http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_FA_Cup_Final
I’m going to start this match review by talking about two superior matches. Why am I doing this? I don’t know. No idea why. No idea why I didn’t just review one of the other two. I’m weird like that to be fair.
Both Bolton Wanderers and Manchester United were no strangers to Wembley Stadium during the 50’s. Both had already lost a Cup Final in the decade up to that point, so the 1958 Final was set up to be redemption for one, while being the ultimate kick in the knackers for the other.
Bolton’s loss had been in the epic “Matthews Final” of 1953. A truly sensational 90 minutes of back and forth attacking football that had ended 4-3 in Blackpool’s favour. It was the sort of wild and exciting Cup Final that you don’t get any more. I don’t know what it is about the New Wembley but it’s essentially become the stadium where exciting football goes to die. I can’t think of one FA Cup Final since 2007 that has come even remotely close to being as exciting as the 1953 Final. So yeah, Bolton had lost, after being in the lead no less. This was a chance for the team, the City and club legend Nat Lofthouse to finally wipe those painful memories away.
Manchester United had been at Wembley the previous year and had lost, in controversial fashion, to Aston Villa. United keeper Ray Wood had been unfairly injured by the Villains, leaving United without a first choice goalkeeper for large sections of the match. United ended up going down 2-1, a result which left a very sour taste in the mouth for them and their fans. Things were sadly due to get much worse for United and the beloved “Busby Babes”.
The Munich Air Disaster would see the tragic death of over half the 1957 Cup Final squad. As the football world mourned, something quite exceptional happened. A depleted United squad somehow managed to make their way to the 1958 Cup Final. Here was a plot from a movie actually happening in real life in front of the worlds eyes. Outside the City of Bolton, Manchester United were going to be the neutrals favourites in this Cup Final. To be fair, how could they not? This was a real life fairy-tale that just needed the Hollywood Ending to make it complete.
Football though, more often than not, likes to go “off-script”. This was one of those occasions.
The version of the match I watched was The Official Release from ILC Media. It has Kenneth Wolstenholme on commentary and he does a solid and workman like job of it all. The picture quality isn’t that great and there’s very little extras on the DVD, but for a match that was from 1958 the video and sound quality matched my expectations. ILC Media do quite well with these releases most of the time. The only thing I’d say is that sometimes they could show more of the build-up and include some post match interviews.
I can understand why they didn’t with this final as there likely wasn’t any pre or post match interviews. I was speaking to my uncle, who used to watch the Cup Finals live back in the day, and asked him about what used to happen at half time. This was before the days where you’d cut to a studio and there would be a host and ex-pro’s dissecting the match in great detail (Or lack of detail in some channels cases). Apparently, they’d just show a straight shot of the pitch for 15 minutes until the half started or they would cut to a test card until the second half kicked off. I’m guessing this was a case of the latter as the first half ends and then the DVD cuts right back to the kick off again.
United actually have more of the ball at the immediate start of the match and enjoy a fair bit of possession in the opening few minutes. It doesn’t really go anywhere though. Bolton win a corner in opening 3 minutes, which United make a mockery of clearing. Bolton promptly put it back into the box and it falls at the feet of Nat Lofthouse who slots it away with his usual predatory brilliance, making it 1-0.
From the kick off, United again enjoy a reasonable amount of possession but they struggle to do anything with it. By comparison, Bolton look continuously dangerous every time the ball is with them. It’s a very direct approach but by no means is it an unskilled one. Dennis Violet spends the early part of the first half being United’s main go-to player. Charlton is quiet for most of the half and you can see that the plane crash is effecting his overall performance. His passing fails to retain its speed and accuracy that you associate with him. He’s even given a reasonable amount of space by the Bolton defence but he doesn’t really do anything with it.
Bolton are unforgiving and just plain ruthless. Any time a United player gets the ball he’s either charged down and disposed of or he’s reduced to having to hit it long, whereby the receiving player promptly loses it to the coldly efficient Bolton defence. Stand out players in the first half for Bolton are number 7 Brian Birch and Number 3 Tommy Banks. United keeper Harry Gregg is called upon to make a number of saves in the first 20 minutes as his defence continuously keep dropping him in it.
It takes about 20 minutes for United to finally have any kind of meaningful attack when Violet manages to get hold of the ball in the Bolton box. However, his shot has too much welly on it and it ends up flying over the cross bar for a Bolton goal kick. Violet almost makes up for it 5 minutes later by laying off the ball for a shot from Ernie Taylor. Taylors shot forces the Bolton Keeper Eddie Hopkinson to make his first meaningful save of the contest. The resulting corner leads nowhere but United do manage to win a throw in from it. The throw goes Charlton’s way and he finally makes an impact on the proceedings by delivering a cracking shot from outside the box that forces another save from Hopkinson.
