Blackpool v Bolton Wanderers: 1953 FA Cup final – live!

02 May 2020 13:00
Retro MBM updates from a classic Wembley showpieceAs it happened: our as-live reboots of classic eventsAnd send your thoughts to Scott by email here 4.08pm BST Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, there are 90 minutes of football to play after all, but in years to come, perhaps we’ll remember today’s match as the Joe Smith Final. Blackpool’s veteran boss is a big part of the story, you see. Back in the day, he used to bang them in for ... of course he did ... Bolton Wanderers. Relentlessly so: he’s their all-time leading scorer with 277 goals. As club captain, he lifted the FA Cup for the Trotters after the famous White Horse Final of 1923, and again three years later. Now having moved to the coast to manage Blackpool, he’s hoping to make it third time lucky with the Seasiders, having lost the finals of 1948 and 1951. If his team prevail this afternoon, against his old club, it’d surely be a story for the ages!Having said all that, quite a lot of attention is being focused on Blackpool winger Stanley Matthews. Quite. A. Lot. The biggest star English football has produced to date is, at the age of 38, running out of time to win the FA Cup medal that’s eluded him all these years. Blackpool twice let the lead slip against Manchester United in the 1948 final, they were undone by Newcastle cup specialist Jackie Milburn three years later, and many felt that was the old boy’s last chance of a medal. Unexpectedly, here comes another. He really is boozing in the last-chance saloon this time. Is the idol of English football destined to end his career with nothing tangible to show for all his talent? It’s unthinkable, but this is where we are. Continue reading......read full article

Source: TheGuardian