The Times 50 Greatest Football Matches E-Book

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 322

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

From the earliest FA Cup finals in the 1870s between teams of former public schoolboys to the glittering world of 21st-century Champions League matches contested by squads of millionaires, The Times has been at pitchside to write the history of football as it has happened. It is story of great matches: Hungary's historic victory over England at Wembley in 1953, Manchester United's triumph over Benfica in the 1968 European Cup final, Brazil's thrashing of Italy in the 1970 World Cup final, Liverpool's remarkable recovery to win the Champions League in Istanbul in 2005. It is a story of dazzling individual performances: Stanley Matthews finally winning an FA Cup winners' medal at Wembley in 1953, Bobby Moore giving a masterclass in the art of defending for England against Brazil in the 1970 World Cup, Cristiano Ronaldo's virtuoso performance as Real Madrid won the 2017 Champions League. It is a story of national highs and lows, from Wembley in 1966 when England ruled the world after defeating West Germany to the humiliation of losing to Iceland in the 2016 European Championship. But above all it is a story of great players, great managers and great personalities in a sport that grips the attention of the world like no other.

Leseprobe

First published 2019

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

© Richard Whitehead, 2019

The right of Richard Whitehead to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 7509 9115 5

Typesetting and origination by The History Press

Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd

eBook converted by Geethik Technologies

CONTENTS

Foreword

Introduction

Football Correspondents of The Times

Notes on Style

 1    Blackburn Olympic v Old EtoniansFA Cup final, 1883

 2    Aston Villa v EvertonFA Cup final, 1897

 3    Bolton Wanderers v West Ham UnitedFA Cup final, 1923

 4    England v ScotlandBritish Championship, 1928

 5    Arsenal v Huddersfield TownFA Cup final, 1930

 6    Walsall v ArsenalFA Cup third round, 1933

 7    Portsmouth v Wolverhampton WanderersFA Cup final, 1939

 8    Blackpool v Bolton WanderersFA Cup final, 1953

 9    England v HungaryInternational friendly, 1953

10  Wolverhampton Wanderers v HonvedClub friendly, 1954

11  Arsenal v Manchester UnitedFootball League First Division, 1958

12  Eintracht Frankfurt v Real MadridEuropean Cup final, 1960

13  Tottenham Hotspur v Sheffield WednesdayFootball League First Division, 1961

14  TSV 1860 Munich v West Ham UnitedEuropean Cup Winners’ Cup final, 1965

15  England v West GermanyWorld Cup final, 1966

16  Celtic v Inter MilanEuropean Cup final, 1967

17  Benfica v Manchester UnitedEuropean Cup final, 1968

18  Celtic v Leeds UnitedEuropean Cup semi-final, 1970

19  Brazil v EnglandWorld Cup group match, 1970

20  England v West GermanyWorld Cup quarter-final, 1970

21  Hereford United v Newcastle UnitedFA Cup third-round replay, 1972

22  Leeds United v SunderlandFA Cup final, 1973

23  England v PolandWorld Cup qualifier, 1974

24  Borussia Monchengladbach v LiverpoolEuropean Cup final, 1977

25  Holland v ScotlandWorld Cup group match, 1978

26  Nottingham Forest v SV HamburgEuropean Cup final, 1980

27  Brazil v ItalyWorld Cup round of 12, 1982

28  Everton v Bayern MunichEuropean Cup Winners’ Cup semi-final second leg, 1985

29  Argentina v EnglandWorld Cup quarter-final, 1986

30  Liverpool v Nottingham ForestFootball League First Division, 1988

31  Liverpool v ArsenalFootball League First Division, 1989

32  England v West GermanyWorld Cup semi-final, 1990

33  Italy v Republic of IrelandWorld Cup group match, 1994

34  Liverpool v Blackburn RoversFA Carling Premiership, 1995

35  Liverpool v Newcastle UnitedFA Carling Premiership, 1996

36  England v HollandEuropean Championship group match, 1996

37  Charlton Athletic v SunderlandFootball League First Division play-off final, 1998

38  Arsenal v Manchester UnitedFA Cup semi-final replay, 1999

39  Bayern Munich v Manchester UnitedChampions League final, 1999

40  Germany v EnglandWorld Cup qualifier, 2001

41  Chelsea v LiverpoolBarclaycard Premiership, 2003

42  Tottenham Hotspur v ArsenalBarclaycard Premiership, 2004

