1 April 1950 Derby County 0 Blackpool 0
Bouncing ball baffles the forwards at Derby
WRIGHT IN THE WARS
Derby County 0, Blackpool 0
By “Clifford Greenwood”
EVERY MATCH FOR BLACKPOOL THESE DAYS IS A CUPTIE, WHATEVER THEY CALL IT ON THE BILLS OUTSIDE.
It was another this afternoon at the Baseball Ground, the small ground where double-tiered stands enable them to pack 38,000 inside the gates.
In spite of the Derby decline of the last two months, Blackpool expected a big test, and, playing 10 of the men who were in the Birmingham City match a week ago, introduced the amateur international, W. J. Slater, at inside-left.
The County gave a trial at outside-right to a young outside-left, Leslie Mynard, a recruit from Wolverhampton, who had played in only two other First Division games.
There was no sun and a threat of rain in the lowering clouds early in the afternoon, but queues had been standing outside the gates since noon, and shortly before the kick-off the attendance approached 30,000.
Teams:
DERBY COUNTY: Townsend; Mozley, Parr; Ward, Oliver (K.), Musson; Mynard. Morris, Stamps, Steel, McLaren.
BLACKPOOL: Farm; Shimwell, Wright; Johnston, Crosland, Kelly; Hobson, Mortensen, Mudie, W. J. Slater, Perry.
Referee: Mr. K. S. Collinge (Sale)
First half
Never this season have I seen a pitch with as little grass left on it. Except in the corners it was as bare as the Sahara.
What little wind was blowing was almost entirely cut off by the enclosing stands and shelters, and the winning of the toss, as a result, had no particular consequence. Harry Johnston lost it from the other right half, Tim Ward.
In the first 10 seconds there was an accident which threatened to be serious for Blackpool. The young understudy, Mynard, and Jackie Wright raced together to a high bouncing ball, and collided as the wing forward hurled himself at it.
WRIGHT HURT
For seconds the full-back rolled on the baked mud as the game went on in an attack which ended as Farm took a loose pass and deliberately hit it out on to the packed terraces to bring aid to Wright 30 yards in front of him.
For nearly a minute the game was at a standstill. Ultimately trainer Johnny Lynas took Wright over the line, and was still massaging his ribs as Blackpool, in a fast breakaway by four forwards, won a corner.
And the corner nearly made a goal, too, for Bill Perry crossed it so perfectly that as Mudie leaped at it the big Townsend had to be alert to snatch it away from the little centre-forward’s head.
All this happened in the first two minutes, and in the third Wright came back pale, but not as gravely affected as I had feared.
LONG CLEARANCE
Within another minute, in fact, he made a long, definite clearance after two men in front of him had settled too long on the ball and allowed that elusive customer Billy Steel to race on with it by himself.
Immediately, Townsend in the County goal was twice in action, taking up and clearing a bouncing centre which Perry crossed too square.
Yet it was the Blackpool goal which might have fatten with exactly 10 minutes gone.
It was a tearaway raid on the Derby right which opened the movement.
In the end, the ball was crossed from this quarter, and was mishit by Shimwell as it bounced awkwardly in front of him. Jack Stamps chased it, but the ball bounced off this big, aggressive forward's right knee wide of a post, with the leader in a scoring position.
It was constant Derby pressure afterwards, but all the time the ball was bouncing away from the men off the grassless pitch.
GOALS NEAR
Derby goal twice in danger
Yet, in spite of these continuous but never decisive raids, it was Blackpool who were near the lead with the first quarter of an hour nearly gone.
Twice the County’s goal was menaced. The first time Perry took a pass and, as is his habit, shot it as it reached him and missed the near post by inches.
A minute later a great gap was torn in the centre of the County’s defence and, into it tore little Mudie, outpaced Ken Oliver, and lost the ball only as Townsend went bravely down at his feet.
A comer followed, and from it Hobson shot wide. These Blackpool forwards were evidently intent on shooting today.
