TO millions of people who
marvelled at the magic of STANLEY
MATTHEWS, it must seem sadly
inadequate for record books to give the
impression that his only claim to fame
was the fact of playing in First Division
football after his fiftieth birthday.
That bare statistic, incredible though it must
seem to future generations, cannot convey to
them the many other reasons why the first
knight of the football field won as much
world-wide admiration as Dl STEFANO,
CRUYFF, PUSKAS and PELE all put together.
If any young fan should ask if Matthews was
some kind of decrepit old retainer when
England still picked him as a 41-year-old and if
it was nothing but slushy sentiment that
prompted Stoke to pay a fee for him when he
was 46, there are plenty of emphatic answers.
Matthews, whose international career
spanned 24 years, was so formidable a figure
in his forties that opponents still found him
employable.
In a Wembley game against Yugoslavia,
which England won 3 0, a full-back by name
of STANKOVIC found himself in such a
hopeless plight that the only thing he could do
was to dive at Stanley's legs and pull him
down in Rugby style.
After the game he apologised and the
Yugoslav officials said: "Matthews is better
now than when he played against us 7 7 years
ago, and even then he was the greatest in the
world.
Matthews had been playing in League football
for 29 years when Stoke took him back from
Blackpool in 1961.
Far from being a goodwill gesture to a
distinguished old boy, it was the severely
practical ploy of a club in dire need. Stoke
were floundering near the foot of the Second
Division, pulling in gates of only 8,000 and
groaning under the weight of a huge
overdraft. They wanted a man of destiny to
revitalise their team and to fan up the dying
embers of public interest.
Stanley, the ageless wonder, did all that. A
36,000 crowd turned up for his first game.
Stoke began straightaway to climb the table.
Money poured in. In his second season they
won promotion. And in the last game that
clinched the Second Division title
Matthews who all through his career had
starred as a maker rather than a scorer of
goals hit the winner at the age of 48.
But it-wasn't only the dedication or the
durability of Matthews that won him
world-wide renown and prompted even
Pravda the Russian newspaper that is
normally so sparing with its praise for
Westerners to describe him as the first
gentleman of world football.
The magic that mesmerised opponents
stemmed from his uncanny ball control, his
swift acceleration and his brilliant tactical
brain. Matthews, single-handed, could take a
game by the scruff of the neck and turn it
upside down.
He made the F.A. Cup Final of 1953 the most
dramatic of all time when, with Bolton 3—1
up 10 minutes after the interval, he took
complete command and not only steered but
also willed Blackpool to a 4—3 triumph.
Yet I still regard his greatest game in the Cup
run as the one in the semi-final when Spurs
suddenly ran into top gear and Matthews,
realising that his defence was in trouble took
control of the ball for such long spells and
refused to let the frustrated Tottenham
players to get hold of it.
For me his greatest international was against
Belgium in the World Cup Final series of 1954
when the Swiss organisers of the tournament
wanted to make it so clear that it was THE
Matthews who was playing that they
canonised him. They printed his name on the
programme as "St. Matthews."
Presented by RONALD CROWTHER
of the Daily Mail
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