43  AC Milan v LiverpoolChampions League final, 2005

44  Barcelona v Manchester UnitedChampions League final, 2011

45  Barcelona v ChelseaChampions League semi-final, 2012

46  Manchester City v Queens Park RangersFA Premier League, 2012

47  Brazil v GermanyWorld Cup semi-final, 2012

48  Manchester City v Leicester CityFA Premier League, 2016

49  England v IcelandEuropean Championship round of 16, 2016

50  Liverpool v RomaChampions League semi-final first leg, 2018

Acknowledgements

About the Editor

FOREWORD

BY HENRY WINTERCHIEF FOOTBALL WRITER, THE TIMES

GEOFFREY GREEN’S CLASSIC account of England’s humiliation by Hungary in 1953 still stands as one of the most important, agenda-setting pieces of writing on football. This was the match that changed the game forever, and Green immediately realised its significance and captured it perfectly.

He understood that English football now needed to change direction to keep pace with the new game played by the likes of the Magical Magyars. The headline on Green’s piece, “A New Conception of Football”, was a challenge to the cradle of the sport to modernise or risk sliding towards the grave. It was such a momentous day that Green begins his epic piece with, effectively, a dateline. “Yesterday by 4 o’clock on a grey winter’s afternoon within the bowl of Wembley Stadium…” He builds and builds like a grand lawyer, presenting the case for the prosecution with portents and ceremony. And then it comes, the sledgehammer conclusion to the sentence swinging down: “the inevitable had happened.” I defy anybody not to read on. We knew the scene of the crime, and the time. But what had happened? And why was it inevitable?

It is gripping reporting, compelling in leading the reader into a piece that will alter history. The byline was simply “From Our Association Football Correspondent”, but this was vintage Green, with the subtle reminder of his authority as one of the great voices of the game: “To those who had seen the shadows of the recent years creeping closer and closer there was perhaps no real surprise.” What had happened? Again the suspense, and then came the answer: “England were at last beaten by the foreign invader on English soil.” And then it flowed, tributes to the quality of Ferenc Puskas and Nandor Hidegkuti. The sublime, informing opening paragraph – the shop window to lure the reader in – climaxes with a sentence that felt carved from finest marble: “Here, indeed, did we attend, all 100,000 of us, the twilight of the gods.”

Green captured history unfolding, not with the benefit of hindsight, but instantly. He conjured up beautiful imagery, describing England as “strangers in a strange world, a world of flitting red spirits”, which eloquently emphasised his central point. “English football can be proud of its past but it must awake to a new future,” he concluded.

The best match reports balance passion and perspective, revelling in the moment and the sport, yet also able to take a step back and understand the ramifications, just as Green did in 1953. With Alf Ramsey on the pitch and Ron Greenwood and Bobby Robson looking on, a swathe of future England coaches were given insight into this “new conception of football”.

One of Green’s most famous lines, describing Billy Wright as resembling “a fire engine going to the wrong fire” after being wrongfooted by Puskas, is frequently attributed to his match report when on the day he wrote about Puskas “evading a tackle” with “sheer jugglery”. The fire engines don’t arrive on the scene for nineteen years and Green’s book Great Moments in Sport: Soccer.

That book was required reading at school. I grew up devouring Green’s work in The Times just before he retired in 1976. Rereading some of his reports in the book made it seem like the perfect life, watching football and exploring the world. He is still a legend to match reporters, not least for his extrovert approach to his time on earth. Green was as fearless in life as in prose, once playing Moon River on the harmonica in front of prime minister Harold Wilson and Ramsey. On another occasion, while needing a crutch after a leg injury, he turned up to matches with a stuffed parrot on his shoulder. We’d get trolled on social media for that now, and certainly have the parrot confiscated by stadium security.

