18 February 1950 Fulham 1 Blackpool 0

FIVE-RESERVE BLACKPOOL BEATEN BY ONE GOAL

Big chance to win missed in first half

FULHAM OUTPLAYED

Fulham 1, Blackpool 0

By “Clifford Greenwood”

SO THIS IS WHAT THE SONGWRITERS MEAN WHEN THEY WRITE ABOUT JUNE IN FEBRUARY.

It was one of those days in London today, a midwinter day stolen from spring, as warm as the afternoon two years ago when last a Blackpool team played on this ground on the banks of the Thames and won a Cup quarter-final, qualifying for the memorable extra time game at Villa Park.

It was as quiet and placid as on that other day in 1948 ft was excited and turbulent.

In front of the main stand, on the shallow terrace which alone separates the Press box from a pitch where players are as close to the public as at Bloomfield-road, were dozens of people wearing sun hats.

I never expected to see that on a football ground in the middle of February.

Blackpool had to field for a game which threatened to exercise a big influence on the Firsts Division championship a team so decimated by the midweek massacre that five reserves were in it.

And one of the six recognised first team left, Stanley Mortensen, would not, I think, have played if the club’s forces had been nearer full strength, for, today he had a savage carbuncle on his left forearm for which he was given injections yesterday and today.

As he said “ Somebody’s got to play!” 

FIRST TIME

Fulham, too, had a couple of forwards in action, Jinks, the ex-Millwall man, and Hinshelwood, who were appearing for the first  time for the club in a First Division match.

I noticed, by the way, that, according to the records, the Fulham defence had not conceded a home League goal since Liverpool were at “The Cottage” on October 29.

The field was torn and scarred after five months of football and all the rain which had prefaced this day of sunshine and gentle breezes.

Teams:

FULHAM: Flack; Freeman, Bacuzzi, Quested, Pavitt, Beasley; Stevens, Thomas (R), Jinks, Jezzard, Hinshelwood.

BLACKPOOL: Farm; Shimwell, Wright, Johnston, Crosland, Fenton, Hobson, McKnight, Mortensen, McCall, Adams.

Referee: Mr. T. W. Rand (County Durham).

THE GAME

Harry Johnston won the toss for Blackpool in front of an attendance estimated at between 25,000 and 30,000. The hot sun slanted across the field - it was of no material benefit.

The early skirmishes had little in them. Young Albert Hobson had a chance - a big chance, as I saw it - in the first minute.

A shot by Mortensen cannoned off a Fulham fullback, skidded across to him, and left him in a position where he should have shot. Instead, he veered over to his right and lost the ball to a desperate tackle

Half a minute later the Fulham trainer was on the field attending to Freeman, a casualty in the Craven Cottage Cuptie of 1948, who this time came to earth after a midair collision with Rex Adams, who chivalrously ministered to him until the referee belatedly halted the game.

STRANGELY QUIET

Afterwards, it seemed, after the two Cupties, strangely quiet on this London front. Fulham built one raid of promise, but Johnston was able to clear Quested’s low centre before a Fulham forward could approach it.

Again, in the next minute, when Jinks, a centre-forward on the heavyweight model, went thundering alter a hit-or-miss forward pass, Crosland crossed his path and steered back the ball a quarter of the field’s length to the waiting Farm.

It all seemed to be in slow motion. Probably that was an illusion created by the cyclonic pace of those two Wolverhampton Cupties.

Yet in one raid in the eighth minute the Blackpool goal was in peril as Stevens cut inside, reached the ball a split second before Crosland fell in front of him, and hooked a bouncing ball inches wjde of the post, with a massed Blackpool defence unsighting its goalkeeper.

GOAL IN PERIL

Desperate clearance by Shimwell

Another minute too, and again a goal was near.

Again the Fulham right flank escaped on a wing which Jackie Wright had deserted. Down it Stevens raced, crossed a low centre which Shimwell, moving to the exposed centre, cleared anywhere in front of Jinks as the centre-forward galloped in to meet the ball.

It was nearly all Fulham afterwards, without being even remotely dramatic. Fulham’s forwards often advanced, but their only plan seemed to be a tearaway pursuit of a forward pass.

We shall be calling this “end- of-the-season football” in a couple of months. It seemed a little premature to be playing it in mid-February.

Twice the Blackpool front line raced into the game in successive minutes. The first time the Fulham goalkeeper, Flack, who had been nearly a spectator in the first quarter of an hour, snatched up from Mortensen’s feet a low free-kick glided through a gap in a packed defence by Johnny Crosland.

