Blackpool 1952-53 v Crystal Palace 1975-76 Fantasy FA Cup Third Round

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Blackpool (1952-53) v. Crystal Palace (1975-76)

Blackpool: G.Farm, E.Shimwell, H.Johnston, T.Garrett, E.Fenton, C.Robinson, S.Matthews, E.Taylor, S.Mortensen, A.Brown, B.Perry.

C.Palace: P.Hammond, P.Wall, I.Evans, J.Cannon, K.Sansom, N.Chatterton, P.Holder, M.Hinshelwood, P.Taylor, A.Whittle, D.Swindlehurst.

Match Report: Third division Crystal Palace had one thing in their favour as they travelled back to 1953 to face the mighty Blackpool and that was the prior knowledge their manager Malcolm Allison had of the fine side they were up against.

Allison knew all about the pace and power of Stanley Mortensen and the wing wizardry of Stan Matthews. It at least allowed him to hatch some kind of plan for keeping the star pair relatively quiet.

Unfortunately, having brought his side early to the resort, the flambouyant manager had spent most of his week desperately trying to find attractive young ladies with huge chests to be photographed drinking champagne in the bath with him.

This being the 50's and the heyday of the beauty competition Blackpool was not without its' fair share of buxom young beauties, even in the winter months, but Allison found that the girls of that era were not quite so eager to jump naked into a bath to have their photo taken with a 50 year old bloke as they were in the 1970's.

Having tried it on and failed with the beauty queens Doreen Dawne and Brenda Mee and got nowhere Allison turned his attention to the showbiz types in town but the response was just as negative when he approached Jill Day. When he then suggested it to a 17 year old Julie Andrews, starring in panto with Norman Wisdom, the police had to be called and Allison spent a night in the cells before being released and warned as to his future conduct.

Undeterred Allison had better luck with a few gullible Tiller Girls who fell for his line about being manager of "The Crystal Palace" and, believing this to be a swanky London nightspot, they agreed to join him in the bath on his promise of making them stars.

All this left the Palace boss little time to concentrate on the upcoming cup tie but he did still manage to come up with a surprise selection in his bid to keep Matthews in check. Allison handed the number 3 shirt to the teenager Kenny Sansom who had only a handful of first team appearances to his name.

Short, quick turning and sharp in the tackle Sansom perhaps had the best chance of all his defenders of keeping Matthews quiet.

This was a gamble that did not look likely to pay dividends as the winger immediately began tormenting the young full back with a series of mazy dribbles down the touchline as the scheming Ernie Taylor fed the ball towards Matthews at every opportunity.

Within ten minutes Sansom had launched 36 attempted tackles and only succeeded in making contact with the advertising hoardings on each occasion. Fortunately for Palace Matthews seemed to be enjoying his dribbling practice too much to bother sending over any centres and he would often wait for Sansom to crawl back onto the pitch before beating him again.

For his part Sansom was already dizzy to the point of nausea. He vaguely remembered feeling like this once before when his parents had gone away for the weekend when he was 13 and he had proceeded to drink two bottles of Harvey's Bristol Cream. He did not want to end up spewing up everywhere as he had done on that occasion so he decided to take a seat in the stands for a few minutes and see if that helped his stomach to settle and also perhaps give him some clues as to how to stop this feind of a winger.

Sansom watched carefully as Matthews unveiled his full repertoire of tricks and feints, even though there was nobody now there to actually beat, but to no avail. The West Stand seemed to be rolling like a ship on the high seas and Sansom began to turn green with sea sickness.

There was nothing for it other than to return to the action and do his best and hope that if he did throw up none of it landed on the countries favourite footballer.

After 25 minutes Ernie Taylor began to tire of Matthews' somewhat selfish display and decided to slip a ball through for Mortensen instead. As if fired from a cannon Morty burst between Ian Evans and Jim Cannon and belted a rising shot beyond Paul Hammond.

As the players trotted back to the centre circle for the restart Matthews left Sansom on the seat of his pants again with a sly little body swerve.

Taylor was really running the show by this stage and to show his versatility he suddenly sent a ball out to Blackpool's left flank where Allan Brown and Bill Perry had to break up their card school with Peter Wall and Nicky Chatterton to actually take part in the game. Brown got to the ball first but Wall recovered well to concede a corner.

Palace's own dangerman, Peter Taylor, had not had the chance to show his brand of wing play as yet but when Phil Holder launched a ball in his general direction the Palace flyer showed he had the legs on Eddie Shimwell and having cut inside he fired in a shot that just about cleared George Farm's bar.

Perhaps affronted Matthews took his next pass from Ernie Taylor, waltzed past Sansom, drove in along the goalline and squared the ball back for Allan Brown to smash home from penalty spot range.

Half Time: Blackpool 2 Crystal Palace 0

The second half saw Blackpool continue to pile forward but Palace began to look more capable of resisting their attacks as Sansom showed his potential by finally managing a few successful challenges on Matthews.

With Peter Taylor pushed even further forward in support of Alan Whittle and Dave Swindlehurst the visitors also began to offer a more realistic threat. Taylor saw a shot pushed away for a corner by Farm and when this came over Swindlehurst glanced the bar with a header.

Blackpool continued to offer the greater threat, however, with the pace of Mortensen always stretching Evans and Cannon. When Morty roared into the box and went down under the desperate challenge of Cannon the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot and he got up to smash the penalty beyond Hammond himself.

To their credit Palace responded immediately and Whittle split the home defence open with a clever flick which found Chatterton breaking clear and his low finish did the rest.

Now the game was truly end to end although almost wholly down one flank with Matthews the focus of the Blackpool attacks down their right and Palace looking to their left flank and Peter Taylor.

Gilt edged chances were wasted at either end by Mortensen and Swindlehurst but when the next goal did come with ten minutes left it sent the game right into the melting pot as Taylor's raking centre was met by Swindlehurst at the back post and his header found the net despite Farm getting a hand to it.

Suddenly the result was in doubt for the first time all afternoon and the visitors swarmed forward. Blackpool were in no mood to sit back on their one goal lead, however, and the game became incredibly stretched.

Harry Johnston had to hack a Whittle effort off his own goalline while Taylor brought a fine diving save out of Farm as Palace strove for the equaliser.

At the other end a series of crosses from Matthews somehow eluded his fellow forwards as Blackpool looked to kill the game off.

Perhaps fittingly the last word on the day went to one of the Taylor's. Picking up a loose ball just over the halfway line he jinked past a challenge and then headed for goal using his fellow forwards as a decoy.

Having moved to the edge of the area he sent a precise low shot beyond the keeper and the rippling side netting served testimony to the accuracy of the strike. It was the Tangerine shirts celebrating and Ernie Taylor receiving the congratualtions.

So Palace bowed out but they did so in some style after looking in danger of being on the end of a rout. In the dressing room their ever positive manager Malcolm Allison consoled his players with the promise that he would make sure the team coach stopped off in 1968 on the way home and he would introduce them to some women who weren't so shy in sharing the bath water.

The 17 year old Kenny Sansom was particularly happy at hearing this news.

Full Time: Blackpool 4 Crystal Palace 2