Green’s words ring throughout the decades, still wonderful to read. He famously began a despatch of a match scarred by fisticuffs at Southampton with “Ding Dong bell, trouble at The Dell”. The poet in him frequently shaped his match reporting.

One of many reasons to marvel at these fifty match reports is that, certainly the first thirty up – until Italia 90 – would often have been filed under trying circumstances with a scramble for phone lines. Only in the past ten years has WiFi been widely available. Technology has transformed the ease of match reporting, removing concerns of getting a telephone line out from far-flung places. It is a world away from the feats of those capturing Blackburn Olympic 2 Old Etonians 1 in the 1883 FA Cup final. The sheer effort involved – of finding a connection to London, then dictating copy, as well as keeping an eye on the game – was astonishing from the likes of Green. To conjure up such epic prose while juggling erratic phone lines required supreme patience.

They certainly had plenty of good material to go at. To write “England 4 West Germany 2” must have felt a joy and a privilege, so many twists and turns to reflect and one huge party to celebrate. Rereading that Times report, every word is perfect, every theme considered, the flow majestic. Amid all the emotion, Green gave a clear-eyed view of the performances with his appraisal that “if England, perhaps, did not possess the greatest flair, they were the best prepared in the field, with the best temperament based on a functional plan.” That said it all.

I started out in 1985 plugging phones in for the great and the garrulous of southern press boxes, crawling over polished brogues and scruffy trainers to reach plug points under the desk, and then sitting back to admire the masters at work. A particular joy was listening to Brian Glanville ad-lib his eloquent, authoritative reports to a copy-taker while ticking off spaces in a notepad so he knew how many words he had filed.

Increasingly, reporting became as much about the circus and personalities surrounding the game as it was about the sport. Yet many of those who chronicle the nation’s favourite pastime will settle back in the press box before a game and say, “it’s time to get the ball out”, to focus on the sport, the unscripted drama of 90 fluctuating minutes, just to remember that everything in football reporting has to start with the 90 minutes as embodied in these fifty reports.

Green helped change the game with his writing, certainly with that defining piece on the Hungarians. Match reports still carry weight, and clubs often ask for copies, but there are so many voices in football reporting now, including the expansion in broadcast commentary and explosion in social media, that there really isn’t a modern-day Green.

But the thrill remains, the adrenalin of the first edition “runner” with the report filed in three chunks: at half-time, on 60 minutes and then an introduction on the final whistle. I used to file more at half-time but then began to delay briefly into the second half after long experience covering Manchester United under Sir Alex Ferguson, when his players would frequently storm into second halves following an interval talk from The Boss.

A match report can be tidied up or completely rewritten for the second edition. Any call from home between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. is invariably dealt with in perfunctory fashion. Every second counts between the first and second edition. It is not simply about the press conference, or checking on any gems from flash TV interviews such as Ferguson’s famous “Football, bloody hell!” It is about quickly acquiring a greater understanding of the significance of a result. I spend five minutes flying through Twitter, dodging the trolls, looking for further insight and weighing up reactions from fans. I spend another five minutes on the main fans’ forums of both sides, again assessing the major talking points.

Social media has changed the art of match reporting. We were never the first draft of history, due to the immediate and mellifluous strains of radio, and then television commentators. Now we are not even compilers of the second draft of match history, as that debate rages more quickly on Twitter. It’s about reporting on the emotion, the occasion, the tactics and the significance.

There are some matches when I just try to imagine how a fan there would describe it – so the frustration and fury of an England supporter witnessing the Euro 2016 defeat to Iceland was simple to put down in toxic print, as well as immediate calls for Roy Hodgson’s resignation. Sometimes it is good to write angry.

Or happy. It was easy to relay the emotions of Liverpool fans celebrating the compelling 5–2 defeat of Roma at Anfield in 2018. What the real greats like Green achieved was chronicling historic events as they happened. Genius always passes the test of time. Enjoy this marvellous compendium of Times classics.

