28 September 1946 Derby County 1 Blackpool 2
TEN BLACKPOOL MEN WIN IN LAST MINUTE
McIntosh's Goal Decides
BUCHAN CARRIED OFF
Derby County 1, Blackpool 2
By “Spectator”
IT was a day more suited to cricket than a football match at Derby, the temperature was high in the 70's.
You could call it a day stolen from the summer we never had.
Blackpool, who came by road yesterday and will return tonight, reaching Blackpool about midnight, had again to play three men who were in the Central League team at the beginning of the season.
The County shuffled the front line. with Peter Doherty and Carter away in Ireland.
In the inside right position was Frank Broome, who in his Villa days made a habit of shooting goals against Blackpool.
The County played six of the men who won at Wembley last April.
There were nearly 30,000 in the glaring hot sunshine when the teams took the field.
Teams:
DERBY COUNTY: Woodley, Parr, Howe, Ward, Leuty, Musson, Crooks, Broome, Morrison, Stamps, and Duncan.
BLACKPOOL: Wallace, Sibley, Kennedy, Kelly, Crosland, Johnston, Eastham, Buchan (W), Mortensen, Blair (J) and McIntosh.
Referee: Mr J Lawless (Bury).
THE GAME
Sammy Crooks had a cheer all to himself when he led the County out. He lost the toss. The County defence faced the sun.
In the first half minute Woodley had to leave his goal by yards to beat Mortensen by a couple of inches in a race for Buchan’s cunning forward pass.
In the next half-minute, after one of the queerest decisions I have seen for a long time, a free-kick was awarded against Eastham when everybody expected a free-kick for him.
Parr punted a high ball. Three forwards missed it with the Blackpool defence ominously open. Wallace in the end was left to clear at his leisure.
There might have been a couple of goals so early in the afternoon. It was a storming opening. That was not the end of it, either.
With the County still pressing, Broome wandered over to the left, accepted a forward pass, cut in fast, and hit the post with Wallace beaten by the pace of the ball.
There were non-stop Derby raids afterwards. Crosland dispossessed Duncan as the outside-left found himself in another open position.
A minute later Morrison headed over the bar, and in another minute Wallace held a high centre from the right out of a pack of men swarming under the bar.
There were Blackpool break-aways now and again, nearly all of them on the right, where Buchan crossed a long centre which Mortensen missed by half an inch as he hurled himself at it a yard off a wide-open County goal-line.
ALL ONE WAY
Blackpool Under Heavy Pressure
With 12 minutes gone it had been nearly one-way traffic on the Blackpool goal.
Few passes were reaching the forwards. Under this relentless pressure, too, there were times when the Blackpool defence was losing composure.
Slowly, with the first 15 minutes gone. this Derby storm in the sunshine began to subside. Still there were few of those machine like raids that have made a reputation tor the Blackpool forwards this season.
Once Blair zigzagged past four men, decided to swerve a fifth with two forwards waiting for a pass, and lost the ball.
In the next Derby attack Kennedy raced over to close a gap in the centre and halted Morrison superbly. No nonsense about this young full-back.
At last the Blackpool raids began to come along. There was no punch in them yet, but the plan was beginning to work again, passes finding their men.
The County were no longer in command.
MORTENSEN’S GOAL
Leuty made one desperate sliding clearance to put the brake on Buchan as the inside-right chased Mortensen's forward pass.
In the next minute. the 27th, Blackpool snatched the lead. It was a goal built this time on the left wing.
McIntosh, in the end, got the ball on the line from Johnston’s pass, and crossed it high. MORTENSEN leaped at it, and it flashed into the net before Woodley could move an inch.
Two minutes later it might have been 2-0 for Blackpool
Mortensen decided to pass to the unmarked Buchan, and the ball missed the Scot with the goal wide open.
Blackpool defence had steadied. Crosland was giving little away in the centre. Twice in rapid succession he intercepted forward passes intended for the waiting Morrison.
Once Broome shot into the arms of Wallace when he should have scored, Otherwise, as the interval approached. the County were nearly as completely out of the game as earlier they had been in it.
