May 2nd 1953 was the day that Blackpool legend Stanley Matthews helped his team win the FA Cup.
Having transferred from home town Stoke in 1947 at 32 years of age, it looked as though he was going to see out his career quietly by the seaside running his hotel business.
Matthews had been with Blackpool in a Cup Final defeat by Manchester United in 1948. The Seasiders were 2-1 up at half time but lost to Matt Busby's first great team 4-2. In 1951 it was Jackie Milburn who spoiled the party when Newscastle beat Blackpool 2-0. Matthews was 36 years old. Surely there would not be another opportunity.
Two years later, sporting their famous tangerine shirts, Blackpool played local rivals Bolton at Wembley, with Nat Lofthouse leading the Bolton line at centre forward. The England centre forward was already on the score sheet and Matthews' side we're 3-1 down with 55 minutes gone. It looked like third time unlucky for Matthews but Bolton's goal scorer Eric Bell tore a hamstring and stayed on the pitch. Matthews ran riot against him and provided cross after cross for another Stan, centre forward Mortensen. He had already scored his team's lone goal but with 22 minutes left he received a perfect pass from Matthews and scored another . Mortensen then converted a free kick with a minute of normal time left for his hat trick. Then Matthews set up Bill Perry to make it 4-3.
The final whistle brought an emotional out pouring for a nation's favourite who wept at the moment he realised his dream had come true at last holding his winners' medal.
Whilst the 1953 Cup Final was known as "The Matthews' Final" many said it should have been called The Mortensen Final.
Sir Stan (Matthews) a true ambassador for football and for Blackpool would have been spinning in his grave at the goings on at his old club as the club struggled in League One and the crowds stayed away protesting about the behaviours of owners, the Oyston Family. That is another story.
Same day 2016: Premier league: Chelsea 2 Tottenham Hotspur 2 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIrUnf6HGS8
Spurs let a two-goal lead slip in the Premier League match with the dropped points seeing Leicester City crowned as Premier League champions 2015-16. Unfashionable Leicester, 5000-1 outsiders at the start of the season, were League champions for the first time in their history. They went on to finish the season 10 points clear of second-placed Arsenal, although that margin isn’t really a true reflection of the title race. Leicester and Spurs were neck and neck going into the final few matches but while the Foxes were unbeaten in their last 12 matches Spurs didn’t manage a win in their last four, a run which saw them pipped to the runners-up up spot by their great rivals Arsenal. Leicester’s success was widely seen as the most unlikely triumph in the history of team sport but just nine months later the architect of that triumph – manager Claudio Ranieri – had been sacked.
Such is life!
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