INTRODUCTION

BY RICHARD WHITEHEAD

AT 9.30 ON the night of 26 May 1999, the atmosphere on The Times sports desk in Wapping, east London was one of controlled tension. The Champions League final – which the paper doggedly still insisted on calling the European Cup – was proceeding towards a deflating but manageable conclusion with Bayern Munich successfully protecting a 1-0 lead over Manchester United.

The pages containing pieces from several journalists at the game in Barcelona’s Nou Camp stadium were all ready to go the moment that referee Pierluigi Collina blew the final whistle. Those words reflected United’s lacklustre performance, the failure at the final hurdle of their attempt to win an unprecedented league, FA Cup and Champions League Treble and yet another triumph for Germany over England.

Then, one minute into added time, United equalised. Now surely there would be extra time. Copy would need to be rewritten, deadlines renegotiated. But two minutes later, they scored again. On the pitch and in the stands there was pandemonium, in the press box a moment of panic followed by a burst of activity, in Wapping a few seconds of disbelief followed by a frantic re-editing of the words waiting on the pages and a rapid changing of headlines. Just a few minutes after the deadline, the pages for the first edition of the following day’s Times were finished and electronically despatched to the printing presses.

More remarkably still, 45 minutes later, a second edition had been assembled with new words, new pictures and new page layouts with a completely different tone and emphasis: United’s glorious failure had become United’s glorious victory.

You will be relieved to learn that this is not a book about newspaper production (a subject of interest to only a few), but the story of how United’s remarkable 1999 triumph came to appear in print offers an insight into the relationship between football and journalism. In particular it demonstrates the extraordinary ability of writers, photographers and editors to produce work of lasting authority and impact at breathtaking speed. No one re-reading Oliver Holt’s report of that United–Bayern epic in this book would gain any clue as to the hugely challenging circumstances in which it was compiled.

The reports in this book fall into two categories: some are of midweek games and are filed directly from press boxes, sometimes in the breathless aftermath of the matches, sometimes as the action was unfolding before the reporter. Others are Monday morning accounts of weekend matches and are therefore written with pause for due consideration and with time to include the post-match thoughts of managers and players.

It is a diverse and – I hope – diverting collection. Many of the obvious candidates are here: Stanley Matthews’s Wembley star-turn in 1953, the Hungarians’ apocalyptic thrashing of England later that year, England’s 1966 World Cup final victory over West Germany, Sunderland’s FA Cup final giant-killing of Leeds United in 1973 and the title-grabbing late winners of Michael Thomas in 1989 and Sergio Aguero in 2012.

You will become reacquainted with Gordon Banks’s save from Pele, with Ronnie Radford’s right foot, with the Hand of God, with tears in Turin and with the Miracle of Istanbul.

And along the way – and across 135 years – you will be able to trace the history of a national obsession through the pages of The Times.

FOOTBALL CORRESPONDENTS OF THE TIMES

IT IS LIKELY that Dudley Carew was the first man to have the title ‘Association Football Correspondent’ (although he continued to cover other sports, contribute book, film and theatre reviews and write third leaders). The four men listed before him were general sports writers who included football in their portfolios.

George West: c.1870s–1896

Ernest Ward: 1897–1907

Edward Osborn: 1910–c.1914

Frederick Wilson: c.1919–1930

Dudley Carew: 1930–c.1939

Geoffrey Green: 1946–1976

Norman Fox: 1976–1981

Stuart Jones: 1981–1993

Rob Hughes: 1993–1997

Oliver Holt: 1997–2000

Matt Dickinson: 2000–2007

Martin Samuel: 2007–2008

Oliver Kay: 2009–

Henry Winter (as Chief Football Writer): 2015–

Other writers featured

Peter Ball, James Ducker, James Fairlie, David Miller, Owen Slot, Clive White, John Woodcock.