GREAT TACKLE
In fact, nothing whatever was seen of the County’s front line for a time, except when Steel shot over the bar after Crosland had made a magnificent tackle at the feet of Stamps, but had been unable to complete the clearance.
The ball was still repeatedly eluding the men everywhere. Yet when Slater leaped to a high pass, reached it and headed it down to the feet of Mortensen the inside-right, waiting for the pass in the inside-left position, lashed it high over the bar as the whistle went a split second before he had made the shot. There was not a lot in it afterwards. The County won a comer less by design than accident as Johnston’s clearance hit Shimwell and cannoned off the full-back over the line.
GRAZED BAR
This corner, too, might have put the County in front 1-0, for before it was cleared McLaren, cutting in from the left wing, shot a ball which seemed to graze the face of the bar before going out on to the other wing, where it was lost.
Mudie shot low into Townsend’s arms in a Blackpool counterattack while Wright was off the field again for attention, but for a time in a half which had been about 50-50 in the first 25 minutes neither team was ever for long definitely in command.
Back came Jackie Wright, and off he went again a minute later. This time he was summoned to the dressing room with blood coming from a gash over an eye,
With Stan Mortensen as wing- half Blackpool were outplayed afterwards, and in the 30th minute the first goal was near again as Morris, showing a nice intelligence as he waited for a pass from Steel, took it and as he fell under a late tackle shot barely over the bar.
WRIGHT BACK
Cheers for player’s pluck
Repeatedly I saw Johnston making great clearances. He had just made another in co-operation with Hugh Kelly as for the fourth time in the half Wright returned with his head under a big thick bandage.
They cheered him for his pluck - and he deserved it. He still went into the full-back position, and actually made an audacious headed clearance from the County’s right wing.
It was a wing of casualties Len Mynard was the next to take the count, passed out and stayed out. and went over the line ultimately in the arms of the St. John Ambulance men.
Yet even with him out of service the County continued to raid and raid and yet seldom threatened even after he had returned to make a scoring position, with the ball still bouncing away from their forwards all the time.
It was the County’s left wing which was offering the greater menace.
STEEL’S CENTRE
Out on to it Kelly had to race once to halt a raid before Steel was allowed to brush Johnston off the ball before crossing a centre which the game, battling Wright deflected away from Morris.
The Blackpool front line had faded again. There was no employment whatever for Townsend in the County goal for minutes.
Then Perry, from another of those positions which the cunning of Slater now and again created for him, crossed a centre which the goalkeeper was allowed to field and clear with no other Blackpool front line man within a dozen yards of him
Yet Blackpool won a disputed corner with five minutes of the half left, and from it Hobson nearly scored a Freddie Cox goal direct from the flag with a ball which Townsend seemed to miss as it curled in and over and on to the top of the net.
Nobody would have called this a distinguished half. There had been plenty of fast earnest football in it, but the ball all the time was escaping the men. bouncing away at unexpected angles, and was seldom disciplined.
LOOSE PASSES
It all cut the football to ribbons, left the goalkeepers merely to retrieve fast, loose passes which were running away from the forwards.
In the last minute of the half one of these long forward passes bounced so unexpectedly high that Farm had to punch it out for a corner, from which Johnnie Morris again placed the ball high over the bar from a position where often he must have scored.
That was an escape for Blackpool. There had been few others during the first 45 minutes which had contained a lot of Derby pressure, but not a lot else.
Half-time: Derby County 0, Blackpool 0.
SECOND HALF
In the first half-minute the County nearly snatched the lead, or, to be exact, were nearly presented with it.
For the first time in the afternoon Harry Johnston made an error, passed back a ball too short.
McLaren, who was about the game’s best forward, raced on to it, lobbed it away from Farm, and watched it hit the side net of the empty goal.
Within a minute, too, this fast, direct raider was close to a goal, hurled himself at a flying ball, catapulting it over the bar in a flying dive.
It was a hammering opening by the County’s front line on a Blackpool defence still standing reasonably firm.
