IT WAS Stan Mortensen, not Stanley Matthews who put the fizz into Blackpool's champagne moment -- and that's official!
50 years on from the biggest day in Blackpool FC's history, analysts at Opta -- the company who provide comprehensive statistics on today's premiership games, studied a video of the Seasiders' thrilling come-from-behind Wembley victory over Bolton Wanderers.
Their research showed that hat-trick hero Mortensen was, statistically, Blackpool's best player and a clear man of the match.
Other players rated as more effective than Matthews include Willie Moir and Johnny Wheeler of Bolton, as well as Blackpool team-mates, Ernie Taylor and Bill Perry.
A national newspaper this weekend dubbed Mortensen 'the game's outstanding player, a dashing, all-action leader of the line in the manner of Ruud van Nistelrooy.'
He had five attempts on goal, four of them on target -- whereas nobody in last year's final between Arsenal and Chelsea had more than two shots.
A reflection of the difference between the two games comes with the number of dribbled and runs -- 150 in 1953, against 84 last year.
Matthews ran with the ball 20 times -- twice as many as Thierry Henry or Jesper Gronkjaer.
Another difference is in the number of fouls, just 14 in 1953 against 29 in 2002.
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