29 October 1949 Blackpool 2 Bolton Wanderers 0
Settled in grand half-hour
MORE FIRE TODAY
Blackpool 2, Bolton Wanderers 0
By “Clifford Greenwood”
BLACKPOOL, WHO HAD NOT SCORED A HOME GOAL FOR SIX WEEKS, RECALLED STANLEY MORTENSEN TO THE CENTRE-FORWARD POSITION FOR THE VISIT OF BOLTON WANDERERS THIS AFTERNOON.
It was a last bid to end the goal famine, and I am told that just as Willie McIntosh asked to go into the second team to enable the experiment to be made, Mortensen as readily consented to move into the centre-forward position.
George McKnight, the Irishman, came into the Blackpool attack for the first time since the match at Everton last March.
The Wanderers, who until last season had not lost a match on this ground for over 30 years, made a big scale shuffle.
Two reserve full-backs had to be fielded, and with goals even more scarce among the Wanderers than they have been in the Blackpool attack the front line was almost remodelled.
The end of the Illuminations and the Indian summer affected the attendance.
NO CLOSED GATES
There were no closed gates, no stampeding queues outside this afternoon. Instead, big gaps were visible everywhere on the south paddock, and even the Kop was not packed when the teams appeared with fewer than 25,000 people on the premises.
The Blackpool Pipe Band paraded before the match. It might almost have been Hampden Park - if only this ground had been a bit bigger!
Teams:
BLACKPOOL: Farm; Shimwell Garrett, Johnston, Hayward, Kelly, Matthews, McKnight, Mortensen. McCall, Wardle.
BOLTON WANDERERS: Hanson; Roberts, Banks (T), Howe, Gillies, Murphy, Moir, Dillon, Lofthouse, Bradley. McShane.
Referee: Mr. A. C. Denham (Preston).
I noticed in the distinguished visitors- box - for they even have these little refinements at Highbury - one of the Blackpool MPs, Wing Commander J. Roland Robinson.
A pre-match reflection: Arsenal entered this game after playing eight games without a defeat and Blackpool with an undefeated record, in the last seven.
THE GAME
Blackpool won the toss and the Wanderers defended a north goal which was soon being menaced
Mortensen chased Johnston’s long throw-in at such a pace that Gillies had to cross fast to intercept the ball, with the centre-forward going after it as if he were off to a fire.
That was in the first 30 seconds.
A minute had not passed before this Bolton centre-half was in desperate action again, darting this time to a pass which Mortensen released intelligently into a big gap for McKnight to chase it and almost to reach it in a edition where goals have been scored before today.
McCALL’S PASS
It was nearly all Blackpool in the succeeding exchanges, McCall beating his half-back to the ball before crossing a pass which McKnight shot low into the crouching Hanson’s hands.
The Wanderers built a few raids bet spoiled all of them with passes to the wrong man, Howe once surging through on his own for 20 yards before giving the ball to a player in tangerine instead of a man in white.
A minute later, Farm had to gallop out a long way after McShane had beaten Shimwell for possession of the ball with a leap which Howard Baker would not have disowned 30 years ago.
BLACKPOOL RAIDS
Hanson punches out a Wardle centre
These incidents, however, were mere interludes in Blackpool pressure.
McCall, in another raid, sent Wardle away into a empty quarter, for the wing forward to cross at his leisure a high falling centre which Hanson punched out.
A minute later, too, Mortensen shot a ball which hit the shadowing Gillies as he raced across to retrieve another of those crises which were constantly developing and as constantly being terminated by this one man alone.
On and on went the Blackpool raids. It was one-way traffic, with, at times, Hayward, his two full-backs and the goalkeeper watching it all from afar in Blackpool’s half of the field.
DEFENCE SCATTERED
When at last Matthews was presented with the ball something nearly happened at once, the wingman crossing a centre which McCall would have reached and assuredly made into a goal if he had only stood a couple of inches taller.
