Football’s Greatest Hat-Tricks No.9
Imagine scoring a hat-trick in the FA Cup Final, only for one of your team mates to take the limelight? Well, that was the case for Blackpool’s Stan Mortensen in 1953.
Blackpool had English football’s star player at the time, Stanley Matthews. He was 38 years old at the time and had yet to win an FA Cup since he started his career 22 years earlier.
Blackpool had reached the final after beating Sheffield Wednesday, Huddersfield Town, Southampton, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur. Two years earlier, they had lost the Final 2-0 against Newcastle United and were hoping to go one better.
Their opponents were fellow Lancashire outfit Bolton Wanderers, who were playing in their first FA Cup Final since 1929.
The Final between the two sides was an excellent spectacle and ended 4-3 to Blackpool, with Stanley Mortensen grabbing a hat-trick.
Bolton’s Nat Lofthouse opened the scoring after just 75 seconds, to complete his run of scoring in every round of the competition.
Mortensen scored Blackpool’s equaliser after 35 minutes, beating Bolton Stan Hanson at his near post.
Four minutes later, William Moir gave Bolton the lead and that was how the score stayed until half time.
Ten minutes after the restart, Eric Bell scored Bolton’s third before Stan Mortensen added his second of the game. Stanley Matthews ran down the right wing and crossed towards Mortensen at the far post. Hanson jumped up for the ball and fumbled it, giving Mortensen the easy job of tapping the ball in from less than a yard out.
In the 89th minute, Mortensen grabbed Blackpool’s equaliser with a free kick from just outside the box. It looked as if this would force extra time but Matthews crossed in for William Perry to fire in a winner with the last kick of the game.
The 1953 FA Cup Final became known as ‘The Matthews Final’, which sadly overshadows Stan Mortensen’s hat-trick. It hasn’t been overlooked on Far Post Header, Stan!
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