Blackpool sparkle, but United snatch points
Sheffield United 3, Blackpool 2
WILLIAM WARDLE, Blackpool's new forward from Grimsby Town could not play at Sheffield in the opening match of the season this afternoon.
For several, days he has had a chill, and although he went with the team to Bramall-lane, his temperature was too high to make it advisable to field him.
“To play him in his first game in such circumstances would not have been fair," said Manager Joe Smith.
The forward line, as a result, was shuffled in the two inside positions. The 12th man, Alec Munro, who can play anywhere - and often has to - was introduced at inside-right, and Andy McCall crossed to inside-left.
The United put their faith in the old firm and did not include one new player.
Rain was falling in torrents when Blackpool reached “the Lane” less than half an hour before the kick-off.
In spite of it there were 30,000 people on the ground, and with all the streets outside almost impassable there was a promise of a 40,000 attendance.
SHEFFIELD UNITED: White: Furniss, Cox, Jackson, Latham, Young, Thompson, Whitelum, Collindridge, Hagan, Jones.
BLACKPOOL: Robinson: Shimwell, Suart, Johnston, Hayward, Kelly, Matthews, Munro, Mortensen, McCall, Rickett.
Referee: Mr. E. W. Baker (Manchester).
THE GAME
Blackpool won the toss and with the wind and rain aiding, their forwards were soon raiding.
In the first half-minute Munro took a pass in an unmarked position, and ran 20 yards before hooking a low bouncing ball which White held as he fell to his knees.
Hayward repelled Sheffield’s first attack and Robinson the next by racing almost to the edge of the penalty area and scooping away a left-wing pass which Collindridge was chasing.
All this happened in the first two whirlwind minutes.
In the third Blackpool, who have made a habit of losing early goals on this ground, took the lead.
UNGUARDED
Again there was an unguarded space on the left flank of Sheffield’s defence.
Into it Johnston glided a long forward pass.
MUNRO was in position for it. almost to a yard where he had taken the first pass. He raced forward with no man near him and this time shot a ball which appeared to skid on to White’s chest as the goalkeeper fell a split second too late to it.
PENALTY
And Shimwell fails to score
Ninety seconds later there was another sensation. Unexpectedly the wandering Matthews took another forward pass in the centre-forward position in a defence which again gaped wide open.
Matthews raced within shooting distance of White, and both fullbacks closed on him.
One of them. Cox appeared to drag him down with a Rugby tackle.
It was an undisputed penalty.
Shimwell, who took his first penalty for Blackpool at Wembley, was the automatic selection for this one.
This time he shot straight at the goalkeeper, who, as he crouched was hit by the ball. He beat it out almost instinctively.
GLORIOUS GOAL
Another three minutes it was 1-1. There was a fast right-wing raid by the United.
Thompson outwitted one man. squared a pass inside and gave his partner. WHITELUM, the ex-Sunderland forward, a position from which to shoot a glorious goal, the ball flying away into the far wall of the net wide of the leaping Robinson’s right hand
Two goals and a missed penalty in the first six minutes!
Nobody could complain that this was not a dramatic opening to 1948/49.
DIRECT RAIDS
It was fast football afterwards with the Blackpool defence standing tolerably firm against the direct open raids in which Sheffield teams have always specialised.
Yet Matthews, aggressive and always hunting for the ball, taking a perfect pass from his partner. won the game’s first corner in the 13th minute.
From it another goal nearly came.
White lost the flying ball a« Mortensen leapt in front of him, and was crouching on his line as it hit his knees.
The ball bounced away anywhere as White sprawled full length with his goal wide open.
FINDING GAPS
Strength of Blackpool attack
There was a lot of pressure afterwards by a fast Sheffield front line which a compact Blackpool defence constantly repulsed.
Yet the football with class in it in attack was nearly all being played by five Blackpool forwards who were repeatedly tearing gaps in Sheffield’s fullback and halfback line.
