March 29 – Cup Final Hat-trick Hero
EVER heard of William ‘Billy’ Townley? You probably have if you are a Blackburn fan who knows their history but otherwise we’re guessing it is not a name that rings any bells.
Allow us to enlighten you then because on this day way back in 1890 young Billy became the first man to score a hat-trick in an FA Cup Final when his Blackburn Rovers side destroyed Sheffield Wednesday by a whopping 6-1 score line.
In those pre-Wembley days the final was played at the Kennington Oval cricket ground in London and the other Blackburn goals came from Nat Walton, Jack Southworth and Joe Lofthouse with Sheffield Wednesday’s consolation goal scored by Albert Mumford.
Rovers would go on to retain the cup the following season when they beat Notts County 3-1, again at the Oval, with Townley grabbing one of the goals.
In these days of cagey 1-0 finals it is hard to believe but fans only had to wait four years for another hat-trick in the show piece game when James Logan of Notts County netted three times in his side’s 4-1 win over Bolton at Goodison Park.
It would be nearly 60 years until the feat was repeated, this time in the famous Stanley Matthews final of 1953. Although the game is remembered for the heroics of Matthews who dragged his Blackpool side back from a 3-1 deficit to win 4-3 against Bolton, it was Stan Mortensen who scored three times. The first and only time there has been a hat-trick in the final at Wembley. The nearest we have come since is Ian Rush bagging a brace in the 1986 and 1989 finals.
As for Townley, he was capped by England in 1889 and 1890, scoring two goals against Ireland, and then moved on to play for Darwen and then Manchester City.
When his playing days were numbered Billy became one of the early men to move into professional coaching. As most clubs were still making the transition from being amateur outfits Townley moved abroad to pursue his career.
After starting out with Deutscher FC Prag, he really made his mark with consonant-tastic Bavarian side SpVgg Fürth where he started to pick up so much silverware that Bayern Munich came-a-calling and poached him.
He then managed at various clubs around the continent and even had a spell as national boss of Holland whom he led to fourth place in the 1924 Olympic Games.
He eventually folded away his tactics blackboard for the last time in the 1930s and returned home. He died in Blackpool in 1950 aged 84.
He was not only a pioneer on the pitch with his goalscoring exploits, but was also a trailblazer off it at a time when many clubs had not cottoned on to the idea of having a full-time professional manager – an idea any club thinking about employing Bryan Robson might want to consider starting up again.
More tomorrow from us folks so keep it OTFD.
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March 29 – Jamo’s England Bow | On This Football Day on March 29th, 2009
[...] After last night’s friendly win over Slovakia, James is still his countries first-choice as he moves towards his 50th cap. This longevity has also seen him wrestle the Premier League appearance record from Gary Speed. See another amusing Jamo clip, where James shows why he’s a keeper and shouldn’t be allowed up-front. We’ll be back tomorrow, but until then check out what else was going on today here. [...]