ADAMS HELD

The second time a couple of men held Adams at bay as the outside-left went in a vain chase of a haphazard pass lobbed down his wing.

Twenty minutes had gone, and there had been little to send up the blood pressure.

I had expected it in Blackpool’s case, with the team under strength and a few of the men in it still probably weary after the Cup replay. In Fulham’s case it made no particular sense at all.

All that could be reported between the 20th and the 25th minutes was that Blackpool’s forwards constantly chased their wing half-back’s passes on to Fulham’s defence, but invariably went wrong with a pass among themselves which was either superfluous or wide of its man Still, George McKnight, working all the time, made at last a position for himself, and from it shot a ball which Flack scooped up into his arms.

Blackpool’s pressure, or, at least, a series of raids in the correct direction, continued.

Almost at leisure Blackpool attacked and attacked, and then attacked again.

There was not a lot of resolution and at times no plan at all in the marking of the Fulham defence. But few shots, none at all for three minutes, came.

Blackpool won a free-kick half a dozen yards outside the penalty area, and Johnston called up full-back Shimwell, the man with a thunder and lightning shot, to take it.

NEARLY A GOAL

A Shimwell free-kick shakes bar

That was in the 27th minute, and from it Blackpool missed a goal only by the width of the bar. for in spite of the crowd of men in front of him Shimwell shot a ball of such pace and venom that it shook the bar as Flack leapt a fraction late at it.

That was bad luck for Blackpool, who at that time would have been entitled to the lead for the greater order and composure in their football.

For minutes on end there was no employment whatever for George Farm. Thirty-three minutes had gone before, in the strict sense, he was tested at all.

Then he held superbly a high swirling ball crossed forward by the alert Stevens - who still seemed to be allowed a lot of freedom - and held it under the angle of the bar and post ais Jinks went rip-roaring in at him.

JUST WIDE

Yet a minute later Fulham were about as near the lead as ever Blackpool had been, Hinshelwood almost making his name with a goal in his First Division baptism.

He raced on to a loose ball which had bounced in and out of about half a dozen men, cut inside, and shot barely outside the far post as Farm, trapped in the mud on his line, lurched off balance before falling late to it.

In the next two minutes the Blackpool forwards made shooting positions - and shot from them both times.

Adams took the first after force of numbers had halted Mortensen and the ball had rolled loose to the wing forward.

Half a minute later Mortensen chased a ball out on the left, outpaced his full-back, and shot it fast and inches too high as the deserted Flack raced out to him.

The tempo went up after that. In one raid Mortensen hooked over his own head a ball for which the Fulham goalkeeper was manifestly unprepared, a ball which he half lost and retrieved.

On Blackpool went at it, so continuously that to repel one attack the tall Pavitt, in a great panic, put the ball over the line for one of the half’s few corners, with no man within half a dozen yards of him.

FINE RESERVES

Fulham outplayed at times

I may have been wrong, but I think the game was there at this time, in the minutes before the interval, for Blackpool to win it.

It shows, I suppose, how. good some of the Blackpool reserves are that Fulham should have been so completely outplayed at times during the half, which, without scaling the heights, had a greater punch in it the longer it lasted.

Not that it was a half to go lyrical about.

In the last minute of the half McCall sent Adams off on a clear course with one of the best passes of the first 45 minutes, but in the end the wingman crossed the ball low into the waiting arms of Flack after losing it once as he staggered and retrieved it.

Half-time: 

Fulham 0, Blackpool 0.

SECOND HALF

Fulham opened the second half as if under instructions to set a new and faster pace. For a few minutes they set it.

But the first raids of any consequence were opened by the superb football of Johnston, who built them and watched them broken on the left flank of Fulham’s defence, where Joe Bacuzzi was twice too fast into the tackle for Hobson.

Yet this young wing forward shot one ball inches wide of v. post at a great pace A minute later, another of the recruits, Ewan Fenton, repelled a Fulham right flank all on his own.

In fact, in spite of the perceptible greater intensity in the game, it was still about 50-50 for the first five minutes of the half.

CROSLAND CLEARS

Crosland made one desperate headed clearance in another Fulham attack before another of Johnston’s made - to - measure

passes gave Hobson position to open a raid which ended as the off-side whistle went against the industrious McKnight.

Neither team was ever in command of the game for long, even if Farm had to make a magnificent clearance as Freeman crossed from far out a free-kick which the goalkeeper held as it curled high at him under the bar.

