Saturday 29th August 1953
Lincoln City 8 Blackburn Rovers 0 (Football League Division Two)
Lincoln City had spent a solitary season in the second tier of the Football League in the late 1940s before achieving promotion back again in a triumphant 1951/52 season. This time they had avoided immediate relegation and had now embarked on the second season of what was to be something of a golden age for the club. The manager who had overseen the two promotions and would remain in charge of team affairs for a further 11 years was the legendary Bill Anderson.
The current season had started with a heavy 5-0 defeat at West Ham followed by an away draw with Doncaster and an uninspiring 0-0 at home to Bury the previous Wednesday evening (6.30pm kick-off in the pre-floodlight days) which had caused some unrest among the 14,563 spectators. “I can’t understand what all the grumbling is about,” said Anderson. He went on to say that the side had been playing well enough without clicking and that when they did, “somebody must look out.”
Blackburn Rovers had a long and distinguished history, having been founder members of the Football League in 1888. They had several major honours to their name with two league championships and six FA Cup wins. However, the last of these had come over 25 years ago with their FA Cup win in 1928. Since then, they had found themselves in the Second Division in 1936 and despite three further seasons in the First Division were now embarking on their sixth season back in the second tier after finishing 9th in 1952/53.
Appointed manager of Blackburn during the close season was 34-year-old former Manchester United and Ireland full back Johnny Carey in his first managerial appointment. Their first three games of the season had seen a home draw with Bristol Rovers sandwiched by 4-1 away wins at both Rotherham and Brentford, the latter coming on the Thursday evening.
The teams were:
City:
- Jerry Lowery
- Horace Green
- Doug Graham
- Doug Wright
- Tony Emery
- Bobby Owen
- Jimmy Munro
- Dan McDowall
- Andy Graver
- Ernie Whittle
- Roy Finch
Blackburn:
- Reg Elvy
- Ron Suart
- Bill Eckersley
- Bill Smith
- Willie Kelly
- Eric Bell
- Jackie Campbell
- Eddie Crossan
- Tommy Briggs
- Eddie Quigley
- Alex Glover
City goalkeeper Jerry Lowery had joined the club in February of 1952 for a fee of £750 from Midland League side Peterborough United and in the previous season had more or less alternated the goalkeeping duties with Jimmy Jones. This was to continue in the current season but he was currently the man in possession. As for the outfield players, this was the period before 4-2-4 caught on and what was described as the ‘WM’ formation was standard for most clubs. This could be rendered as 3-4-3, with the defenders being the two full backs and the centre half who would be opposed by the other side’s wingers and centre forward. In midfield, the two defensive ‘wing half backs’ would battle it out with the two ‘inside forwards’.
City full backs were 35-year-old Horace Green who had been a regular since joining the club early in 1949, and cultured former Preston man Doug Graham who had joined midway through the 1951/52 season and been ever-present since then on the left. In between them at centre half was local-born City great Tony Emery who had first joined City as an amateur immediately after the war. He had been first choice in his position since the end of 1948 and would be a mainstay throughout the 1950s setting an appearance record that would stand for many years.
Wing halves were Doug Wright and Bobby Owen, with the classy 36-year-old Wright team captain since soon after joining from Newcastle in December 1948 for a fee of £600. Owen was another north-easterner, and had joined City as a part-timer in early 1947, appearing in both of City’s post-war promotion seasons. Inside forwards were Scotsman Dan McDowall who had joined from Workington in the summer and who was making his debut in place of regular Brian Birch who was left out, and Ernie Whittle, yet another north easterner who had joined the club in January 1950 and had contributed over 30 goals over the last two seasons.
On the right wing was the diminutive Jimmy Munro who had joined City in a player-exchange deal from Oldham in February, while on the left was Welshman Roy Finch who had joined from West Bromwich in 1949 for £3,000 and had been a regular ever since either on the wing or at inside forward. Along with future record appearance holder Emery City also had their future record goalscorer in the team. Centre forward Andy Graver was another ex-Newcastle United man, joining City in September 1950 for £3,000. He had hit 19 league goals in his first season followed by 36 in 35 games as City won the Third Division North championship, including two hat-tricks plus s record six in a game against Crewe. He also had 18 in the season just ended and was the scorer of City’s only goal in the season so far.