Twice afterwards, as this early storm began to blow itself out, the offside whistle halted the Blackpool front line as it had constantly halted it during the afternoon.
COUNTY ATTACK
Morris puts wide after free-kick
Immediately, the County raided again, and as Kelly was incorrectly, I think, penalised for a tackle on Steel a free-kick was conceded close to the penalty area which led to nothing as Morris stabbed the ball wide as he took a pass.
Yet inside a minute the County were nearly in arrears as Ken Oliver took a lash at the ball, missed it, and left Mortensen to pass him and to half-hit a shot which came back wide of him off the big broad chest of Townsend.
The left wing of Blackpool, with Kelly constantly aiding and abetting it, was in the game a lot, but for a time afterwards in a match which was still varying from the dramatic to the commonplace, there was scarcely a major incident.
OFFSIDE WHISTLE
The odds were always on the defence with the ball bouncing as awkwardly as ever and always away from the forwards, even if once Mortensen and Slater created a position for Perry which was lost again as the offside whistle blew.
It blew again with the South African in another position perilously close to the County’s goal.
A minute later Crosland had a long duel with the subdued Stamps which the centre-half won at last by his phenomenal speed.
Fifteen minutes of the half had gone, and there were still no goals. And, in spite of an occasional foray by the forwards - and not as many by the County as there had been -it seldom threatened to be anything else.
It seemed certain that one goal would settle this game if one goal were ever to be scored.
Johnston crossed a free-kick into the arms of Townsend, and a minute later Crosland had to concede a corner.
STEEL SHOOTS
So it went on, backwards and forwards, but this comer nearly produced a goal.
This time the corner was not cleared immediately. Instead, the ball bounced up and down within range and out again until Steel darted to it, shot it fast, and hit a post with Farm near the other one.
A minute later as blood began to crawl down Wright’s face from beneath his bandage, the referee appeared to intervene, went to him, and, in spite of the fullback’s obvious reluctance, he was led by his trainer back to the dressing room again.
That left Hugh Kelly as a fullback, 25 minutes to go, and a rear guard action impending.
Now and again the Blackpool left wing escaped, but nearly every time the linesman’s flag was lifted against Perry for offside.
Yet once the flag remained down and in this breakaway Townsend half lost the ball to the challenge of Mudie, and in the end was glad to watch it pass over the line for Blackpool’s first comer of the half.
TEN MEN .
This was followed, too, by almost audacious attacks by the 10 men of Blackpool, with Kelly actually vacating the fullback position and becoming a wing forward.
Either team could still win, but the defences were as compact and as fast on to the ball as ever.
And a minute later, too, with Blackpool’s formation almost impossible to identify, Stan Mortensen made a clearance almost out of keeper’s hands position.
Strangely despite their depleted resources Blackpool were no longer outplayed, were calling the tune, and setting the pace and still setting it as Jackie Wright, the undaunted, came back again wearing a fresh bandage.
WRIGHT’S RETURN
My arithmetic may have been wrong, but I made this the fifth time he had been out of the fray and had gallantly returned to it.
Whereupon, as so often happens, 11 men began to go back where 10 had nearly all the time been going forward.
The Blackpool defence held out to the end, and in the closing minutes it was the Blackpool forwards who were often attacking.
Result:
DERBY COUNTY 0
BLACKPOOL 0
COMMENTS ON THE GAME
I WROTE before this match that it was a cuptie in everything but name. It resembled one for its entire 90 minutes, with the defences always that shade too fast on the ball for the forwards, and the forwards, when they escaped the defences, constantly losing the bouncing, elusive ball.
If for nothing else it will be remembered for the valiant game of Jackie Wright, who, in and out of the wars all the afternoon, was still, when he was on the field, the game’s best full-back.
It took a long time for Shimwell on the other flank to find a plan to halt the game’s star forward, McLaren, on the County’s left wing, but in the second half until the closing minute this menace was mastered, and afterwards not a lot was left of the County’s forward division.