Mortensen, from McIntosh’s centre, shot wide from a position where he often hits the net, with Derby's defence all at sea against a maze of rapid low passes.
Kelly made a grand clearance as at last the County's front line began to hammer Blackpool’s defence again.
But by this time the Blackpool defence was being stampeded no longer.
On half-time Wallace made a grandstand clearance.
In the next half-minute Woodley was in action, falling full length to a shot from Buchan following a corner, unexpectedly taken by Blair.
For 20 minutes in this half I was almost certain that Blackpool were going to lose by two or three goals. Before half-time this team were winning almost everywhere, and deserving the lead.
You can’t make Blackpool out these days.
Half-time: Derby County 0, Blackpool 1.
Jock Wallace appeared in a new big peaked cap after the interval. He required it, too. with his goal direct in the sun’s glare.
Blackpool were raiding on both wings immediately. Eastham and McIntosh in succession crossed centres to which the inside men hurled themselves in vain.
The old order was back in the line again. Every time the Derby forwards advanced - and that was not often - the offside whistle halted them.
Sam Crooks showed in one flash how good he still can be, racing away nearly for the first time in the game from the fast-tackling Kennedy, and crossing a centre which Broome hooked wide of the post.
That was as near as the County had been to a goal for a long time.
In a bewildering succession of passes in which Blackpool's front line were specialising the Derby defence showed a few signs oi panic.
Two corners were forfeited by desperate any-port-in-a-storm clearance.
Mortensen headed low into Woodley's arms.
With 14 minutes of the half gone, Blackpool were reduced to ten men.
There appeared a collision in midfield, and Buchan was left kneeling on the turf. They gave him first-aid treatment on the field and carried him of.
Another minute, and the County made it 1-1.
BROOME specialises in goals against Blackpool.
He scored this one, raced inside after a long lobbed pass, found himself in a shooting position, and shot a ball that went into the net like a bullet.
Blackpool were often in retreat afterwards. and Crosland made a couple of fine clearances under this pressure.
Reports from the dressing room were that Buchan had twisted a knee and was under medical attention.
Even with a four-men forward line Blackpool were not outplayed for long. One corner was won. and from it the lead was nearly taken again as Johnston shot inches over the bar from McIntosh's pass.
It was odds against Blackpool with 20 minutes left, and yet the County were not taking the possession of the game that they should have taken.
Ten minutes from the end the referee halted the game and called for police to patrol one line.
Throughout the half the linesman's offside flag had been repeatedly disputed by the packed terraces near him.
For the rest of the game two constables paced the line near him.
With half a minute left Eastham took a forward pass, swerved two men and crossed the ball, which McINTOSH shot into the net to win the match.
Result:
DERBY COUNTY 1 (Broome 61min)
BLACKPOOL 2 (Mortensen 27min, McIntosh 89min)
COMMENTS ON THE GAME
Blackpool’s ten men deserved to win this game.
For the first 20 minutes the defence was nearly hammered out of the match.
Afterwards, until the last half-hour, with Buchan crippled and off the field, the forwards gave another exhibition of the football which has split defence after defence this season.
It had no great punch, but it had class.
McIntosh, who played his best game since leaving Preston, and Eastham were the big men in the line.
Once the defence had sorted itself out it closed its ranks. The young reserve, Kennedy, nearly played Crooks out of the match. Sibley, too, cleared with decision.
Buchan‘s injury is not serious.
A displaced cartilage was at first suspected.
Official attendance, 25,058.
BLACKPOOL - SHOCK TEAM
Everybody Was Wrong - Except Players
By “Spectator”
I WAS WRONG ABOUT BLACKPOOL A MONTH AGO. SO WAS NEARLY EVERYBODY ELSE.
When the season opened, they were saying everywhere, recalling those last three hangover months of last season:
"This team will never do - they’re in the relegation dogfight before ever they begin.”
That's what they were saying everywhere - except in Blackpool’s own training quarters.
There was none of this defeatist stuff there. Instead, there was almost an excess of confidence.