Blackburn goalkeeper Reg Elvy had been a regular since joining from Bolton in November 1951 and had two experienced full backs in front of him. 32-year-old Ron Suart had joined from Blackpool in 1949 and was later to have managerial success with Scunthorpe, taking them into the Second Division in 1958, before spending several years in charge of Blackpool. At left back was Bill Eckersley who had started his career with Blackburn and come to be considered one of the best full backs in the country. He had appeared for England at the 1950 World Cup finals and was currently first choice for his country. The centre half, tasked with the job of marking Andy Graver, was Willie Kelly. He also had plenty of experience and had arrived from Scottish club Airdrie in 1951.
Wing halves were Bill Smith, who had joined from Birmingham a year ago after previous experience with Northampton and Reading, and Eric Bell who was on his way to over 300 appearances for his only club. Also on his way to almost 300 appearances for Blackburn was Northern Ireland international inside forward Eddie Crossan, while some more experience in the side was provided by 32-year Eddie Quigley at inside left. Quigley had started his career with Bury before joining Sheffield Wednesday where he was their top scorer for two seasons. He then cost Preston a British record transfer fee of £26,500 before joining Blackburn in November 1951 for £20,000.
Wingers were the popular Jackie Campbell on his way to well over 200 appearances for the club, and Alex Glover formerly with Luton and Bradford. Centre forward Tommy Briggs had scored a hat-trick in the midweek win against Brentford and would in the future go one better than Andy Graver by scoring seven goals in a game for Blackburn against Bristol Rovers. After being a prolific scorer with Grimsby, Coventry and Birmingham he had joined Blackburn a year ago and would go on to register 140 league goals in just under 200 games for them.
The attendance of 12,246 was around two thousand down on the midweek draw with Bury but was fairly typical of the time.
If criticism of the display against Bury was centred on ‘poor marksmanship’ there were to be no such problems against their fellow Lancashire club as City went 2-0 up after 19 minutes and led 5-0 at the break. The first goal came after just five minutes when Whittle hooked in a loose ball following a corner. There was some improvement by Blackburn with the dangerous Briggs involved but City came back with appeals for a penalty turned down when a shot from Graver appeared to hit a defender’s hand. A deserved second goal came following a throw in when a tentative cross from McDowall saw Graver get to the ball before the goalkeeper and divert it into the net. The third goal came when Finch seized on a long forward pass from Munro to drive the ball home as City now scored steadily. Graver headed in a lobbed pass by McDowall, then the same combination saw the centre forward complete his hat-trick after McDowall had back-heeled the ball to him.
After the break, City got away with it when Lowery dropped a cross but from the resultant corner broke away for Graver to race clear and record his fourth goal of the match. City continued to look lively with their wingers prominent and a slip by England full back Eckersley allowed Graver to set up Munro for City’s seventh and it was the winger who then ran past centre half Kelly to make it 8-0.
To quote from the Echo’s match report, the fine result was due to “a first class example of attacking wing half play by men who had the ability to split the opposition defence by long raking passes and alternatively the use of the quick short ball.”
The defeat equalled Blackburn’s worst ever, inflicted by Arsenal in 1933 and still stands as their record defeat to this day.
The win put City up to 8th place in the early league table, but they could only follow it up with a 1-1 draw in the return match with Bury and a 2-0 defeat at Derby which had Echo reporter ‘NHB’ saying that any similarity between the City team which scored eight goals against Blackburn and the one which lost 2-0 at Derby, as far as finishing was concerned, was purely coincidental. However, they went on to win the next two home matches and did enough to finish in 16th place.
From mid-December Blackburn embarked on a run of seven wins from eight games (including getting a 6-0 revenge over City) which led into a second half of the season which saw them finish in third place and miss promotion by a single point.
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