Yet this lightweight front line would not be denied, hammered relentlessly on a Bolton defence often scattering but continually being reprieved by the height and speed on the ground of Jimmy Gillies, who at times resembled a one-man defence.
One bouncing ball eluded McKnight almost under the bar as Mortensen, escaping his centre- half, hooked it fast across the face of a gaping goal.
THE LEAD
Great Mortensen shot beat Hanson
Two minutes later, in the 15th minute of the half; the goal which had been threatening continuously for about 13 of the 15 minutes came.
It was the sort of goal which MORTENSEN made a habit of scoring a year or two ago. the sort which no Blackpool forward has been scoring for months.
McCall, I think it was, glided a pass forward. On to it Mortensen moved, hit from 15 yards a ball which never rose an inch above the grass and skidded wide of Hanson’s right arm while the Bolton goalkeeper was still falling.
EMPTY GOAL
It looked so simple.
Another minute it could have been 2-0, and probably would have been if the ball had not bounced away from Mortensen, who instead of shooting it under the bar rocketed it over after Matthews had enticed the goalkeeper out and raked the empty goal with the5 gem of a centre.
Not since Huddersfield Town were here on the season’s first day have I seen a team as outplayed as the Wanderers in the first 20 minutes.
That grand little footballer Vincent Dillon had one chance in a breakaway to level the scores, was twice given possession by a rebounding ball, and in the end shot wide with Farm alone in front of him.
- AND ANOTHER
Mortensen leaves them all standing
For that missed chance the Wanderers had to pay within two minutes for with only 21 minutes gone it was 2-0 for Blackpool.
Again it was a short forward pass, released this time by that builder-in-chief of Blackpool raids Harry Johnston, which made the goal.
Again MORTENSEN went full tilt after the pass at a pace which left everybody else standing, moved one way, swerved another, left two men off balance, and shot another great goal.
Two goals in 21 minutes after only one in six hours - that is football as Blackpool play it. Nobody in this game knows what will happen next.
EXPLOSIVE FURY
The Wanderers did not seem to know, either, were still for minutes after this second goal defending desperately against a front line detonated into explosive fury by this sudden barking of the silent Blackpool guns.
Mortensen was after everything, finished up once on the cinder track, and had to have trainer Johnny Lynas out to him.
For a time after the cinder track upset Mortensen massaged a shoulder and a little of the fire went out of him.
BOLTON PRESS
Almost immediately - it may or may not have been a case of cause and effect - the Wanderers entered the game belatedly, built a succession of raids, and in one of them might have scored if Dillon had not been late in his leap at a centre crossed perfectly by McShane.
That was two chances in the first half hour that Dillon had rejected.
Yet he was in another attack a couple of minutes later which revealed such a menace that Hayward, racing to a ball which the Wanderers’ inside- right was chasing, was content to stab it over the line for a profitless corner.
Again, with the Wanderers’ pressure continuing, McShane centred a ball into the waiting arms of Farm, who took it as if he were at a Tuesday morning practice.
GOAL REFUSED
Mystery incident after Mortensen dash
These Bolton attacks continued.
Yet after all of them there was nothing in the score sheet for the
Wanderers and until Mr. Denham reversed his decision a third goal was entered for Blackpool.
This was a peculiar incident.
Gillies and Mortensen had a race for a loose ball rolling down the centre. Mortensen won the race, galloped on, and shot a ball which cannoned down off the post. Nearly every other man on the field, including the referee, was left trailing by 30 yards.
Mr. Denham gave a goal, hesitated as a linesman’s flag was lifted out in the distant north-east corner, walked over for a consulation, and then refused a goal.
Instead there was a throw-in for Blackpool on the right wing where the ball had been cleared.
Half-time: Blackpool 2. Bolton Wanderers 0.
