By Will Foster

On the 13th of January 1954 a 38-year-old outside right prepared to make his first competitive appearance at Kenilworth Road. The game was an FA Cup 3rd Round Replay between Blackpool and Luton, after a 1-1 draw at Bloomfield Road four days previously. Just 8 months earlier he’d played in the FA Cup Final, perhaps the most famous final of all time, one still named for him. He was, of course, Stanley Matthews.

The teams would need four matches to be separated before Dally Duncan’s side finally fell to the holders with a 2-0 loss at Molineux. Despite his age Matthews played in all four games and his meetings with the Hatters were only just starting. He took part in four league matches following Town’s promotion to the top flight in 1955, of which he won two and lost two.

He was on the pitch for perhaps the most famous game in Kenilworth Road’s long history, one which will now forever hold the attendance record of 30,069. It was an FA Cup replay once more and the schools of Luton had emptied to watch Allan Brown’s 74th minute goal send Luton into a first FA Cup Semi Final. That the game was being played during the day was influenced by ‘The Wizard of Dribble’ himself. In the days when both teams had to agree to play under floodlights, Matthews decreed that he was unhappy with Luton’s, hence the multitude of missed lessons by the town’s children.

Blackpool’s defeat was in-spite of their legendary player, ‘it’s Matthews everywhere…at left back, inside left and even outside left, and slowly he inspired Blackpool back into command,’ it’s noted in the match report. Remarkably, he was 44 years old.

He had returned to Stoke City by the time of his last game against Town, played on the final day of the 1962/63 season. He marked the occasion with a goal, his only one in 12 meetings against the Hatters and the 80th and very last Football League strike of his 697 games, which had been played over an incredible 34 years.

Born in Hanley, one of the six towns of Stoke, and forever linked with the Potters and Blackpool, Matthews actually grew up a Port Vale fan and it was with the Valiants that he, now Sir Stanley Matthews, made his only visit to Kenilworth Road as a manager, a 4th Division game in March 1968 which Luton won 2-0 thanks to goals from Ian Buxton and Bruce Rioch. Port Vale were in a financial mess, fined by the FA due to ‘financial irregularities’ and threatened with expulsion from the Football League. It’s said that only the pleadings from Matthews, and the sheer weight of his name, kept them in.

Below: Matthews scores his only goal against Luton, 1963.