I talked to Harry Johnston, the new captain - and a first-class captain he has become in four short weeks, too.
"Wait and see,” he said; “You may be surprised yet. We’ll do fine I'm telling you.”
It appeared in a headline:
“We'll do Fine, Say Players.” People wrote in and were sceptical about it.
Transformation
I WAS prepared to wait on events, but frankly was not confident. I could not forget those days between last February and May when a Blackpool eleven reached a new low ebb.
And I was wrong, Now, at the end of a month, Blackpool are again in the position which only once before has a Blackpool team achieved, the No. 1 position which Blackpool's pre-war team won on the eve of World War II. It is not - and nobody claims it to be - a wonder team, for wonder teams went out of fashion when a war came in to disrupt the game for-six years.
A Real Team
But it is a team - not 11 units calling itself a team. Its defence is stronger, in spite of casualties and the fielding of reserves, than it was ever expected to be, and its forward line at times playing such class football that a few writers have been almost lyrical about it.
Whatever happens now - and a lot can happen yet - Blackpool at the end of the first month can be called “The Surprise Team of the Season.”
It is being reflected at the box office, too.
Nearly 100,000 people have watched Blackpool’s first four home games and paid almost £9,500. Look at these figures:
Attendance. Receipts.
Brentford 24,230 £2,329
Wolves 27,431 £2,831
Aston Villa 27,452 £2,645
Portsmouth 18,517 £1,663
Total 97,630 £9,468
And Arsenal come to, town next Saturday!
Jottings from all parts
BY "SPECTATOR" 28 September 1946
His home is in Ansdell, his work in Blackpool, in a Birley street accountants office. He can train only two evenings a week, but he’s always fit for a 90 minute game and ranks already as one of the fastest centre half-backs in football.
Players in they leading American baseball league have asked for a rise, too, and have n granted it.
The new minimum wage is £1,250 a year, which is about £25 a week.
A new case for emigration?
DICK WHITHAM, the full-back who was signed from Blackpool by Oldham Athletic during the summer, still trains at Blackpool every day. The Athletic granted him this concession when he signed.
Another guest at Blackpool during training hours is often Stanley Matthews, the England and Stoke forward whose long immunity from injury seems unfortunately, to have ended this season.
This great footballer and grand fellow prides himself on his record as a non-casualty for years.
When he was hurt playing for Blackpool against Manchester United last March it was only the second time that he had been compelled to limp out of a game since he entered football.
I HEAR this week of a ground where they could play night matches in mid-winter. Stenhousemuir is the name of the club - the club in whose front line Willie Buchan often appeared last season.
Arc lamps border the playing area, which could be floodlit from one end to the other. An ambitious little club, Stenhousemuir Its average attendances are about 2,000. It should die - but it won’t lie down.
When, the other day, Mr. Archie Hunter, manager of the Huntsman’s Hotel, Blackpool, promoted a charity match there he made £700 for Falkirk Hospital.
A FACT few people know. Jim McIntosh, the Blackpool outside-left, was the youngest player ever to play in a Blackpool first team between the wars.
Signed as a professional after coming on an amateur trial from Droylsden, he appeared at Swansea, on September 21st, 1935, when he was still less than seventeen and a half.
THE average attendance at each game in the four Divisions of the League on the first four Saturdays of the season was 21,918.
The number of people who watched football during its first month, excluding mid-week matches, was 3,857,547.
This is a Boom with a capital “B.”
THE week’s biscuit to the Millwall directors. The Den has been hammered by the air raids on the London docks. The stand where once the directors had their box is almost uninhabitable.
What have they done? No, they have not requisitioned space in another stand.
They sit on a form near the touch-line and it it rains - and when doesn't it rain? - they get wet and suffer with the common herd.
LEN FORSTER, the forward from Blackpool, scored a goal in his first game for York City. There will, I suppose, be criticism of Blackpool releasing him, and for William Park the centre-half.
But what could Blackpool do? Both players asked for a transfer, were not prepared to sign. The only alternative was to refuse their request. That would have banned them from the League football indefinitely.
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