The next 10-15 minutes ends up being a bit of a midfield slog as both teams jockey for position in the middle of the park. Bolton spend most of their time looking for the defence splitting pass necessary to unleash Lofthouse on the hapless United defence. United spend most of it trying to retain possession and play Violet or Charlton in with a long ball. The game never really settles and neither goal keeper is given too brisk of a challenge. There’s a lot of work-rate but there isn’t really an end product for either side. United look more comfortable in attack for the remainder of the half but they always seem to be missing the last piece of the attacking puzzle that they need. Bolton seem content to sit back at points and wait for their chances. At no point do you sense any immediate urgency from the Bolton players to close the United players down. The defence are patient and keep the United attacks at bay until the ref blows for half time
United start the second half reasonably brightly but their game lacks that killer blow or viciousness that you sense it requires for them to draw level. Bolton clearly do not have the same problem and this is proven in the 50th Minute where, after a sustained few minutes of Bolton pressure, Nat Lofthouse bundles both the ball and Harry Gregg into the net for Bolton’s second. The fact that this goal is allowed to stand is nothing short of farcical. Dennis Stevens scuffs a shot and Gregg manages to get a hand to it. The ball hangs in the air and Gregg catches it quite comfortably. From behind comes Lofthouse at, and this is a conservative guess, about 83 Miles per hour. Lofthouse delivers a pro wrestling like shoulder charge that sends Gregg careening into the back of his own goal, along with the ball still in his hands.
As you would imagine, Gregg is knocked out cold upon impact. It really is disgusting when you watch it back as Gregg is inches away from smashing his head off the goal post. Thanks to some smelling salts and liberal use of the magic sponge, Gregg is eventually able to play on. It should be noted that Lofthouse doesn’t even bother to check on Gregg. In fact the only Bolton player who seemingly gives a crap is Ray Parry, who actually comes over to check on the United keeper.
Despite there being nearly 35 minutes left at this point, the game is all but over. United are thoroughly demoralised by the goal and as the half rolls on, it becomes painfully obvious that they just aren’t capable of breaching the Bolton defence. Colin Webster does manage to get free for a run on goal with around 25 left, but his shot is saved with relative ease by an in form Hopkinson. Webster gets another chance with about 20 minutes left when Violent plays a nice pass to him in the box, but it’s a tight angle to shoot from and Hopkinson has it more than covered.
The match slowly starts to grind down around this point as Bolton sit back again when it becomes obvious that United are not likely to score. The Bolton players are content to hang back and just catch United on the offside trap, rather than go in for the jugular. Things get a bit bad tampered towards the end of the game as Stevens ends up on the ground with the Bolton players accusing Webster as the guilty party. Sadly, this was back before instant replay so we never find out what actually happened. Wolsestenholme doesn’t see it either. This is really the last thing of any real interest during normal time. Bolton get close to a third in stoppage time but Greaves manages a clearance off the line to keep the score respectable. The ref brings proceedings to an end not soon after and Bolton are crowned FA Cup Winners.
So, the question arises, is this match any good? The quality of football on offer is by no means terrible but it really lacks the sort of pulse and excitement that would draw the neutral audience in. I think what this final is missing more than anything else is a United goal. I think what led to Bolton’s undoing back in ’53 was that Blackpool were able to get a goal back. Once that goal went in, it had the two fold effect of firstly putting Bolton a bit on edge but also giving Blackpool the impetuous to keep attacking. You really get the impression here that after about the 70 minute mark, United really don’t believe they’re going to get one back. This seeps through to the United fans and it kind of sucks the air out of the match.
Bolton never really appear to be in much trouble at any point during the Final and mentally seem to be much stronger than their United opponents. A goal maybe at the start of the half or right after Lofthouses second, could have really spiced the remainder of the Final up. As it is, it’s a good game of football that doesn’t really play that much with your emotions. It’s a solid kick about, but is also pretty much by the numbers.
In a lot of ways, this Final reminds me of Everton’s win over Watford in the 1984 FA Cup Final. Both matches are very similar. Everton and Bolton both take a 1-0 win into half time and then essentially kill off the game with another in the second half. Andy Gray even assaults the Watford keeper on the way to the second goal (Although it’s nowhere near as controversial as Lofthouses goal here)
Lofthouse is the MVP from the Bolton end of things. He scores an excellently taken goal in the first half and then commits an atrocity in the second half to put the game beyond doubt. While it is nice to see him shake Gregg’s hand at the end of the match, it would have been comforting to see him give a crap during the match itself. Still, Gregg ends up being fine so I guess it’s not that big of a deal in the long run. It does give the match its main talking point as well.
Gregg would probably be United’s best player. It would be him or Violet really. I would say that Gregg just edges it as he makes a number of good saves and does well to continue the game after being legit knocked silly for a few minutes. He ends up with a lot more work to do than Hopkinson at the other end due to the numerous errors made by his defenders.
Lofthouse passed away during the 2010/2011 season. That season also saw Bolton and Man United get to the FA Cup Semi Finals that year against Stoke and Man City respectively. A lot of people were into the prospect of seeing the clubs battle in the Final again. It would have been a fitting piece of symmetry had Bolton Vs United been the Final, with Bolton perhaps pulling off the upset with Kevin Davies, almost the modern equivalent of Lofthouse, getting the winner. Once again though, football refused to read the script and we ended up getting a dour Man City Vs Stoke Final. What can you do eh?
Overall I would only recommend this Final if, like me, you already own ’53 and ’57 and want to see the eventual conclusion to the story. It’s by no means a bad game of football, and has been better than every Wembley Final since 2007, but it doesn’t have the excitement that would appeal to a neutral fan. If United had been closer to winning, or had even managed to actually pull off the upset, I reckon this Final could have been one of the all time greats. As it is, it’s merely a composed and disciplined Bolton performance from back when they were a real force in the game.
Highlights below.
Below is the link for the Match on Amazon (I do like how an angry Man United fan has given the match a * rating
)http://www.amazon.co.uk/Final-Bolton...fa+cup+fina%3B
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