Blackpool’s retaliation was immediate - a corner won by the Wright-Mortensen-Adams route which McKnight headed outside.

So it went on in the succeeding minutes, one team raiding one minute, the other team the next, with both defences standing reasonably firm.

GRAND TACKLE

Farm’s pat on the back for Crosland

The attendance had increased to 35,000, but there was still not such a lot for the crowd to cheer about until the pace of Crosland enabled him to chase and reach Jinks on a goal swoop and to dispossess him with a grand tackle which earned the centre- half a pat on the back by Farm.

Twice I noticed Wright make fine tackles to repel the Fulham right wing before Adams raced away from his man and crossed a long pass to the other wing, where Hobson centred a ball which McKnight shot over the bar.

This was a raid in three direct moves which had class in it.

Half an hour left and the game was still as open as it had been from the first minute.

A minute of this last 30 passed, and Hobson took a pass from Crosland. swerved away from Bacuzzi with it. sidestepped another man, and shot a ball which was held close to the near post by Flack who. half a minute later, fielded a high falling centre from the right wing forward.

Blackpool were definitely stronger on both wings than they had ever been in the first half and were again winning all the ball in the open, but constantly off the beam with their shots or too laboured when the final pass came.

In the 67th minute Fulham took the lead with a good goal - a goal created by a perfect forward pass by Jinks.

After it went THOMAS, found himself when he reached it a yard or two in front of Blackpool’s defence - a defence, I suspect, for once out of position - raced on with it, and as Farm advanced lobbed it over the goalkeeper’s head into the back of the net.

Blackpool, for the next few minutes, were almost desperate in their bid to get on level terms.

Fifteen minutes were left when down swept the Fulham forwards again.

The ball was crossed from the left, and cannoned off Crosland’s outstretched leg. On to it Thomas darted, and shot low.

They were cheering goal number two as Farm fell to his right and held the ball on the line.

Blackpool made a late desperate bid, but it always seemed foredoomed to failure.

Result:

FULHAM 1 (Thomas 67 mins)

BLACKPOOL 0

COMMENTS ON THE GAME

Storming 20 minutes at end of match won game for Fulham.

Blackpool lost lor first time this year. One shooting forward would have taken lead long before Fulham's Stronger finish won points.

Man of match was again Johnson. Shimwell closed lot of gaps in first half, but afterwards, until last quarter of an hour, defence was firm nearly everywhere.

McKnight, hard worker, played shrewd football and after interval wings revealed a great punch.

It was the inevitable Cup hangover for Blackpool

---

NEXT WEEK: IT’S AN OLD SUNDERLAND CUSTOM

IF there is a team that may yet upset all calculations, come through on the rails and snatch the League championship from the favourites it is the team that visits Blackpool next week-end, writes Clifford Greenwood.

Sunderland have everything on paper - except, probably, a 100 per cent, defence.

If the Roker Park club had possessed that, a frontline containing such brilliant inside forwards as Ivor Broadis and Len Shackleton and with men in the other positions who can shoot goals, plus a couple of grand attacking wing half-backs, must have sent this team rocketing to the top of the Division table.

It is, nevertheless, still a team within striking distance of the leaders, and for Blackpool this match may yet rank as one of the key games in the championship race.

Sunderland will enter the game with an undefeated postwar record at Blackpool. The first two after-the-war games were won by Sunderland, the first by such a sensational score as 5-8, the second 1-0.

And when Blackpool were threatening to end this sequence last season Mr.. Shackleton came along with a late and brilliant goal to retrieve a point for his team in a 3-3 draw.

Arthur Wright, the left- half, shot the goal which gave Sunderland a point in a 1-1 draw up in the northeast in October.

It was the first goal surrendered by the Blackpool defence in six successive matches, and it showed, I suppose, that against Blackpool Sunderland can invariably pull something out of the bag.

It’s become an old Sunderland custom.

---

HARRY JOHNSTON THANKS CUP CROWD

Cheers made all the difference

By Clifford Greenwood

EARLY on Wednesday evening, after I had told the first of a queue of telephone callers at my home that I had no tickets for the Liverpool Cuptie next month - Who do they think I am? Sir Stanley Rous? - the telephone rang again.

This time it was Harry Johnston the Blackpool captain, on the line.

The request he made would have been uncommon in any circumstances. For a Blackpool captain to make it was unprecedented.

“I’m speaking for myself and for all the boys,” he said. “They’ve asked me to ask you to say ‘Thank you’ to the Blackpool crowd for all the encouragement they gave us this afternoon.

