25 December 1947 Blackpool 1 Stoke City 2

STEELE OUTPUT WAS TWO WINNERS FOR STOKE

Christmas football under review

Blackpool 1, Stoke City 2

STOKE CITY had a very merry Christmas at Bloomfield-road on Christmas Day, when they beat Blackpool 2-1 before 28,000 dismayed and surprised spectators.

In the first half we saw delightful football from both sides, with Blackpool the more aggressive, writes “ Pilot.”

Matthews, against his old club, bored through the opposition with ease, and from two of his openings Mortensen had very bad luck.

His first shot Mould headed away off the line. His second hit the crossbar. On both occasions Herod was unsighted.

STEELE ACCEPTED IT

Then came the game’s first shock after 37 minutes. Hayward, instead of heading the ball back to Wallace, nodded it to Steele who willingly accepted this Christmas box and scored.

From a beautiful Matthews-McCall move. Mortensen equalised a minute off half-time - the game’s best goal.

But a transformation took place in the second half.

Two minutes after the resumption Steele slipped through a slow-moving defence to score the winning goal.

That was the end of Blackpool. The defence crumbled, passes went too frequently to a striped jersey; in fact, it was a grim relapse.

YARDS FASTER

Stoke, moving yards faster, were now dictators.

Matthews again had to go hunting for the ball, and, despite forward line changes, Blackpool were completely outpaced and outplayed.

Stoke finished worthy winners, thanks mainly to Kirton, Franklin and Steele.

In an indifferent Blackpool side. McCall played a tireless game.

STOKE CITY 2 (Steele 37, 47 mins)

BLACKPOOL 1 (Mortensen 44 mins)

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Next weekend it's Everton

TWO men who once wore tangerine jerseys defeated Blackpool last season when Everton, the first of the New Year visitors to Bloomfield-road next Saturday, were last in town.

It was an Easter Monday match, played two days after Blackpool had won a sensational 3-2 game with Liverpool at Anfield - they were down 0-2. 

20 minutes from time - and three days only after forcing a 1-1 draw at Goodison Park.

Something had to be done to restore the prestige of Merseyside, and in a game which would have wrecked a million coupons, if there had been coupons on Easter Monday, these two men did it.

One was Jock Dodds, who scored a couple of goals in one of the best games he has ever played on the Blackpool ground - and he has played a few - and the other was little Alec Stephenson, one of  Blackpool’s wartime team, who shot a third.

It was 3-0 for Everton before the end came.

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