Photographic credits

Marc Aspland

Arsenal v Manchester United, 1999

Bayern Munich v Manchester United, 1999

Germany v England, 2001

Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal, 2004

AC Milan v Liverpool, 2005

Barcelona v Manchester United, 2011

Manchester City v Queens Park Rangers, 2012

England v Iceland, 2016

Stanley Devon and Horace Tonge

Blackpool v Bolton Wanderers, 1953

Tom Dixon and David Jones

England v Poland, 1973

Fred Harris and Neil Libbert

England v West Germany, 1966

Bradley Ormesher

Manchester City v Queens Park Rangers, 2012

Fred Shepherd

TSV 1860 Munich v West Ham United, 1965

NOTES ON STYLE

THE MATCH REPORTS in this book for the most part appear exactly as they were published at the time. Some small alterations have been made where the style would otherwise look outdated – for instance, it was once common to put a full point after the word ‘Mr’ – and obvious printing errors and literals have been corrected. The ‘Match Facts’ boxes at the end of each report have been newly compiled and in some cases the goal times and attendances will differ from what was reported at the time.

The biggest change is to put the names of writers at the top of the articles that were not bylined at the time. Bylines were not introduced in the newspaper until January 1967, but thanks to the magnificent Times archive we are now able to credit those writers.

1

BLACKBURN OLYMPIC V OLD ETONIANS

FA CUP FINAL, 1883

The twelfth FA Cup final – all but one held at Kennington Oval – was the most significant yet. Until then the trophy had been in the grip of southern amateur teams mostly comprising former public-school boys. Old Etonians had defeated Blackburn Rovers in 1882, but the following year Blackburn Olympic (who were clearly paying at least two of their players) took the Cup north for the first time – and changed the game forever.

“The weather was charming and the attendance very large”

BLACKBURN OLYMPIC 2 OLD ETONIANS 1

AFTER EXTRA TIME

FA CUP FINAL 31 MARCH 1883 KENNINGTON OVAL

2 April

Many interesting encounters have been furnished by the ties for this, the most important of the challenge cups, but probably none more so than the final match played at Kennington Oval between these clubs on Saturday. The weather was charming, and the attendance very large. The Etonians, who won the cup last year and in 1879, were successful in the toss, and at the outset defended the Harleyford Road goal. Hunter kicked off within a few minutes of half-past 3. The play at once became fast, the northerners being the first to act on the aggressive, and had it not been for Eton’s back play they would speedily have scored. As it was, Gibson kicked the ball against the bar and it went behind. The Etonians now played up in a most determined style, and having run the ball down the ground Goodheart attempted to send the ball between the posts but failed. Even play followed, the forwards on either side making alternate attacks on the others’ goal, but being well repulsed by the backs. Now came a most determined onslaught by the Lancashire team, and the downfall of the Etonian goal seemed inevitable. The ball was worked away, however, and a fine run down the ground by the light blue forwards ended in Goodheart sending the ball underneath the bar. The utmost enthusiasm greeted this achievement, and was continued when Eton very nearly repeated it. Nothing further of a distinct advantage was secured during the remainder of the first portion of the game. The Etonians, however, soon after ends were changed, sustained a great loss, as Dunn in running the ball down the left side of the ground was cannoned against and thrown, he being unable to take further part in the match. Still the light blues had a slight advantage for a little while, but the northerners were not long before they assumed the aggressive and Matthews kicked a goal for them. Although both teams strove hard to gain some decisive score neither were able to do so during the customary hour and a half’s play. The game was therefore prolonged for another half-hour. It seemed at one time probable that even this extension would not be sufficient to admit of the match being brought to a definite issue. During the first quarter of an hour nothing transpired, but subsequently Astley who had the ball well passed to him by Dewhurst, gained the decisive point. Blackburn Olympic, the first Northern club that has yet gained the cup, were thus successful by two goals to one.