Something new

NOW this is something without 1 parallel. So often I have heard the Blackpool players complain that there have been times in home games when they sensed an atmosphere which, if not hostile, was so critical that they could not play their best football in it.

"We’ve come out in almost dead silence,” they have said. “They’ve moaned at every mistake we made. 

'They cheered us if we were' scoring and winning. If we were losing they gave us the ‘works.’ “

I have not always subscribed to these protestations:

There is still no law in this land, even if in these days of regimentation there soon may be, which Compels a football spectator to conform to a certain prescribed pattern in his behaviour. If he wants to hoot - he hoots, like an owl on overtime; if he wants to cheer - he cheers. Nobody can stop him. He paid to go in, and probably waited a long time in a queue before he went in.

THE Blackpool public, I agree, are in football peculiarly temperamental. So many of them have come from all quarters of the kingdom, and there is not in them that fanatical allegiance to the home team which expresses itself, for example, at Anfield - wait for the Anfield roar on March 4 - and other resorts.

They do not always behave themselves, either.

I am not going to condone the barracking of the referee in this week’s Cup replay or the demonstration against one or two of the Wanderers of Wolverhampton. Provocation there may have been, but that is not sufficient excuse for intolerably bad manners.

But undoubtedly this time the citizens on the Kop, the ticketless thousands who, in the end, had the best view of the Battle of Bloomfield, went to town in a big way and were en masse the 12th man who aided in the overthrow of the Cupholders.

Encouragement

"IT made all the difference,” said Harry Johnston. “You’d to give everything you had in you when the crowd were urging you on and on. Say ‘thank you’ for all of us.”

Here, then, is the “Thank you.”

Which is a lot less caustic epitaph than I expected to write. 

It is sufficient now to record that as soon as the match was over the men called it a day and shook hands, and that one of the first visitors to Blackpool’s dressingroom "was Billy Wright, the England and Wanderers captain. When he said “Congratulations, boys. We hope you win the Cup,” there seemed to be no question that he meant it.

If the combatants have forgiven each other, the rest of us can, I suppose, forget it, remembering only the indomitable rearguard action a depleted Blackpool played with such courage and so valiantly.

It happened at Molineux

I NOTICED at the Wolverhampton Cuptie last weekend, writes “C.G.”

Bert Williams, the England man in the Wanderers goal, applauding one of the many glorious saves his opposite number, George Farm, made.

Harry Johnston, the Blackpool captain, standing amazed and then indicating his appreciation when this Bert Williams dived at a shot and, in spite of its being deflected, reached it at the foot of a post when, as the Blackpool wing-half told me afterwards, “I was certain that it was in.”

The handshakes all round when the teams left the field - teams which had shown no mercy to each other and yet had not been in the dog-fight a few reports made it out to be.

The good humour of the police officers who had to obey orders and escort the Blackpool duck mascot from public view.

The serene self-confidence of young Jackie Wright before and after the match. He might have been playing in big Cup- ties all his life, and yet this was the first in which he had ever played.

The sincere rejoicing of Andy McCall in the success of a team from which he had been left out.

BAD LUCK. ERIC!

SPORTSMAN of the week: Eric Hayward.

For years, writes Clifford Greenwood, he waited patiently and without a complaint for recognition in representative football.

At long last he was selected for this week’s inter-League fixture.

And what happened? He could not play because he was required for Blackpool's midweek Cup-tie. Yet was there a moan out of him? Not one. Blackpool comes first with this centre-half every time and all the time. But one might reasonably ask - and not in his name but in the name of the five others who had to renounce one of the matches of the year and a £10 match fee, which may or may not be considered important - what in the name of all that is sane and reasonable were the Football League about in selecting a Cup replay date for an inter-League fixture?

Somebody has said that you cannot blame the League. Then, who, may I ask, should be blamed? For somebody blundered.

QUESTION OF TIME

STRANGE but unnoticed scene on the line when the teams left the field at Wolverhampton last week.

Mr. Stanley Cullis, the ex-England centre-half and present Wanderers manager, protested to Mr. W. Ling, of Stapleford, the referee, that he had not played full time.

What time had Mr. Ling played?

He had played, according to every watch in the Press box, three minutes over time, as he was entitled to, after Trainer Johnny Lynas had been on and off the field in a shuttle service during the game’s last half-hour.

Three minutes was, I think, a reasonable allowance for the time lost while this open-air clinic was operating.

What did Mr. Cullis want?

For the game to go on until the shades of night fell or the Wanderers scored a goal?

What if Blackpool had scored instead - as in the closing minutes the forwards often threatened to?