The two little inside-forwards, McCall and Munro, were harassing their men all the time.
The second corner of the afternoon came in the 28th minute.
Mortensen forced the comer from Munro’s forward pass.
LONG THROW
McCall headed a long way wide when Matthews crossed the ball from the flag, but within a minute one of Johnston’s long throws had won a third corner.
For minutes afterwards the United were packed in their own half.
In one raging raid a packed defence repelled Mortensen and McCall at full gallop without knowing a lot about it before Munro took a rebounding ball and shot it higher over the bar of a goal whose defence was still not too impressive.
Constantly, Blackpool’s two inside forwards were interchanging positions and baffling the United’s defence.
One zigzag raid by McCall had “the Lane’s” 40,000 roaring.
It was grand football which Blackpool were playing with the first half hour gone.
For a long time Blackpool’s goal was never seriously menaced.
Then in close range of it there was a succession of incidents.
After a right wing centre had been missed, Hayward, a superb centre-half, had to make an audacious hooked clearance over his own head almost in the jaws of the goal.
The pressure continued, and Cox, a full back, converted himself into a forward. He took the ball off Matthews, ran to within 30 yards of goal and shot a rising ball which Robinson held in a big leap under the bar.
FINE TACKLE
Once this pressure had waned, Latham had to produce a magnificent tackle to halt Mortensen with the centre forward pursuing a Matthews pass.
In the next minute Latham was content to concede Blackpool’s fourth corner of the half with the leader full tilt after another forward pass.
The United won their first corner immediately before the interval, but it was Blackpool who might have gone in front almost on the whistle.
Then, with less than half a minute left, Matthews took Rickett’s centre, shot a low ball which appeared to be deflected away by a full back galloping into it as it was passing outside the goalkeeper’s reach.
Half-time: Sheffield United 1 Blackpool 1.
Second Half
With a raid half the length of the field Rickett won a corner in the first minute of the half.
In the next minute Matthews tied his fullback in knots, eventually escaped him. but sliced his centre into the side net.
STAMPEDED
Blackpool raided almost without interruption, Mortensen stampeding Sheffield’s oppressed defence into the surrender of another corner before White hurled himself desperately at the feet of Rickett as the wing- forward tore fast inside after a loose ball which Furniss had allowed to roll slowly past him.
Nine minutes of the half had gone, and Blackpool should have taken a lead which at this time would have been deserved.
CALLED FOR PASS
Mortensen called for a pass from Matthews, took it, outpaced his watchdog centre half, reached the line and with Rickett standing in front of an open goal squared the ball so fast that the outside left was beaten by it& pace.
TWO QUICK GOALS
Blackpool win lead, then lose it
A minute later Blackpool went in front with a great goal.
Again Matthews created the position. He crossed the ball high into a packed goal area, where McCALL rose to it like a bird and headed it high and wide away from White.
Two minutes later the outplayed United made it level again with their first serious raid of the half.
THE EQUALISER
The attack was built on the right, where the unmarked Thompson was permitted to reach the line before crossing a low centre.
Robinson fell to it, half beat it out, but could not hold it as he fell.
The ball rolled loose. Collindridge hurled himself at it and missed it in front of an open goal.
On to it JONES raced, hooked it into the net with a rising shot which cannoned down off the bar. For minutes afterwards a reawakened United stormed into the game again.
Yet again Blackpool were near to a lead when McCall’s pace swept him past a hesitating full back into a shooting position, from where he shot yards Wide.
With 20 minutes left it was still either team’s game.
The United, unexpectedly reprieved by that second gift goal, were all out after both points.
Both defences stood firm against forward lines almost as aggressive as ever.
Blackpool’s game still possessed the greater order, but in smash and grab raids the Sheffield front line was still a force to be respected.
HAGAN
Yet 14 minutes from time it was no smash and grab goal which gave the United the lead for the first time.