SECOND HALF
Reports by Press photographers stationed near the Kop goal apparently established that in that remarkable episode near the end of first half, the ball hit the bar, cannoned down, but did not cross the line.
That, presumably, was the reason for the linesman’s signal and the disallowing of the goal which would have completed a Stanley Mortensen “hat trick."
Blackpool, who had ended the first half under unexpected fire, with Shimwell and Garrett in rapid succession making great clearances almost under the bar, opened the second half as the forwards and half-backs had played the first.
MATTHEWS CHECKED
Raid after raid broke on a Bolton defence not as open as it had been, and Jack Roberts once won a big cheer for himself by actually halting Matthews after the wing forward had been first in possession of the ball.
A minute later, in a sudden Bolton assault, Hayward crossed Lofthouse’s path, with the centre-forward full tilt after a forward pass and released a Wanderers demand for a penalty which Mr. Denham waved aside.
There was not a lot between the teams during the succeeding minutes, with Blackpool a little inclined - probably excusably - to make the one or two ornamental moves which a team in front invariably allows itself.
PENALTY CALL
But the referee says “No” again
For a time, in fact, the direct football was played by the Wanderers, who at least were not prepared to lay down and die because they were losing by a couple of goals.
Shimwell made two grand clearances under this pressure, there was another demand for a penalty to which Mr. Denham again said “No,” and the nonstop Johnston made several desperate interceptions before at last Lofthouse shot so far wide that he nearly hit a corner flag.
Still, the Wanderers were making a match of it, were no longer playing second fiddle but were instead making Blackpool play it for a change.
GREAT SAVE
Yet as soon as this brief siege ended Blackpool were near a goal again, Matthews racing away from his full-back before crossing a ball which McCall headed wide of Hanson for the goalkeeper, falling to his left, to make a magnificent full-length clearance.
Inside the next couple of minutes McCall twice lashed high over the bar from shooting positions and there was, in fact, this afternoon a greater punch in Blackpool’s front line than the Wanderers ever revealed inside shooting distance The Blackpool shots were off the target, but at least they were shots, and for a long time we have been waiting for any sort of shots at all.
The Wanderers were in complete retreat again afterwards.
McCall was in nearly every raid, one ending in Wardle taking his pass and shooting a low ball which seemed to hit Hanson's knee and rebound out for a corner as the goalkeeper crouched close to the near post.
When the Wanderers crossed the halfway line, which was more often than in the first half, but still not often enough to offer a definite challenge, the final pass always went wrong.
With 20 minutes left Blackpool were still holding the 2-0 lead, and there seemed no particular reason why it should not be retained to the end.
Instead, with 18 minutes to go, the lead was nearly increased, twice in a minute.
BY INCHES
First, Wardle crossed a centre which curled inside so unexpectedly that Hanson punched it over the bar as it was dipping in beneath it, and from the corner Mortensen leaped high at the perfect centre which Matthews crossed from the flag and missed this bar by inches only.
Another minute, too, and McCall, swerving and zigzagging, forced another corner off a Bolton defence beginning inevitably to show a few signs of wear and tear.
It became a case merely of playing out time in the last quarter of an hour.
Blackpool were obviously content with a winning lead, and the Wanderers, in spite of commanding a lot of the play, could do nothing conclusive about it.
The Wanderers were a team that never said die. They nearly had a goal in the last couple of minutes as Lofthouse shot a ball which Farm beat out as he sprawled on the turf in front of the Bolton leader.
Result:
BLACKPOOL 2 (Mortensen 15, 21 mins)
BOLTON WANDERERS 0
COMMENTS ON THE GAME
ONE forward who could take chances and shoot was sufficient to win this game in 20 minutes. So many other Blackpool games which have been drawn or lost could have been similarly won during the last two months.
The match winner was Stanley Mortensen, who, given the positions which offer themselves to centre - forwards, settled this match before half an hour had gone against a Bolton team only a shadow of the old Wanderers.