MATCH FACTS

After extra time

Blackburn Olympic 2Matthews, Crossley

Old Etonians 1Goodheart 30

Blackburn Olympic: T. Hacking, J.T. Ward, S.A. Warburton, T. Gibson, W. Astley, J. Hunter, T. Dewhurst, A. Matthews, G. Wilson, J. Crossley, J. Yates

Old Etonians: J.F.P. Rawlinson, T.H. French, P.J. De Paravicini, The Hon. A.F. Kinnaird, C.W. Foley, A.T.B. Dunn, H.W. Bainbridge, J.B.T. Chevallier, W.J. Anderson, H.C. Goodhart, R.H. Macauley

Referee: Major Marindin

Attendance: 8,000

2

ASTON VILLA V EVERTON

FA CUP FINAL, 1897

Such was football’s rapid growth that the landscape of the game had been transformed 14 years after Blackburn Olympic’s victory at Kennington Oval. The legalisation of professionalism in 1885 and the arrival of regular league competition three years later helped to establish the super-clubs, two of whom – Aston Villa and Everton – met in a classic FA Cup final in 1897.

“There is no half-heartedness in the enthusiasm of those who follow football in the North and Midlands”

ASTON VILLA 3 EVERTON 2

FA CUP FINAL 10 APRIL 1897 THE CRYSTAL PALACE

BY ERNEST WARD12 April

To those who remembered the thin ring at the final stages of the National Cup competition in the ’70s and early ’80s on the Oval the crowd and scene at the Crystal Palace on Saturday were most striking. The official return of those passing the Palace turnstiles was 65,024, a number which exceeds anything in the way of football attendances previously recorded. There were over 50,000 people at the Glasgow international last year, and 40,000 has been passed both at the Palace in the final tie and at Liverpool three seasons ago. One fact which accounted for the large increase in the “gate” was that the clubs engaged came from the two great professional centres of football – Birmingham and Lancashire – and the excursion trains on all the railways from the North were very heavily laden, for there is no half-heartedness in the enthusiasm of those who follow football in the North and Midlands. The Crystal Palace is the only place in England where such a crowd could all get a view of some sort of the game. Quite half of Saturday’s huge crowd were gathered on the turf slopes on the eastern side of the field, and this mass of people presented a wonderful sight from the pavilion. The afternoon was bright, and the keen wind was not much felt in the hollow in which the ground is situated. The arrangements for dealing with the company were efficiently carried out under the direction of Mr Henry Gillman, the manager of the Crystal Palace.

Aston Villa won the match, beating Everton by three goals to two after a contest in which the excitement continued to the end. The enthusiasm was raised to a high pitch by the variations of fortune and the rapidity of the scoring. All the scoring occurred in a period of 25 minutes in the first half. That Aston Villa deserved their victory was unquestionable, for they played the better football, and were consistent to the end, whereas the Everton men were rather uneven. It was certainly one of the best finals which has been seen for some years, and the sides thoroughly merited the praise bestowed on them by Lord Rosebery when he was presenting the cup to Devey, the captain of the Aston Villa eleven. The game was remarkable for the superb defence at both ends, and for the high standard of the half-back play. It was the Villa half-back play which enabled the forwards to do so well and which time after time broke up the Everton attack. Everton, too, were not lacking in this respect, although they demonstrated it in a less degree. The halves placed the ball for the forwards with wonderful accuracy, and Reynolds and Holt, who are approaching the veteran stage, were particularly clever in this respect. As for the full-backs, Spencer and Storrier distinguished themselves amid the general excellence; while of the goalkeepers Whitehouse carried off the chief honours largely through the shots which he saved in the closing quarter of an hour. Athersmith, Devey, and Bell were the pick of the ten forwards, and it was a wonder that the forward work was so good as it was in view of the fine defence by which it was opposed.

Aston Villa have thus won their third final tie, and, as their first position in the League is now assured, they have achieved a feat only once before accomplished in football – the winning of the Association Cup and the championship of the League in the same year. Preston North End performed the feat some years ago. The Aston Villa Club has been popular since the early days of football, and the result of Saturday, gained as it was by so much excellent play, was very well received.