It was, instead, the goal of a master. HAGAN, the ex-England forward, scored it.
No particular peril appeared to menace Blackpool’s goal as. Jackson lobbed a pass forward.
SO SIMPLE!
Hagan was in position for it in the inside right position.
He killed the ball dead as it fell at his feet, swerved past Suart in one sinuous movement, found himself alone 10 yards in front of the unguarded Robinson, and shot it past the goalkeeper before a man could approach within half a dozen yards of him.
It was a goal made to look so simple.
Within a minute Mortensen, with a great hook shot from an unexpected position, nearly made it 3-3, but after this great goal it was the Sheffield forwards who for the first time were definitely dictating the game’s course.
Five minutes from time Matthews nearly snatched a point for Blackpool with a shot from a yard outside the penalty area which White reached in a full- length dive to his left.
Result:
SHEFFIELD UNITED 3, (Munro 3, McCall 55 mins)
BLACKPOOL 2 (Whitelum 6, Jones 57, Hagan 76 mins)
TWICE Blackpool took the lead at the “Lane” today, and twice, almost within seconds, lost it.
As a penalty was missed, too, Blackpool obviously might have won something out of this match.
A revelation was the football of the two inside forwards, the little men, Munro and McCall, who were never at a standstill, always hunting for the ball, and when in possession of it bringing their wingmen repeatedly into the game.
This man Munro never seems to grow old.
Yet the entire line, with Matthews as elusive as ever and revealing a new decision at close quarters, worked to a plan which the tearaway Sheffield front line never pretended to copy.
LOST POSITION
Yet the United won. but I think would not have won if under pressure - in spite of a valiant game by Hayward - the Blackpool defence had not now and again lost position.
Otherwise a long sequence of defeats on this ground, a ground where no Blackpool team has won since 1932, would have ended.
A great goal won this game - Jimmy Hagan’s goal.
But it should never have been allowed to win it.
BLACKPOOL HAS BIG DOUBLE ACT NEXT WEEK
United, Villa here as Division One
curtain goes up
By “Spectator”
BLACKPOOL have to play 10 games in the First Division in the first five weeks of the season - an average of two a week.
Two of the matches in this marathon are at Blackpool next week. Both should pack the ground.
Manchester United, who closed the First Division season at Blackpool last April, open the new season on the ground on 'Monday evening. This will be the third edition of the Cup Final.
Blackpool avenged the Wembley defeat in April in a 1-0 game.
Highlights of that match were the goal which Stanley Mortensen scored to win it and the accident - a collision with the Manchester goalkeeper, Jack Crompton - which put this Blackpool forward in hospital and left Blackpool to hold their lead with 10 men against a United team containing a reserve right wing.
The Villa come to town next weekend. It was 1-0 in this game for Blackpool last season - Jim McIntosh getting a late goal.
That score has become nearly a habit in Blackpool-Villa matches. Blackpool won by the only goal at Villa Park last September and also by the only goal at Blackpool two seasons ago.
Five goals only have been scored in the postwar matches between these clubs - and those five goals have won Blackpool seven points and left the Villa with only one.
The famous claret and blue has lost a little of its glamour these days, but they’ll still probably have to lock the gates next Saturday.
BLACKPOOL MUST SIGN GOALKEEPER
Soon up against problem
THE signing of William Wardle, the Grimsby Town forward at a fee in five figures, which created a club record, has been Blackpool's one big transfer of the summer.
Everywhere I go now I hear people asking, “What about all the others they were going to sign?" There is an answer to that one. Blackpool never intended to sign many others.
Blackpool’s close - season quest has been confined to two positions. It is a centre- forward whom the club have been chiefly seeking. A centre- forward - and, in the last few weeks, a goalkeeper - but nobody else of any particular account.
It is no longer a top secret - and never, I suppose, was one - that Nat Lofthouse, the Bolton Wanderer, was the player Blackpool wanted. The Wanderers said “No,” and continued to say “No,” and were not even interested in an exchange of players.
