WEDNESDAY 4TH APRIL, 1951
LEAGUE DIVISION ONE AT THE HAWTHORNS, WEST BROMWICH
WEST BROMWICH ALBION 1 (Barlow pen) BLACKPOOL 3 (Mudie 2, Mortenson)
Sanders; Rickaby, Millard; Kennedy, Vernon (capt), Ryan;
Gordon, Dudley, Barlow, McCall, Lee;
Farm; Shimwell, Garrett; Johnston (capt), Hayward, Kelly;
Matthews, Mudie, Mortenson, Brown, Perry;
Referee:- E. Plinston, Warrington
Blackpool, who will meet Newcastle in the FA cup final in just over three weeks time and who are third in the league,have now taken nineteen points out of their possible twenty two since New Year and are unbeaten from that date. They strolled through this match never needing to play all out and certainly look fine prospects to win the cup.
McCall, a former Blackpool player, missed a great chance to put Albion ahead in the first half, when with Farm out of his goal, he rolled the ball towards the empty net only to see centre half Eric Hayward dash up and clear off the line. Albion also squandered further chances in the second half by bad shooting, but on the whole the Blackpool defence was rarely troubled.
Once Mudie had opened the scoring, two further goals came easily from Mudie again and the speedy Mortenson, who had some great tussles with centre half Jack Vernon.
Albion's only reply came from a last minute penalty by Ray Barlow, who looked out of sorts at centre forward and should return to his proper wing half position.
(Despite my prediction Blackpool did not win the FA Cup Final on April 28th when they were beaten 2-0 by Newcastle United with both goals scored by Jackie Milburn).
SATURDAY 7TH APRIL 1951
LEAGUE DIVISION THREE SOUTH AT FELLOWS PARK, WALSALL
WALSALL 4 (Winter 3, O'Neill) COLCHESTER UTD 2 (McKim 2)
Lewis; Jones, Dearson; Walters, Russon, Devlin;
Bowen, Hughes, Winter, O'Neill, Allison
Wright; Harrison, Rowlands; Berryman, Stewart, Elder;
Jones, McKim, Keeble, Turner, Church;
Colchester United, newly elected to the Football League this season after their various giant killing acts in the FA Cup, were resplendent in their blue and white striped shirts, reminiscent of Huddersfield Town who were one of their cup victims not so long ago.
They took part in an entertaining game which saw the resurgent Walsall side home to another good victory, notable for a hat trick from centre forward Jack Winter and another goal from the former Burnley man O'Neill. These two have worked wonders since they signed together and despite two goals from inside forward McKim, Colchester were well beaten in the end.
Probably their best known player is centre forward Vic Keeble, who recently scored a hat trick against Plymouth in just twelve minutes. However he found it hard work today against the improving Walsall centre half Ron Russon. So another valuable two points for the Saddlers which keeps them four points clear of the re-election zone. More displays like this should see them well clear.
(This match always sticks in my memory as after the game, with a couple of friends, we investigated the area underneath the main stand and to our surprise found several hundred unsold programmes for the game. As avid programme collectors we asked one of the officials if we could have them and were told we could as they would only go in the bin. After advertising in a national football weekly we were inundated with mail from all over the country and soon established a collection of every league club programme in the country!)
SATURDAY 14TH APRIL, 1951
LEAGUE DIVISION ONE AT VILLA PARK, BIRMINGHAM
ASTON VILLA 3 (Dixon, Smith, Parkes pen) PORTSMOUTH 3 (Phillips, Reid, Parker)
Rutherford; Parkes, Aldis; Blanchflower, Moss (F), Dorsett;
Smith (H), Thompson, Walsh, Dixon, Goffin;
Butler; Stephen, Ferrier; Scoular, Flewin, Dickinson;
Ryder, Reid, Munday, Phillips, Parker;
After having rather turned my back on Villa since Christmas it was interesting to find a somewhat changed team who provided an entertaining game against the former league champions who also had a few new faces.
Villa's major signing was Irish international wing half Danny Blanchflower from Barnsley and other newcomers were left back Peter Aldis and outside right Herbert Smith. Portsmouth had Jimmy Stephen, the Scottish full back from Bradford Park Avenue and two new wingers in Ryder and Parker. However their ever strong half back line remained in place.
It was end to end stuff with goals coming regularly and Portsmouth looking as if they would take the points until a late penalty from veteran Harry Parkes earned Villa a draw.