The game began at 4 o’clock, Everton kicking towards the north goal, which meant that they had to face a fresh breeze. Aston Villa seemed at once to settle down, and their football was more regular than that of Everton, whose full backs had a good deal to do at the outset of the match. Storrier’s kicking was very good; but the Villa halves seemed too clever for their opponents, and their constant feeding of the forwards made the Villa look much the better team. This state of things lasted for some time, and it was only the stout defence of Everton which prevented any score. Athersmith, with his great pace and his cleverness in dribbling, was dangerous. Twice he got up, but being pressed he had to shoot at difficult angles, and the ball in each case went behind. It seemed quite a long while before Aston were at all pressed. But there was one sharp attack by Everton, caused by one of the Birmingham men “fouling” Hartley. The scrimmage in front of goal passed away without any definite result but it immediately preceded the scoring of the first goal for Aston Villa. The ball went up the field in a direct line from Spencer to Reynolds, and then on to Athersmith, who reached a distance of 20 yards from the posts, and then passed to Campbell, who made a long shot, and the ball swerved owing to the wind and passed into the net. Menham, of Everton, had allowed, apparently, neither for the wind nor the screw on the ball, and had crossed too far to intercept the shot. Some 18 minutes had elapsed from the start when this occurred. Aston were not long in possession of their advantage, for after a spell of even play Bell broke away and went between the two full-backs. Whitehouse’s only policy was to go out and meet Bell, but the Everton forward got in his kick before he was charged, and the ball went into the net. Thus were the scores even. The pace then seemed to increase, and both ends were visited, but inside the first half-hour Everton took the lead. They had a free kick not far from goal, and Hartley scored out of a scrimmage. For a moment the Everton men again strongly attacked, and seemed likely to get through. But in the course of five minutes Aston Villa got two more goals. The first was put through out of a scrimmage, and following a free kick, by Wheldon, and the second was cleverly headed by Devey. Menham had just previously saved a couple of swift shots from the right wing. Aston Villa, having drawn ahead, steadied themselves, and for the rest of the first half, of which only a few minutes remained, remained for the most part on the defensive. Whitehouse saved twice, and at the interval Aston Villa led by three goals to two.

In the early moments of the second half the Everton team forced the game, giving Spencer and Whitehouse much work; but the Villa came out successfully and were able to take the game to the other end. Their half-backs again did well, and very soon the game became more even, for the full-backs of both teams were difficult to pass. The most noticeable incident for some time was a free kick to Everton within 20 yards of the Villa posts. This was executed well enough, but from a scrimmage the ball was headed high over the bar. Several fine pieces of work by the Aston right wing and centre were warmly cheered, and a fine shot by Devey went across the mouth of the Everton goal and passed just outside, as Menham had thrown himself full length on the ground to guard the corner. Sundry free kicks benefited neither side. The football continued fast and even, but the Aston Villa forwards seemed decidedly the better. When the last 20 minutes were reached the teams were still playing at a wonderful pace. Aston Villa attacked for a long time without gaining anything, and then the enthusiasm of the spectators was aroused by several brilliant efforts on the part of Everton to get level. Bell, Milward, and Hartley each got up and shot low, swift, and straight but Whitehouse, the goalkeeper, came off with flying colours and each was saved. Twice the ball, too, passed just outside the posts. These were anxious moments for the Villa but the time at last ran out, and the victory remained with Aston Villa by three goals to two. The crowd swarmed into the enclosure and the players were heartily cheered. Mr Lewis, of Blackburn, was referee.

The Earl of Rosebery, who had seen the whole of the game with Lord Kinnaird and Major Marindin, from the pavilion, presented the cup to the Aston Villa captain, Devey. Before doing this he briefly addressed the company from the pavilion steps. He spoke of the excellence of the football seen that afternoon, and was sure that the development of the game served to bring out those splendid characteristics of the British race – stamina and indomitable pluck. Lord Rosebery was heartily cheered both on his arrival and departure.

