Witness to County History 4( or I do like to be beside the seaside......)
Back: Black, Conway,Wilmott, A Beattie ( Mgr),Glover, Reid.
Middle ; Monks, J Stevenson ( Asst Trainer)Morris, Staniforth,
Ward, Sanaghan, McGann, Dick, Barker, W Newton (Trainer).
Front: Dixon, Cocker, McCulloch,Cavanagh, Oliver, Herd.
Kneeling : Allman , Robinson.
I Do Like to be beside the Seaside
by Alan Edwards
as first seen in When I Was Young & Lazy in 2006
BLACKPOOL 27th JANUARY 1951
I’ve always liked Blackpool. Doesn’t matter if it’s a cold wet wintry day
or the middle of summer, I still like it.
My family and relatives always joke it’s because I was conceived on a
charabang trip to the illuminations in September 1929 and that I really belong
there. The fact is I was born in
Stockport in 1930 and always enjoy going back whatever the occasion. I’ve been there to Stanley Park for
Lancashire County Cricket matches, to the Winter Gardens for Trades Union
Conferences and numerous times just because Blackpool is Blackpool.
My fondest memory, though, is of going there was on
a January day in 1951 to watch County give one of the best displays I can recollect
away from Edgeley Park. We had beaten
Brentford at home earlier in the month, in the 3rd round of the cup, and we got
a visit to Bloomfield Road for our reward.
At least in those far off days Blackpool were one of the better teams in
the then first division of the football league so there was certain to be a
good crowd. In fact it was 32,000 of
whom 5,000 were County supporters and I was one of them. I was in the Royal Navy at the time but I
was fortunate to be stationed at the Royal Naval Air Station at Stretton, near
Warrington so it was fairly easy for me to get home to Stockport on my weekends
off, and I made sure I was off duty that weekend. One of my friends had queued at the Park to
get me a ticket and booked me a ticket on the excursion train that was running
especially for the match.
And so we arrived in Blackpool that Saturday
lunchtime. For most of us it was a
visit to the chippy and then to the pub for a swift half and on to the match.
We had read what the teams were to be in the morning
paper and I suppose, like most of the other County fans, I was a bit overawed
by their forward line – it read Matthews, Mudie, Mortensen, Brown and
Perry. Just about the best in the
country at that time. The defence
wasn’t bad either – Farm, Shimwell, Garrett, Johnston, Crossland and
Kelly. Anyway when you go to an away
cup match you go to enjoy yourself not to worry too much what the result will
be. If it’s good one it makes it all
the better.
Stanley Matthews
Stanley Matthews
County’s team was almost their usual one of Ward,
Staniforth, Monks, Emptage, Glover, McCulloch, Dixon, Black, Cocker, Dick and
Oliver. The only regular missing was
Tommy Moran. So that wasn’t bad then.
Kick off was at two o’clock and by five past we were
two down.
Whoops what happened. Well in the first minute Matthews got the
ball from Johnston, carried it to County’s dead ball line and, although there
were strong appeals that the ball had gone out of play, he crossed it to
Mortensen and goal number one. Worse
was to come after three minutes Bev Glover cleared the ball out for a
corner. The kick was only partially
cleared and Mudie pounced and it was goal number two.
I know what you are thinking at this point. I must be out of my mind saying that this
was one of County’s best performances away in the cup. But from then onwards, as it was reported in
sports pages of that nights West Lancashire Evening Gazette, it became
Stockport’s match. Their reporter said,
“This was an escape for Blackpool. A
match which threatened to be a Stockport massacre became a Blackpool retreat
and a replay could have been forced without outraging justice.”
So what happened then. Well County got their act together and
forced Blackpool to defend and this they had to do in depth. It became one way traffic and, to once again
quote the local Blackpool press, “the Third Division team’s football had a pace
and punch in it, and a quality, too, which outplayed Blackpool.” The County faithful did their bit too. Their 5,000 voices drowning the frantic
pleas of the 20 odd thousand local fans for Blackpool to buck up.
For the rest of the match there was only one bleak moment - on twenty minutes - the referee’s parentage was called into question by the County faithful when he awarded a penalty for handball against Ronnie Staniforth (even a blind man could have seen it wasn’t deliberate but ball hitting hand and not the other way). Dennis Ward our goalkeeper was the hero of the hour and brilliantly saved Garrett’s thunderbolt shot.
Ron Staniforth. |
For the rest of the match there was only one bleak moment - on twenty minutes - the referee’s parentage was called into question by the County faithful when he awarded a penalty for handball against Ronnie Staniforth (even a blind man could have seen it wasn’t deliberate but ball hitting hand and not the other way). Dennis Ward our goalkeeper was the hero of the hour and brilliantly saved Garrett’s thunderbolt shot.
The rest of the half went with County creating
chance after chance but with Blackpool mounting an eleven man defence it wasn’t
going to be easy to put one away. The
second half continued in the same vein.
In fact it wasn’t until five minutes from time that Blackpool got their
second corner. By contrast, County’s
12th corner of the game brought them a goal. A quickly taken one from Dixon to Cocker saw
Les cross the ball for Andy Black to head home to tumultuous applause from the
crowd. And it is pleasing to note that
the home supporters also cheered the goal.
They also appreciated that it was a richly deserved. Unfortunately that was the end of the
scoring.
When the final whistle went, to the audible sense of
relief from the home fans and also that of the home team, the teams left the
pitch to a great ovation from all the fans.
As we left the ground, and remember this was in the days when there was
no segregation so we all left from the same exits, many of the locals
congratulated us County fans and said that ‘Pool had been lucky. Well we knew that but it was nice of them to
tell us that they thought so too.
The journey home on the train was quite noisy with
lots of singing etc. Not once did I
hear any criticism of any County player.
It was praise all round for all eleven of them who wore the black and
white that day. (Oh! All right then so
Ward was wearing a green jersey.) But
our Third Division North team had certainly given a good account of themselves
on that January day in that seaside place called Blackpool.
Finally, I hope that you have enjoyed my reminiscences and found them of interest........
Finally, I hope that you have enjoyed my reminiscences and found them of interest........
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