REAL FANS

SALUTE to four fans who went to Wolverhampton last week from Blackpool in a 1927 “Baby” Austin.

They painted this relic - every inch of it - in tangerine and white, had a tangerine flag fluttering on the radiator, and Cyril Garnett, of Lostock-gardens, drove the 118 miles in five hours, which was counting a halt for lunch.

With him were his father, Harry Garnett, and two passengers, Douglas Dransfield and Stan Parker.

***

Atom ban is silly

WHAT’S the matter with all these clubs who ban “The Atomic Boys”?

Their protestations that half-a-dozen or a dozen men in light shoes or boots would ravage tuff which during the next hour and a half is being torn up by 22 other men in studded boots is all moonshine.

At the Molineux ground on Saturday-last the “Atoms” were not even allowed on the cinder track which borders the pitch. Is this sown with precious stones - or something?

When people wait - as they waited at this Cuptie, thousands of them - for three or four hours outside the gates in queues and for another three hours in a cold wind on the terraces, an impromptu show such as these mascots can present would at least make the long vigil seem a little shorter.

Yet these clubs stand on their dignity and say, “It is forbidden.’’

***

CURIOSITY Corner:

In spite of all the Wanderers’ pressure in the first of the week’s Cupties, George Farm, the Blackpool goalkeeper, according to the census of another George - one Mr. Sheard - took only five goal-kicks all the afternoon against Bert Williams’ 13.

Yet the Wanderers had seven corners against Blackpool’s five.

And all afternoon there were only six free-kicks for offside - and only two of them against the Wolves.

Free-kicks for fouls? Nine against Blackpool, 10 against the Wanderers. Yet, I still say, it was not such a rough-house as all that, writes “C. G.”

***

TEAM who have my condolences in their Cup defeat are the ’Spurs.

A few Fleet-street cheapjacks so lauded them to the skies after the fourth round dismissal of Sunderland, calling them “the team of the century,” and in one demented case, “the team of all the ages,” that the inevitable prejudice against them was created.

When they lost at Goodison Park a week ago everybody rejoiced and talked piously about pride coming before a fall. Yet I cannot forget that these ’Spurs were a team of great chivalry when Blackpool snatched the 1948 Final from them in the dramatic match at Villa Park two years ago.

Half a dozen of them visited Blackpool’s dressing room after the match and without any affectation complimented the men - and one man in particular, Stanley Mortensen - who had beaten them.

The ’Spurs might in justice cry amid all the jubilation at their downfall, “Save us from our friends!”

The anything - for - a - headline boys have a lot to answer for in football.

***

CUP TICKETS BY POST

Although it will mean considerably more work for them, Blackpool Football Club officials have decided to distribute tickets for the Liverpool Cuptie by post.

The method was adopted successfully before the Wolves Cuptie and the officials are satisfied that it is the fairest and most practical.

Disappointing news from the public’s point of view, however, is that Blackpool has been allocated fewer tickets for March 4 than were allocated for the Wolverhampton game.

But there will be non-ticket accommodation for about 50,000 spectators.

Stand tickets will be on sale at 7s. 6d. and paddock tickets at 3s. Admission to the ground will be Is. 6d. to be paid at the turnstiles.

Once again the small allocation - estimated at fewer than 3,000 tickets - will not permit preferential treatment being given to season ticket-holders. Applications from motor coach firms, travel agencies, or any other type of transport undertaking, for blocks of tickets, will not be considered.

To receive consideration, applications must reach Bloomfield- road, addressed to the Secretary, by the first post next Tuesday morning. Letters delivered by hand will not be accepted.

Applicants must state the type of tickets required and whether they are prepared to accept paddock tickets if stand tickets are not available. Otherwise, remittances, which must accompany applications, will be returned if stand tickets are not available.

Remittances must cover the cost of the tickets required and a registered envelope must be enclosed with each application for return of tickets or money.

The club asks that, where possible, a crossed cheque, made payable to Blackpool Football Club Ltd., with the amount left blank, should be forwarded.

---

THE MORTENSEN STORY — No. 13

THE GOAL THAT LED TO WEMBLEY

THE drama of the famous equalising goal four minutes from time in the 1948 semi-final at Villa Park between Blackpool and the ’Spurs is recalled in this latest instalment Of Stanley Mortensen’s best-seller, “Football Is My Game.”

This Stanley continues his praise of the other Stanley his partner Stanley Matthews - writes of his

modesty, of the first game in which the two ever played as partners - against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Who were beaten 6-1.