The Blackpool wing half-backs were as good as ever, with Hugh Kelly persistent in attack all the afternoon and as strong as ever, in the tackle.
OFFSIDE TRAP
It was another of those days when circumstances too often compelled Stan Mortensen to play among the half-backs.
As a result the line had no greater front-of-goal punch than the County’s forward division, but the left-wing of Slater and Perry was always working to a plan which was negatived only by the interminable snaring of the young South African in Derby’s offside trap.
It was, in brief, another of those games which revealed Blackpool as a team prepared to play to the last minute. That a draw was deserved was beyond dispute.
The attendance was 28,862.
LINE-UP for the Easter parade - the biggest at Blackpool for years.
There will be three matches in four days on the Blackpool ground - and in every one of the three there will be big stakes on the table - or on the grass.
The visit of Burnley in the Central League on Good Friday may create a record attendance for a reserve match at Blackpool.
All season these two clubs have been in a duel for the Central League championship which Burnley’s second team won last season. Now at last they come to grips - at Blackpool on Friday and at Turf Moor in the return match on Easter Monday.
In the First Division there will be at Goodison Park on Friday a match which will affect the battles in both the championship and relegation cockpits, with title-hunting Blackpool meeting an Everton team which has won a lot of Cup glory this season, but at a price which has jeopardised the club’s position in the First Division.
This will be a no-quarter match, played on the ground where Blackpool were beaten 5-0 in a blizzard last season. And they will play it all over again at Blackpool on Easter Monday.
And between the two engagements will come to Blackpool Arsenal, who have
always closed the Bloomfield- road gates and will assuredly close them again on Saturday, when they arrive this time not only as one of the First Division’s biggest box-office attractions - and Arsenal remain that - but as a team with a elate at Wembley at the end of the month.
This could be one of the most momentous weekends in Blackpool football history, and it probably will be.
NO STAN MATTHEWS SWAN SONG, PLEASE!
Like Hayward, he’ll be back
By Clifford Greenwood
***
THERE may be reactions to an article which appeared in one of the Sunday newspapers last weekend relative to the future of Stanley Matthews in first-class football.
There was in the article the implication that Blackpool were so seriously concerned about the international forward that there were obvious fears that his days in the game might conceivably be over, and the implication, too, that this information could have come only from one member of the Blackpool board.
This member, who denies that a casual conversation with the author of the article could ever have given this impression, is intent on the true circumstances of the interview being revealed.
Stanley Matthews, as I have already revealed this week, is convinced that he will soon be back in the game.
***
MAKING GOOD
THEY have played him on the A right wing and on the left wing since he left Blackpool for Hillsbrough, writes “C.G.”
Who? Walter Rickett, the little Yorkshireman who remains in Sheffield Wednesday’s promotion-hunting team and scored one of the five goals which routed Major Frank Buckley’s Leeds United last weekend.
I am glad he is making good, for if ever there was a man who would give all he had to give for a club in every match it was Walter Rickett when he was at Blackpool.
He still holds a present-season record in these parts, too. He is the only wing forward who has scored a goal for Blackpool in a First Division match.
Strange but true. Or, at least, it was true before the team went to Derby today.
***
IT comes to them all every now and again.
Eric and Basil Hayward had seldom been out of football on a casualty list until this season. Eric, the Blackpool centre-half, had only missed one game because of disablement until he was hurt in the Wolverhampton Cup replay in February.
Basil, his younger brother, and Port Vale centre-half, had been similarly free from injury until he. was crippled in a pre-season practice match last summer, was out of football for months, and. as soon as he returned to it, was soon out of commission again.
The footballer has to resign himself to these little cycles which come and go in every career. Fortunate is the man who escapes them. I don’t know one who has.
***
THE MORTENSEN STORY — No. 19
Manager Fenton of Colchester waged a war of nerves -
THE MARCH TO WEMBLEY
By Stanley Mortensen
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