MONDAY 16TH APRIL, 1951
BIRMINGHAM COMBINATION AT FELLOWS PARK, WALSALL
WALSALL RESERVES 1 (Dean) DUDLEY TOWN 0
No match programme for this game - the first time I had ventured to see Walsall Reserves play. The only players I can recall are a trialist goalkeeper called Tolliday (whatever happened to him) and three youngsters who were on the verge of the first team. They were Eddie Holding a full back, George Dean a wing half, who scored the only goal and inside forward Arthur Corbett who captained the side.
THURSDAY 19TH APRIL, 1951
LEAGUE DIVISION THREE SOUTH AT FELLOWS PARK, WALSALL
WALSALL 1 (O'Neill) WATFORD 0
Lewis; Jones, Dearson; Walters, Russon, Devlin;
Bowen, Hughes, Winter, O'Neill, Allison;
Morton; Egglestone, Jones (B); Paton, Fisher, Wilson;
Brown, Jones (M), Thompson, Varty, Laing;
Referee:- W. Ling, Cambridgeshire.
Today's referee, Mr Ling, has recently been appointed to offciate at the FA Cup Final on Saturday week. The visitors were in even worse re-election trouble than Walsall, lying second from bottom with 26 points from 41 matches, whereas the Saddlers were fourth from bottom with 33 points from the same number of matches.
Watford included recent signing Thompson from Brighton at centre forward and former Birmingham City winger Bobby Laing. The home side were on a good run, being unbeaten in their last four matches, including a valuable away draw 1-1 at Bristol Rovers last week.
This game was far from a classic, but the narrow victory enabled Walsall to avoid the indignity of having to apply for re-election to the league. The change from the mud of recent weeks to a dry ground was welcome, but unfortunately there was a strong wind to play tricks with the lively ball and consequently mistakes were to be expected.
Walsall appeared to have missed their chance when playing with the wind in the first half and defences held the upper hand. Both goalkeepers made smart saves and Watford had a narrow escape when centre half Fisher got his head to a drive from O'Neill which looked a winner all the way.
Walsall too were lucky when Dearson cleared a shot from Laing which had beaten Lewis. A draw seemed likely, until with fifteen minutes to go O'Neill got the all important goal with an opportunist effort in one of several lively goalmouth scrimmages.
SATURDAY 21ST APRIL, 1951
LEAGUE DIVISION THREE SOUTH AT FELLOWS PARK, WALSALL
WALSALL 0 CRYSTAL PALACE 0
Lewis; Jones, Dearson; Walters, Russon, Devlin;
Bowen, Hughes, Winter, O'Neill, Allison;
Hughes; Harding, Edwards; Rodd, Cushlow, Chilvers;
Broughton, Whittaker, Marsden, Buckley, Hanlon;
As Walsall were already safe and Crystal Palace are certain to have to seek re-election, neither team had anything particular at stake and with the players handicapped by a tricky wind and a lively ball, the game was one of the poorest at Fellows Park for a long time. Typical end of season stuff one might say.
Walsall started as if they were going to pile up a big score, but after Bowen and Winter had missed easy chances they fell away badly and were not better then the very disappointing Palace side. Marks for perseverance could be given to the respective centre forwards, Winter and Marsden, but they were allowed little scope by the close marking they received from Cushlow and Russon and neither side included anyone else capable of shooting accurately.
Palace included Bill Whittaker, for whom they paid a substantial fee to Huddersfield Tow, but several of their other acquisitions this season have been unable to retain their places in what has been a very poor season for them. Fellow Park seems to be something of a bogey ground for Palace as they have yet to win here. This was their twelfth league visit and their seventh draw. The other five having been lost.
WEDNESDAY 2ND MAY, 1951
LEAGUE DIVISION ONE AT MOLINEUX, WOLVERHAMPTON
WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 0 NEWCASTLE UNITED 1 (Robledo G)
Williams; McLean, Short; Crook, Russell, Wright (capt);
Hancocks, Broadbent, Swinbourne, Dunn, Mullen;
Fairbrother; Cowell, Corbett; Harvery (capt), Brennan, Crowe;
Walker, Taylor, Robledo (g), Hannah, Mitchell;
The cup winners, Newcastle United, came to Molineux fresh from their 2-0 victory over Blackpool at Wembley on Saturday, but without their two goal hero Jackie Milburn. The Chilean, George Robledo, moved to centre forward tonight from his usual inside left berth and scored the only goal of the game to end a very satisfactory week for the Geordies.
