Manchester U 4 Blackpool 2

Man­chester Uni­ted 4 Black­pool 2, Wemb­ley Sta­dium, Eng­lish FA Cup Fi­nal, April 24, 1948. The FA Cup Fi­nal in 1948 be­tween Black­pool and Man­chester Uni­ted is widely re­garded as one of the best ever played at Wemb­ley. In front of a crowd of 100,000 spec­tat­ors in North Lon­don, Matt Busby´s men ev­entually be­at the Bloom­field Road­ers by a 4-2 score cour­tesy of a double by Jack Row­ley, and one goal each from Stan Pear­son and John Anderson.

On their road to Wemb­ley Sta­dium, Man­chester Uni­ted had knock­ed out Fir­st Di­vi­sion clubs As­ton Vil­la, Liver­pool, Charl­ton Ath­let­ic, Pre­ston North End, and Der­by Coun­ty, whi­le Black­pool had elim­in­ated Sec­ond Di­vi­sion op­pos­i­tion Leeds Uni­ted, Third Di­vi­sion North si­de Chester, South­ern Lea­gue club Col­chester Uni­ted and Sec­ond Di­vi­sion te­ams Ful­ham and Tot­ten­ham Hot­spur on their way to the 1948 FA Cup Fi­nal. At Wemb­ley, the Man­chester Uni­ted si­de in­cluded ex­per­i­enced cam­paign­ers like Johnny Carey, Al­lenby Chilton, and Jim­my Delaney, where­as Joe Smith´s Black­pool fielded a te­am that con­tained house­hold names such as Harry John­ston, Stan Mat­thews, and Stan Morten­son. The Man­cuni­ans had won the FA Cup in 1909 when Ern­est Mangnall´s men edged out fel­low Fir­st Di­vi­sion te­am Bris­tol City by 1-0 in front of an at­tend­ance of more than 70,000 people at Crys­tal Pal­ace in So­uth Lon­don thanks to a fir­st ha­lf goal from pro­lif­ic Scot­tish in­side for­ward Sandy Turn­bull, whi­le op­pon­ents Black­pool had nev­er laid their hands on the trophy.

Bo­th Man­chester Uni­ted and Black­pool en­joyed sev­er­al of goal scor­ing chances dur­ing the open­ing sta­ges wi­th op­por­tun­it­ies missed at bo­th ends. The fir­st goal of the con­test came af­ter fif­teen min­utes when Black­pool full back Ed­die Shim­well con­ver­ted from the pen­alty spot af­ter Eng­land in­ter­na­tion­al marks­man Stan Mortensen had be­en bro­ught to the gro­und in­side the eight­een-yard box by Uni­ted de­fender Al­lenby Chilton. Five min­utes la­ter, tho­ugh, for­mer Bourne­mouth and Bos­combe Ath­let­ic for­ward Jack Row­ley equal­ised af­ter a mis­un­der­stand­ing in the pen­alty area be­tween goal­keeper Joe Robin­son and centre ha­lf Eric Hay­ward. The Tan­ger­ines then re­cor­ded their sec­ond goal of the mat­ch when Morten­son be­at Jack Cromp­ton wi­th a clo­se ran­ge shot ten min­utes be­fore the ha­lf-time break. But wi­th less than twenty min­utes left of the fi­nal, a skill­fully wor­ked free-kick from Johnny Mor­ris was met by Row­ley who head­ed Man­chester Uni­ted level. The rest of the fi­nal saw Black­pool firm­ly on the de­fens­ive, as Stan Pear­son fired Uni­ted in­to a 3-2 lead wi­th a blis­ter­ing shot in the 80th min­ute be­fore John An­der­son made the fi­nal score read 4‑2 two min­utes af­ter­wards. Man­chester Uni­ted Te­am: Jack Cromp­ton, John As­ton, Johnny Carey, Al­lenby Chilton, John An­der­son, Henry Cock­burn, Char­lie Mit­ten, Jack Row­ley, Jim­my Delaney, Johnny Mor­ris, Stan­ley Pear­son. Sub­stitutes: No­ne. Black­pool Te­am: Joe Robin­son, Ed­die Shim­well, John Cros­land, Harry John­ston, Eric Hay­ward, Hugh Kel­ly, Stan­ley Mat­thews, Al­ex Mun­ro, Stan­ley Mortensen, Ge­orge Dick, Wal­ter Rick­ett. Sub­stitutes: None.

Sir Matt Busby Quickfacts

Matt Busby´s long term work was crow­ned when his te­am won the Euro­pean Cup in 1968 af­ter de­feat­ing Ben­fica 4-1 af­ter ex­tra time in the fi­nal at Wemb­ley on the 29th of May that year. 

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