The Blackpool front line never in the last hour equalled its football of the first half-hour, but it had a pace and a precision in its passes which repeatedly had the Wanderers’ defence and that grand centre-half Jimmy Gillies playing all out.
For sheer hard labour and flashes of class football, too, McCall was the better of two inside forwards, for always the game seemed to be moving too fast for George McKnight.
In and out, therefore, the line at times seemed to be, but with Matthews glittering and sparkling and employing nearly all his familiar audacities against a Bolton flank which could never hold him, there was never any future in this game for the Burn- den Park men, game as they were to the last man and the last minute.
JOHNSTON - STAR
Man of this match; however, taking the game from first minute to 90th, was Harry Johnston, one of two fine Blackpool wing halves, always in the game and constantly releasing the sort of passes which make forward lines play.
It was a match, too, which revealed again that Garrett is not out of his class in the First Division, and that the Blackpool defence has little if anything wrong with it.
The Wanderers once said they could never lose at Blackpool. Today they never promised to do anything else.
THERE are forward lines that have scored fewer goals than Blackpool’s. One of them the Blackpool defence will be facing - and on its recent reputation, should be capable of mastering - at St. Andrew’s, the scene of the biggest goal famine in the country, next weekend.
Nine goals only in their first 13 games have the Birmingham attack totalled.
It was in a similar state of front-of-goal paralysis that Birmingham met Blackpool at St. Andrew’s last Easter.
Stanley Mortensen scored for the visitors early in the game and, as one goal was invariably at that time sufficient to win a game against Birmingham, it seemed destined to win that one.
Then, late in the afternoon, there happened the minor miracle which a goal for Birmingham had become, and it all ended in a 1-1 draw, winning a point for this Midland club which was at the time about as precious as a Cup Final ticket.
Blackpool, who will be in Birmingham again for the West Bromwich Albion match after next weekend’s fixture, should not find this a profitless visit - and it is a fact, although during the first two seasons after the war the Villa were the only Birmingham team in the Division, that Blackpool have not yet lost a postwar game in the Midlands city.
There seems to be no particular reason for this sequence ending next weekend.
BLACKPOOL ARE READY TO PAY FOR THE RIGHT MEN
Question and answer on goal famine
By Clifford Greenwood
Jottings from all parts
BY "CLIFFORD GREENWOOD" 29 October 1949
THEY PACK THE GROUNDS
A LEAGUE record for Roker Park on October 8. A post-war ground record for Highbury - the exact figure was in excess of 66,000 - a fortnight later.
I am not surprised that in the circumstances, writes Clifford Greenwood, Arsenal hailed Blackpool as the biggest box office attraction out of the provinces when the team went to town last weekend.
Until the Blackpool match the maximum figure for a Highbury game since the Home Office restrictions were introduced was 63,000. When new terracing gave increased accommodation for an extra 3,000 to 4,000 the authorities gave permission for this additional number to be admitted
For the first time this season the gates had to be closed a week ago. The attendance, therefore, must have been a postwar record.
Blackpool teams have now created ground records since the war at no fewer than eight enclosures in the First Division.
One other team has beaten this.
Who? Why, Arsenal, of course.
***
BOB GILFILLAN, the young Scot released by Blackpool not so long ago, is playing for Cowdenbeath these days, scored one of the four goals against Ayr United last weekend.
There were other ex-Blackpool men in the scoring sheets last weekend.
George Dick had another goal for Carlisle, and Douglas Blair one for Cardiff City. I am always being told “They can score when they leave Blackpool?”
Nobody’s denying it, but with all respect to the players,
and in fairness to the club who, sometimes reluctantly and sometimes not reluctantly at all, released them, they are not scoring in First Division football.
***
DOWN to London with the Blackpool team last weekend - but in a separate compartment went Ron Suart, travelling with Blackburn Rovers for the Southampton match.