Newcastle would also finish fourth in the first division league table behind champions Spurs, Manchester United and Blackpool. Strangely enough the three midlands sides all finished together just below half way. Wolves had a disappointing 38 points and Aston Villa and West Bromwich Albion both had 37, just five points ahead of the two relegated teams Sheffield Wednesday and Everton.
THURSDAY 3RD MAY, 1951
LEAGUE DIVISION THREE SOUTH AT FELLOWS PARK, WALSALL
WALSALL 1 (Bowen) BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION 0
Lewis; Jones, Green; Walters, Russon, Devlin;
Bowen, Corbett, Winter, O'Neill, Allison;
Ball; Tennant, Mansell; Willard, McCoy, Wilson;
Reed, McNichol, Garbutt, Bennett, Keene;
The last home league match of the season ended on a high note, with another narrow victory this time by a single goal from winger 'Toddy' Bowen against a side also struggling in the bottom half of the league table.
The first half of the season was very difficult with an unsettled team in which changes were so frequent that no fewer than twenty players were called upon and only sixteen points came from the first twenty six league matches. Fortunately a decided turn for the better set in immediately following the signing of Winter and O'Neill, since when the team have obtained twenty four points from nineteen matches.
This improvement not only resulted in a move up the table out of the re-election zone, but a welcome increase in attendances. A crowd of 14,278 saw the opening game with Plymouth Argyle, but this had dropped to 3,677 for the visit of Reading in December. By February 11,941 saw the Northampton match and a fortnight later 14,247 saw the game with Notts Forest.
With one more league match remaining Lewis and Jones are so far the only ever presents and Walters and Dearson have only missed two games each. Leading goalscorers are Dearson 10, Winter 8, Hughes 5, Skidmore 5 and O'Neill 4.
MONDAY 7TH MAY, 1951
FESTIVAL OF BRITAIN MATCH AT FELLOWS PARK, WALSALL
WALSALL 1 (Hughes) RACING CLUB OF HAARLEM O
This was one of a series of matches being played all over the country against foreign club sides to celebrate the Festival of Britain. Racing Club Haarlem were the first Continental side to be seen on the ground. They play in one of Holland's four first divisions, the winners of which compete in a final tournament to decide the national champions.
Perhaps the most striking difference between the game as we know it and the Dutch variety is that if if rains over there a match is not played or if the rain comes after the game has started the referee has power to stop it! Racing Club operate no fewer than thirteen sides, at different age groups. All matches are played on Sundays and substitutes are allowed.
It must be said that the game was not of a very high standard, Walsall winning by the only goal of the game. It was more like a stroll in the park and an occasion of goodwill rather than good football.
SATURDAY 12TH MAY, 1951
FESTIVAL OF BRITAIN MATCH AT ST ANDREWS, BIRMINGHAM
BIRMINGHAM CITY 0 DINAMO ZAGREB 2 (Dvornic, Cajkovski)
Merrick; Green, Martin; Boyd, Newman, Dorman;
Dailey, Stewart, Trigg (capt), Rowley, Berry;
James substituted for Stewart during the second half.
Stincic; Delic, Hovic; Puksec, Horvat, Reasic;
Cimermancic, Sencar, Wolfl (capt), Cajkovski, Dvornic;
Referee:- Mr A. Bond, Fulham
To end the 1950-51 season I paid my first ever visit to the Saint Andrews ground of Birmingham City, which was somewhat difficult to get to involving a long walk from Birmingham city centre.
The first half of this very poor game saw the Zagreb club playing beautiful approach football, but as we have come to expect of Continental sides woefully weak when it came to shooting. During the second half they seemed to have found their shooting boots and after veteran international centre forward Wolfl had seen three successive shots saved by Merrick, kicked off the line by Martin and one hit the post, Dinamo took the lead.
This was in the sixty fourth minute when outside left Dvornic, a very speedy player, cut in and scored with a low, hard shot. Sixteen minutes later his inside partner, Cajkovski, added a second. Outstanding in the visitors defence was their giant centre half, Ivica Horvat, who played so well for Yugoslavia against England at Highbury. His great height of six foot four inches made him unbeatable in the air and that was where most of Birmingham's centres ended up.
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