The 1953 FA Cup Final between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers had everything: seven goals, a dramatic comeback and, in Stanley Matthews, a fairytale hero. Sixty years on, this legendary game has come to represent a golden age - the year when Queen Elizabeth II was crowned and a British expedition conquered Everest. The Great English Final looks at the cultural importance of the match as Britain broke free from post-war austerity, with pre-Coronation television sales taking the Cup Final into more homes than ever before. In 1953, Britain clung to the old-fashioned values epitomised by Matthews while bracing itself...Read more
The 1953 FA Cup Final between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers had everything: seven goals, a dramatic comeback and, in Stanley Matthews, a fairytale hero. Sixty years on, this legendary game has come to represent a golden age - the year when Queen Elizabeth II was crowned and a British expedition conquered Everest. The Great English Final looks at the cultural importance of the match as Britain broke free from post-war austerity, with pre-Coronation television sales taking the Cup Final into more homes than ever before. In 1953, Britain clung to the old-fashioned values epitomised by Matthews while bracing itself for a new consumer-driven age under its young monarch. Football was on the threshold of similar change. Five months later, the England team would be torn apart by Hungary and the national game would never be the same again. Yet the 1953 FA Cup Final would live forever.
- ISBN13 9781785311468
- Publish Date 15 June 2016 (first published 1 March 2013)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 3 March 2021
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Pitch Publishing Ltd
- Format Paperback
- Pages 320
- Language English