It ended - as it was almost inevitable that it would end - in a deadlock.
In the centre
FOR the next week or two, therefore, it is probable that Stanley Mortensen, who plays inside-right for England, will be again at centre-forward for Blackpool, and, as far as I know will offer no objection.
The club can afford to wait on events in relation to this position, but about a goalkeeper action cannot be deferred, and, in fact, has been made imperative by the crippling of Walter Thorpe, the first reserve, in the public practice match last weekend.
When he was hurt Blackpool were left on the eve of the season with only two goalkeepers on the professional staff - and one of them Billy Lunn, the ex-Baines’s Grammar School boy, has yet to have his baptism of fire in the big leagues, and, in any case, is still in the King’s uniform.
Thin ice
THERE is no question of discarding Joe Robinson, who, called into First Division service at short notice when Jock Wallace decided that he preferred the air of Scotland even to Blackpool’s dustless breezes, made the grade in Cup and League.
But it is walking on too thin ice to begin a season with a bare minimum of men for such a key position, and now the problem has been so aggravated that a transfer may be expected within a day or two.
Blackpool were one of the clubs who approached Blackburn Rovers recently for George Marks, the goalkeeper from Arsenal, who played two confident games against Blackpool last season.
It is on the cards that this transfer might have been completed if the player had not expressed a preference for one of the Southern clubs to which now he has gone.
A NEW goalkeeper will obviously, however, have to be signed. If Robinson were hurt at present Blackpool would be perilously near Queer-street.
A mission is up in Scotland today.
Yet those people who think Blackpool are intent on becoming another Newcastle United now that the money bags are no longer empty have an entirely wrong conception of Blackpool’s policy.
That policy reveals itself today as it has never been revealed before. For this season - as I reported during the summer - Blackpool are to field five teams every weekend, the two senior teams in the First Division and the Central League, and three nursery teams.
Experiment
ONE of these three - an experiment which a few other clubs will watch with interest and possibly before long with envy- will be playing in the Manchester and District League on the Glossop ground.
There will be the “A” team again in the West Lancashire League, its home fixtures at Lytham, and a “B” team in the Fylde League.
That means that 55 players will be taking the field in Blackpool’s tangerine jerseys every Saturday. It means, too, that Blackpool’s interest in the coaching and development of its own young players is to take precedence over missions with open cheque-books.
Pays dividends
IT is a policy which has already paid dividends in these parts.
Harry Johnston, Stanley Mortensen, Johnny Crosland, Ron Suart, Jim Blair and Tom Garrett are a few of the products of these Blackpool nurseries.
From them this season Ian Fenton, the young Scottish wing half; Rex Adams, the Oxford City wing forward; Jack Mudie, a young centre-forward, who one day may lead Blackpool’s forwards; and Eddie Rogers, an accomplished inside forward, are already almost assured of promotion to the Central League.
There are, too, Alf Eastwood, the Blackpool-born outside-left, who became a professional during the close season; Walter Jones, brother of Blackpool’s Irish international half-back, who is now on the club’s managerial staff; Jack Wright, the full-back, and half a dozen others of similar promise.
No £20,000 fees
“WE’RE paying no £20,000 fees,” said Manager Joe Smith when I talked to him this week.
“Apart from the fact that for a club with Blackpool’s limited revenue we could never make them pay, we prefer to concentrate on finding them young and slowly maturing them until they’re fit for the League.
“That way you get a better type of player - loyal, devoted to his club.”
THEY MAY FLY
BLACKPOOL are already facing a problem about a November match.
An invitation has been accepted to play an Armistice Day game in Brussels on November 11. Two days later the team have a First Division match at Portsmouth.
It is almost certain that a plane will have to be chartered. It would be the first time that a Blackpool team had ever flown to a match, although “The Two Stanleys” have often gone by air to engagements on the Continent.
