1953 F.A. CUP FINAL

I was a Blackpool fan as a child (living in West Sussex!!), because Stanley Mattews was their "star" player and my favourite footballer. What age was I to make this judgement? Probably single figures? so 1960s or so? Did I know where Blackpool was?

What ever the judgement, he was my "hero" and I was given his autobiography for a birthday present when I was in "single figures" and read it through out! Later in life,  I met him at an FA event....he signed my edition of his auto-biography....(by the way my brother supported Tom Finney from Preston NE)....mind you, neither of us knew, at the time, where these northern towns were!!! Portsmouth was our closest with a direct rail journey from Pulborough,,,,,! The site of my first professional game...late 1950s.

The 1952–53 FA Cup was the 72nd season of the world's oldest football cup, the Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the F.A.Cup. Blackpool won the competition for the first time, beating Bolton Wanderers 4–3 in the Final at Wembley.

The 1953 FA Cup Final, known as the "Matthews Final" due to Stanley Matthews dribbling in the last 30 minutes of the game, was contested by Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers at Wembley. Blackpool won 4–3, with Stan Mortensen the third player to score an FA Cup Final hat trick..

2 May 1953

Blackpool	4–3	Bolton Wanderers
Mortensen  35', 68', 89' Perry  90+2'		Lofthouse  2' Moir  40' Bell 55'

Wembley Stadium

Attendance: 100,000

Referee: B. M. Griffiths (Newport)

Blackpool

Bolton Wanderers

...

It was called "The Matthews' Final" because Stanley had played in two previous finals....1948 and 1951 and come second. He was a national hero with a long "back story", so people wanted him to succeed! Eventually, he did. The final was very exciting...a 4-3 win for the Tangerines....

A long time later, I met him and couldn't believe what a great moment it was for me....it was in front of the Houses of Parliament, on a patch of lawn, an event conjured up between The FA and the politicians!! Hard to put those two together in the same "box". What ever? He held a coaching session on the lawn and the FA was very happy with their advertisement. For me a very special afternoon.