“Stanley Matthews,” writes Stanley Mortensen, “is a model for every young player to watch and study ... a great player, a great sportsman, and a modest, quiet fellow.”

And how a partnership began

By Stanley Mortensen

THE match in which I first paired up with  "The Wizard” was in 1942, and |here was no thought in our mind that we would play together regularly in League and Cup games for Blackpool I was barely 21 years of age, Stan Matthews was a Stoke City player, and there was also the matter of the war to be finished before serious football restarted.

Yet it couldn’t have opened more auspiciously, this finished article Stanley and the other Stanley -myself - more or less a novice. Matthews scored our first goal, and before the day was done every forward had netted. Jock Dodds helped himself to two. and we beat Wolves 6-1.

Those who thought I had settled in the side as though I had been playing alongside my famous partner for years would have been mistaken if they had also thought that this was due to any instructions he had laid down.

Matthews, at the top of the tree, knowing it all, would have been - entitled to take his young partner on one side before the game and lay down the yules for supplying the ball. No one could have taken exception if he had done that.

Not his way

HE did not. That would never be his way, never assertive Until he actually got the ball tied to his toes!

I have heard the story of one famous footballer - often capped for England, who was one day given a new partner in a League match.

The lad was a brilliant player, full of promise, yet this was the pre-match instruction given to him by the international: “Now look here, I’ll give you the ball. You needn’t worry about that - I’ll see you get it. 

But I want it back. And quick. See?’” Such advice might have doomed a youngster from the word “Go.” 

As it happened, this boy was a fine individual type of player as well as being a good team-man; and his natural style might have been cramped at the outset.

Fortunately, his talent was sufficient to allow him to rise above such obstacles, and he in turn went on to play for England with great success. It was bad advice, all the same, which was given to him by the star.

No restriction

MATTHEWS did not say anything to me before this first pairing-up of the two Stanleys.

I have no doubt that had I failed badly during the first half, he would have dropped a quiet hint at the interval, but luckily I settled into the match at once, and so there was no need for words.

I shall always be grateful that he placed no restrictive plans on my play that day, allowing me to play my own game irrespective of his great fame.

What to do when you have given Stan Matthews a pass? Let him get on with it in his own inimitable way!

This suits me, as it happens, because my method of play is to be up somewhere near the goal chances. 

So, when Stanley gets the ball, off I go, full steam ahead, with one eye on the possibility of getting off-side, and the other on the progress he is making.

Dual problem

SOMETIMES, if the play is untidy and the defence caught out of position, I can gallop ahead of him.

At other times it pays me to double up with the centre-forward, get up-field, and give the centre-half a dual problem in marking at the moment when the inevitable pass or centre comes from the wing.

Twice in important matches I have been able to run ahead of Stanley Matthews and take a straight-ahead pass - a grand example of variety in football. Even with such a master as the outside-right there must always be the need for variety.

High-class defenders become accustomed to one move, and even if they can’t prevent it can organise themselves to destroy its value.

When we played Tottenham Hotspur in the Cup semi-final in 1948 the all-important equalising goal was made possible because we exploited a move which we had not previously tried in that game.

CHANGED METHOD

MATTHEWS moved in slightly towards the inside - right position, and there received the ball.

He was expected to dribble on with it, as he has done so often during the second half, when we had attacked such a lot without scoring.

After a brief pause, Stanley changed his method. The pause was in itself important, because it enabled me to rush forward, directly ahead of my partner.

While I was still moving, he gave me the through pass which I was able to take without the necessity of stopping to bring the ball under control.

The ’Spurs defenders had held off, waiting for Matthews to start one of his corkscrew dribbles, so that I was not put offside. The rest' you know.

We exploited a similar move against the Italians at Turin only a few weeks later. And again it led to a goal.

Nothing slapdash

STANLEY MATTHEWS Is a model for every young player to watch and study.

There is nothing slap-dash about his football. That is a point I would stress over and over again How many corner-kicks does he waste in the course of a season? Not three, I’ll wager. Not for him the. hurried scrambling kick, but a carefully - considered centre.

And even his normal centres, taken on the move with an opponent in close attendance, are invariably in front of goal and not in the crowd, where some wingers I could name seem to delight in putting the ball!

I finish this chapter as I started it. I need no excuse for giving so much space to Stanley Matthews, a great player, a great sportsman, and a modest quiet fellow who still wears the same size cap as when he left school to join the Stoke City staff.

Next week

STORIES FROM THE BLACKPOOL DRESSING ROOM.