MATCH FACTS

Aston Villa 3Campbell 18, Wheldon 35, Crabtree 44

Everton 2Bell 23, Boyle 28

Aston Villa: J. Whitehouse, H. Spencer, A. Evans, J. Reynolds, James Cowan, J. Crabtree, C. Athersmith, J. Devey, J. Campbell, F. Wheldon, John Cowan

Everton: R. Menham, P. Meecham, D. Storrier, R. Boyle, J. Holt, W. Stewart, J. Taylor, J. Bell, A. Hartley, E. Chadwick, A. Milward

Referee: J. Lewis (Blackburn)

Attendance: 65,891

3

BOLTON WANDERERS V WEST HAM UNITED

FA CUP FINAL, 1923

Before the First World War, the Crystal Palace had provided a grand stage for the FA Cup final, even if spectator facilities were rudimentary. For three years after the war the final was held at Stamford Bridge, but in 1923 it moved to the newest and most remarkable sports ground in the world – Wembley Stadium, in North London, built at a cost of £750,000. Unfortunately, no one thought it necessary to make the match all-ticket.

“Others got to their seats in plenty of time and were pushed out of them; whirled away like straws on a stream by the sheer weight of numbers sweeping irresistibly forward from behind”

BOLTON WANDERERS 2 WEST HAM UNITED 0

FA CUP FINAL 28 APRIL 1923 WEMBLEY STADIUM

BY FREDERICK WILSON30 April

The Bolton Wanderers beat West Ham United in the Cup Final at the Wembley Stadium on Saturday by 2 goals to 0.

This bald statement represents the result of the football side of a matter which has been discussed from many points of view for months. The fact that the Wembley Stadium has been advertised as the greatest of its kind had much to do with the enormous crowd which came from all sorts and conditions of places to see the first Cup Final to be played there. The claims made for the Stadium were not in the slightest degree extravagant. It was built to hold 125,000 people in comfort and to give to each and every one of that huge total a fair view of the football ground and track. The Stadium can hold even more than that number, and yet give to all the spectators a fair view; but no building and ground could accommodate 300,000 people, and at least that number must have turned up on Saturday at Wembley.

The reasons for the mammoth congregation were many. The opening of the Stadium for the first Cup Final might become – as in fact it has become – an historic occasion. There was the fact that a London club were in the Final Tie; the day was perfect; and, by the irony of fate, the superb organisation of the many railway lines converging on the stations round the Stadium was the crowning factor in producing such a crowd that it was impossible for any arrangements there to be carried out according to plan.

Except on two important points – the spirit of the people and of the police, and the absolute loyalty of a very mixed congregation to the King – the day was an ugly one. Many ticket-holders never reached their seats; others got to their seats in plenty of time and were pushed out of them; whirled away like straws on a stream by the sheer weight of numbers sweeping irresistibly forward from behind. The crowd was out of hand, very often most unwillingly. By 2.30pm many people were attempting to get back the way they had come, the one more difficult thing than pushing on as indeterminate atoms of the throng. The playing-ground on Saturday morning was a beautiful picture. Later on, there must have been tens of thousands of people on it at one time. It was defiled with orange peel and papers and refuse, but the surface “stood” the trampling of the mob, the police, and the hoofs of the horses of the mounted police most astonishingly well. Many of the thousands on the field of play were not there of their own volition – they were whirled away from seats and places of vantage secured by patient waiting. By the help of large reinforcements of police, mounted and unmounted, and the players, who appealed right and left for fair play, the ground was gradually cleared, the people being pushed back to the touchlines. That play could ever be begun and continue seemed, at one time, quite impossible. That the seemingly impossible, could and did happen was, one must believe, owing to the presence of the King, whose reception when he reached the ground was an event to remember. It was after “God Save the King” had been sung with boundless enthusiasm that the people began, slowly enough it is true, to help rather than to hinder in the clearing of the ground.

At 3.41 it was possible to kick off. Some 11 minutes later, a part of the crowd were squeezed on to the ground, but play was again possible after 10 minutes’ patient work on the part of the police. The Bolton Wanderers were leading at the time by one goal to none, having scored in the first two minutes; but, five minutes before the second interruption, West Ham United had nearly equalised, Watson missing a chance which he would have taken with absolute certainty on an ordinary occasion.