The day is rapidly approaching when air transit for football teams will be a commonplace, but at present it still makes news.
Jottings from the World of Sport
BY "SPECTATOR" 21 August 1948
STANLEY MORTENSEN went on the field at Sheffield this afternoon with exactly 60 goals to his name in Cup and First Division since the end of the war.
Add his 38 goals in the last season of regional football in 1945-46 and he required only another two for his first century with Blackpool’s first team.
He may have reached his three figures by the time these lines appear. If he hasn’t it’s my bet that he soon will.
All this, too. is not counting this shooting forward’s goals in representative postwar football, which last season alone totalled 11 in eight games.
Only the Irish defence held him at bay in the Goodison Park match.
***
NEW training quarters for a few of the Blackpool exiles have been put into commission at the St. Annes-road greyhound track.
Preparing there for the new season during the last week or two have been Peter Doherty, George Farrow, the new player- coach at Bacup, and Louis Cardwell and Bob Finan of Crewe, who will be playing this season in a team which will include Murdoch McCormack, the wing forward signed from Black pool by Frank Hill during the summer.
It is not the first time that professional footballers have gone through their paces where the greyhounds race.
Jock Dodds was offered facilities during his dispute with the Blackpool club two years ago. and Stanley Matthews, while he was on Stoke’s books, often trained there.
To settle all the arguments: Jim McIntosh’s five goals at Preston last May were a First Division scoring record for Blackpool.
Blackpool’s seven goals in the match were also a club record for an away fixture in the Division, equalling the seven scored against West Ham United at Bloomfield-road on April 2, 1932.
It was, I know, a freak match. Nothing resembling is likely to happen again for a long time. But the figures in it go into the record books and remain there until they are surpassed.
WHAT is to be the future of George Dick, the Blackpool forward? Everton are still interested. An Italian club are still prepared to offer him a contract.
If he went to Goodison Park it is probable that in exchange Blackpool would acquire an inside-forward of established First Division reputation.
In the meantime, Dick is reluctant to accept the terms which are offered him, and today, two years after he entered big football with such high hopes and - although his critics are inclined to forget it - such high promise, his career is at a deadlock.
It is one of the minor tragedies of football - a problem which I hope is soon resolved.
I AM told that Blackpool’s intention is to issue tickets for the stands and the centre paddock for all the home games in the First Division until the end of September.
Until that famous stadium is built, or until the present ground is enlarged - a project which is being seriously considered in certain quarters - this will always have to be done, I suppose, at peak periods of the season - the first few weeks of the football year, the holiday weekends and for the Cupties.
For these opening games this season admission to the terraces and the remainder of the pad- docks will be at the turnstiles.
THE midweek public will watch plenty of football at Blackpool in the season’s first month.
Evening matches in the First Division are the visit of Manchester United on Monday and Derby County on September 6, with Central League fixtures with Manchester United on Monday week and Derby County on September 13.
Later, too, will come the meeting with Liverpool at Blackpool in the Lancashire Cup.
***
WALTER RICKETT, the Blackpool left-wing forward, makes a habit of scoring in Blackpool- Sheffield United matches. Has he done it again today?
He invariably scored against Blackpool when he was a Sheffield forward, so often that Blackpool went after him long before the United agreed to exchange him for George Farrow last New Year.
He continued the good work by scoring for Blackpool against his former club last April - his first goal for Blackpool - his only goal until he shot another in that sensational 7-0 match at Preston on the season’s last day.
I know Rickett will have been all out after one again this afternoon.
***
DANNY BLAIR has missed few Blackpool matches since he took off a tangerine jersey for the last time. Now he is on the staff again, has been appointed O.C. of the team which is to play in the Fylde League on one of the airport pitches.
Blackpool will actually field 55 players every weekend this season -11 in the First Division, 11 in the Central League, 11 in the West Lancashire League, 11 in the Fylde League, and 11 in the new team which is being recruited for the Manchester and District League, with its headquarters at Glossop.
