone, and with Perry still able to outpace Carey whenever he was given the right sort of pass anything could still happen.
What actually happened was that McShane was presented with a shooting position where he should have scored six minutes after Blackpool had equalised, but merely stabbed the ball slowly into the crouching Farm's arms.
Blackpool designed one perfect raid via Johnston, Mudie, Mortensen and Withers which ended in Perry shooting a ball which hit a man and cannoned back off him.
But with the last quarter of an hour almost on the clock the United were again often raiding without revealing anything but a shadow of their first half punch.
McSHANE SHOOTS
Linesman had flagged him offside
With exactly 15 minutes left, the United were near a winning goal - or appeared to be - when McShane shot a ball which hit Farm's legs and bounced out off them a half-second after a linesman's flag had been lifted again on an offside decision against the Manchester forward.
Ten minutes left, and there was still not a goal between them. The United continued to raid, but always there was the prospect that a Blackpool breakaway might snatch the match.
One, in fact, almost did with eight minutes to go.
This time Adams chased his full-back, won the ball from him in the end, and crossed it. Mortensen, hitting it fast, watched Allen take a swallow-dive to his left to reach it and punch it out in a glorious save.
During five of the last 10 minutes the United were in utter retreat, surviving a confident demand for a penalty, forfeiting two corners and a free-kick, and, in fact, almost losing a match which earlier they had often promised to win by a distance.
In the last minute Blackpool almost won.
NEARLY!
Harry Johnston went surging away in the outside-left position, crossed a high centre.
Allen leaped at the ball, appeared to lose it. It fell, escaped two Blackpool men almost on the line of the gaping goal, and was hit away in an any-port-in-a-storm clearance.
It was the biggest escape of the match, and it came in the season's last 30 seconds.
Result:
BLACKPOOL 1 (Perry 60)
MANCHESTER UNITED 1 (Downie 33)
COMMENTS ON THE GAME
BLACKPOOL would be content to take a point from the conquering Manchester United with the line of young forwards which had to be fielded in this game.
Blackpool won a point and that was an achievement. Nearly to snatch two, which was what Blackpool nearly accomplished, was almost a major exploit.
I think the United should have won in the first half when the Manchester forwards played football which I have seldom seen approached at Blackpool this season.
The Blackpool defence held these forwards at bay chiefly by constant exploiting of the maligned offside trap. But there was a grim defiance in it, too.
George Farm had a great match. So, too, had Tom Garrett.
Blackpool stormed into the game and almost won it after half-time.
PERRY'S BEST
This was a day when Bill Perry had his best game for weeks against such a master of full-back strategy as Carey, and the mere presence of Stanley Mortensen was obviously calculated to cause a little panic in the ranks of a United defence never within measurable distance of the excellence of its front line.
Blackpool have no reason to be ashamed of this last-day-of-the-season game.
No Cup, but a catalogue of Blackpool triumphs in —
THE GREATEST SEASON
By Clifford Greenwood
THE CUP HAS BEEN LOST - AND BLACKPOOL, THE FAVOURITES, LOST IT.
An Arsenal team have won in Blackpool - and it is the first time a team from the splendours of Highbury have won at Blackpool for 19 years.
All, according to some folk, is, therefore, dust and ashes - and not the sort of Ashes, either, which English cricketers used to win when they were in mortal combat with Australians.
Two defeats in less than a week, and all that has been achieved during the preceding eight months - all the glory that has been won, all the records created - has been forgotten.
That's how it works out in football. But in this particular case it is all wrong.
Weekend to forget? No, it was a
weekend to remember
BY "CLIFFORD GREENWOOD" 5 May 1951
FIRST WORDS I HEARD WHEN I RETURNED TO BLACKPOOL AFTER THE WEMBLEY PILGRIMAGE WERE: "I SHOULD THINK YOU'LL BE GLAD TO FORGET THIS WEEKEND."
Forget it? asks Clifford Greenwood. I shall always remember it, and remember it chiefly, I think, because for two days after their defeat I was with a team that lost with such
good grace, with so few complaints, and with such courage.
The weekend is a kaleidoscope of impressions gay and grim - and all of them memorable.
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HARROW'S BIG DAY
FRIDAY afternoon shortly before four o'clock. The scene is Platform 2 on Harrow Station. The 10 a.m. from Blackpool has been halted there by the gracious dispensation of British Railways.
Coach doors open down the length of a train which when it called at the Fylde coast stations early in the day had left its rear coaches way out almost in open country, the platforms too short for the great steel serpent.
The Blackpool players leave their coach, and bedlam is released, as rattles make the noise of road drills, and bugles bray and bells clash in a chorus of brazen discords, and the passengers tumble out on to the platform, and the guard blows his whistle and orders them back, and everybody begins to sing "Yes, We Have No Bananas!"