A nice guy, Ronnie. When he went off with the Rovers at Euston he popped in the Blackpool coach to say “All the best, lads.” And, obviously, he meant it
***
Remember George and Wally?
I WAS talking to him for two or three minutes before I recognised him. That, I think, was pardonable, for it was 20 years ago that I last saw him.
George Wolf is the name. He came into the hotel where Blackpool were staying for the Arsenal match. His name is nearly forgotten in Blackpool football. Yet he was in the Blackpool goal for every game during the first half of the club’s first promotion season in 1929 - and he has not forgotten Blackpool.
These days he is living and working down in the South, has recommended a few players to the club in his time, is at present persuading Blackpool to give trial to a left-wing forward.
George Wolf, a second reserve when the 1929-30 season opened, came from nowhere into the first team, and was in it while it stormed up to the top of the Second Division.
He went to Preston from Blackpool and from Preston to Carlisle and he was in the League game until shortly before the war.
***
NOTE about George Wolf had no sooner been written than I had news of another two of the men who were in Blackpool’s first promotion team.
One was the centre-half who became a full-back, Walter Grant. He was, I learn, in Blackpool a day or two ago, came for one of the Illuminations weekends, watched the Liverpool match on the ground where once he played.
Walter Grant was the David to Jimmy Hampson’s Jonathan - wherever one of them happened to be there you would find the other. And if there was a player who gave a greater service to Blackpool than Wally Grant I’d be glad to hear his name.
The other of his contemporaries who came by chance into conversation was Jack Oxberry, who, when he signed for Blackpool from South Shields, cost a higher fee than Blackpool had ever paid at the time for a forward.
Where is he now? He is where he has been for several years - at Reading, where he is the Berkshire club’s trainer.
***
Up from Sussex
UP in town for the Arsenal- Blackpool match among Blackpool’s guests of the day: Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Parks.
Yes, it was Jim Parks, the Blackpool CC professional, and his wife, who had come in from Haywards Heath and who have promised to watch Blackpool every time the team play in the capital from now onwards.
Jim, jun, who has gone on the Sussex ground staff and has already had his baptism in the county cricket championship in which for a generation his father played, remained at home, had, I was told, an engagement with the Heath football team.
***
They shot into the news
THESE days, when shooting is a lost art in football, there are few shots that make news.
On the way back from London last weekend Trainer Johnny Lynas, of Blackpool, listed the three best shots he has seen this season.
No. 1 was the Arthur Wright thunderbolt which ended Blackpool's no - goal record at Sunderland three weeks ago.
No. 2 was the Arthur T. Garrett Liddell bombshell which marly shattered Blackpool’s crossbar in the Liverpool match a fortnight ago.
No. 3 was Tom Garrett’s shot from 40 yards at Highbury a week ago which almost won a point for Blackpool, and, if it had scored, would have been the first goal to a Blackpool fullback - penalties and free- kicks excepted - since Eddie Shimwell’s long-range gamble against Chester in the 1948 Cuptie.
Do I agree about this season’s three? asks Clifford Greenwood. I can think of no others comparable with them in hours and hours of football. Where are the marksmen, the marksmen of England ? And of Scotland, Ireland and Wales?
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Aussies want him
IT is all still in the preliminary negotiating phase, but I heard a report in London last weekend that an offer may be made to Stanley. Matthews to tour Australia next summer - if the Blackpool club permit.
He would go and return by air, and, according to present plans, there would be no interference with his football for Blackpool,
***
CHEER THEM ON!
CONGRATULATIONS to the reserves and junior teams on their displays last week, and may we express our sympathy to the senior team on their ill-luck all Highbury?
This run of bad fortune cannot continue, writes “Supporter,” so give the boys all the encouragement they deserve and keep that Bloomfield-road roar at top note.
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Welcome to the two South Africans! May they settle down quickly and enjoy their professional career in Blackpool.
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The Guy Fawkes dance is being held at the Tower Ballroom on Wednesday.
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