MANAGER JOE SMITH of Blackpool never pretends to be a prophet, knows that football is a game in which you never know what may- next happen in it.
But he thinks today that one of the left-wings of the future may be the Alf Eastwood-Eddie Rogers partnership. It played in a practice match the other evening and nearly dominated the game.
STANLEY MATTHEWS is this week’s best seller.
Not only has his autobiography “Feet First” at last reached the shops and the bookstalls, but
The Stanley Matthews’ Soccer Manual” (Alan Fletcher Publications, 2s. 6d.) is out today.
This is an attractive little book which in letterpress and photograph outlines the famous technique which has made the England forward the greatest footballer of his generation.
Young recruits in the game will learn from this book, apart; from all the technical instruction it contains, the greatest lesson in football and in all other games - that there is no primrose path to fame, that even the stars have had to work their passage.
If for no other reason - and there are plenty of others to recommend it - it has been worth writing, and at half a crown is a bargain.
A FOOTBALL match lasts an hour and a half. But how long are they playing football during it?
A stop-watch experiment at Blackpool’s last game of 1947-48 at Preston revealed that after deducting, time lost for goal- kicks, free-kicks, throw-ins and all the other standstills, the total playing time was 32 minutes in the first half and 35 in the second, an aggregate of 67 out of 90 minutes.
Evening Gazette - 23 August 1948
TOO MUCH PACE, TOO LITTLE FOOTBALL
Blackpool sparkle, but United snatch points
Blackpool 0, Manchester United 3
THIS was no second Wembley.
Nineteen of the 22 men who played in the Stadium classic were in it. but all other resemblance to the final was purely accidental, writes “Spectator.”
A high wind, a raging excitement. and passes which were merely speculative all reduced the match to the commonplace.
For the first ten minutes Blackpool played football which threatened to annihilate the Cupholders. In the last ten minutes the Manchester forwards at last found the rhythm which made them the attack of the season in 1947-48.
Otherwise everything seemed to be subordinate to a harum-scarum speed which led nowhere in particular.
ELUSIVE McCALL
Until the last half-hour. McCall was an elusive little forward, and Matthews, pitted against Johnny Aston, one of the best full-backs he can ever have met, often after the interval crossed the sort of centres which should have made goals
There was nobody to take them in the lightweight Blackpool line, with Mortensen long before the end wearing the disillusioned air of a man tired of having miracles expected of him, and Rickett never the impudent master of Jack Carey that he was at Wembley.
The Blackpool defence was not so sound as the United’s, and yet Kelly had a dogged efficient game at left-half, Hayward was nearly as staunch as ever, and the two full-backs redeemed whatever went wrong with their football at Sheffield.
Result:
BLACKPOOL 0
MANCHESTER UNITED 3, (Mitten 2, Pearson 3)
NEW MEMBERS WANTED
THE new season started this afternoon, and we all look forward to. another successful time at Bloomfield-road.
The Supporters Club extend their very best wishes to all at Bloomfield-road, with the hope that the season will be the best ever.
An appeal is again made for continued support. Old members should renew their subscriptions, and new members may become associated with the club by paying the 2s. 6d. annual fee to the treasurer, Mr. T. Newton, or to any member of the committee.
* * *
We regret to report the resignation of the chairman and secretary. Both Mr. Henry Markland and Mr. F. W. Coope, J.P., had the interest and welfare of the club at heart, and their loyalty and work were a great help in the re-forming of the club.
We have been fortunate in securing Mr. C. A. Hay, M.B.E., as secretary - already his willingness and work are bearing Trait - and Mr. Jack Pickard, an old and valued member of the committee, is the new chairman.
* * *
The ladies committee have been active during the summer. Each Tuesday evening a whist drive is held at the Liberal Club, and the Tower has been booked for a dance.
It is again hoped to run Supporters’ Club outings to the away games.
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