It's Mafeking Night - before Mafeking - before the victory which in the end was a defeat.
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FAMOUS TURF - And two views on the penalty spot
AN hour later, after tea at an
hotel which was built for Henry VIII as a shooting lodge - and what a pity, I think, a day or two later, that it had not inspired one or two of its guests to go in for a little different sort of shooting! - I am on the rectangle of turf which is famous the world over.
The wind has a bite in it, and the Blackpool players, treading it, and jumping up and down on it, one or two of the young players, I suspect, glancing almost apprehensively at the tilt of the vast empty slopes rising from the grass into the lowering skies, tell each other "Well, tomorrow at this time, we'll know what's happened."
I stand with George Farm in the goal fronting the players' tunnel, and we observe how close the penalty "spot," white in its fresh paint, seems to be, and I say "You'd wonder how they could miss from there!"
And up strolls Eddie Shimwell, who has just been told that he is taking the penalties if there are any in the morrow's game, and he says "There's not a lot of space left to shoot wide of a goalkeeper."
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All of which indicates that opinions on every subject under the sun depend on the point of view.
"Forget the goalkeeper," says Manager Joe Smith. "Just pick a spot - and hit it - hit it fast - never mind these fancy little side-steps and glides."
Mr. Smith gives the impression that in his view such subtle refinements are fit only for the ballroom floor.
When he shot penalties - as I know - the goalkeeper was glad when he was not in the path of the hurtling ball.
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SO POLITE - The correct way with autographs
THEY are so polite at Harrow.
It must be the influence of the brick-turreted college proud and majestic on the hill.
The boys and girls flock, chattering like excited starlings, at the doors of the hotel, but they make no unseemly parade of themselves, and the majority, in fact, merely leave their books with the porter, who opens them, and, a pen or pencil laid on the open pages, clears a table in the dining room and lays the books neatly and precisely side by side.
And whenever they walk in, the players sign them at their leisure, and Stanley Mortensen's brother, a regimental sergeant-major, who has been in the Army 23 years and has come over from Ireland for the match, says, "That's how it should be," as if such order and discipline were on the correct Army pattern and acceptable in his sight.
Harrow's reaction to a Cup Final team is a model of decorum.
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THE PARSON - "Good luck to you all/' he says
NOBODY invades the privacy of the players' lounge.
When they go to the cinema on Wembley eve there is one photographer waiting in the foyer, but the usherette escorting the team to their balcony seats in the black-out obviously is unaware of their identity, and so prim and eminently correct is her demeanour, she probably would not exactly swoon with ecstasy if she were aware of it.
And when the coach calls at the hotel early on Saturday afternoon there are not a dozen people in its cobbled approach, and except for an elderly minister of the Church, who has asked earlier that the team would autograph a ball for his boys' club, nobody with anything except an impersonal interest in Wembley is among them.
"Thank you, gentlemen," says the parson, and lifts his shovel hat on high in salute, and "Good luck to you all" he calls, and those are the last words Blackpool hear at Harrow.
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IN THE COACH - It's quiet-and taut is the atmosphere
IT is curiously quiet in the coach. One can sense the taut atmosphere. Stanley Mortensen begins a song, but, according to my recollection, never finishes it.
But it is not such a long trek, this last lap, which is one of the benefits, apart from the innate kindliness and courtesy of its people, of making a Cup Final base so close to Wembley as Harrow.
Almost before you see the minarets and domes you can hear the thousands inside the great white walls and outside on the concrete pavements and on the grass slopes.
It sounds as if a gigantic swarm of bees is on the wing and there is - must be for the player unaccustomed to the big match - something almost intimidating, menacing in it.
Yet - I may be wrong, but so early I have the impression which later events confirm - that this is a curiously quiet Wembley.
There is the tension, the excitement exploding at last into a thunderous savage tumult when the teams appear. But 100,000 people during the first 15 or 20 minutes make less noise than I have heard 20,000 make sometimes at Bloomfield-road.
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Bolton fund
Bolton Disaster Fund, opened after the match at Burnden Park on March 9, 1946, when 33 people were killed, has been wound up at nearly £58,000.
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STAN'S HORSE BEATEN
STANLEY MATTHEWS, the Blackpool footballer, met with another Newcastle defeat today.
A week ago Newcastle beat Blackpool in the FA Cup, and this afternoon Matthews' horse Parbleu was beaten a neck in the Ain Handicap by Prince Legend.
Two furlongs out, Parbleu seemed certain to win when he closed on Prince Legend.
Parbleu drew level, but failed to go through with his effort, Prince Legend running on well under pressure to win by a neck.
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