Natten till söndagen gick Lofthouse bort stilla i sin säng – 85 år gammal.
Lofthouse tillhörde Bolton under hela sin karriär mellan 1946 och 1960 – han gjorde 285 mål på över 500 matcher för klubben. På 33 landskamper gjorde han smått otroliga 30 mål. 2002 valdes in i fotbollens Hall of Fame.
Hans spelstil var tämligen okomplicerad och han beskrev sig själv som en murbräcka. En stark fysik, god nickförmåga och ett väldigt hårt skott satte skräck i samtliga engelska försvar.
Lofthouses klubbkarriär var framgångsrik med Bolton. Men det är framför allt två matcher som fått symbolisera honom som spelare och hans personlighet – i båda fallen var det FA-cupfinaler på Wembley.
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1953 förde Lofthouse sitt Bolton till Wembley genom att göra mål i varje omgång inför finalen. De mötte där Blackpool där Bolton ställdes öga mot öga med en annan engelsk fotbollsikon – Stanley Matthews.
Lofthouse spelade med hela sitt hjärta i den här matchen. Han gjorde mål och blev dessutom vid ett tillfälle under matchen tacklad medvetslös. Han förde sitt Bolton upp i 3-1-ledning men han fick se Stanley Matthews och Stan Mortensen inspirera Blackpool till att vända och vinna med 4-3.
Efter den bittra förlusten gratulerade han öppet sina motståndare, trots sin stora besvikelse. Senare samma år skulle han utses till Footballer of the Year – mycket tack vare sitt sportsliga agerande.
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Fem år senare, 1958, så återvände Lofthouse till Wembley och FA-cupens final för att möta Matt Busbys Man Utd, som bara några veckor tidigare skakats av Münchentragedin.
Lofthouse fick se sin ”folkets hjälte”-gloria hamna lite på sniskan genom att göra båda målen i matchen som Bolton till sist vann med 2-0.
Hans andra mål förblir en hätsk samtalspunkt. Lofthouse använde en vid den tiden halvt tillåten taktik att tackla målvakten och han tryckte såväl målvakt som boll över mållinjen. Målet godkändes.
Det förblir ett av FA-cupens mest ikoniska ögonblick.
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Efter sin karriärs slut fortsatte Lofthouse verka i Bolton i olika roller – som scout, coach, och ställföreträdande manager vid ett tillfälle. Den östra läktaren på Reebok Stadium, som ersatt Burnden Park, bär hans namn.
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Football Legends – Nat Lofthouse, Part 1
Football Legends – Nat Lofthouse, Part 2
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David Lacey på The Guardian tycker jag skriver en riktigt trevlig och personlig krönika om Lofthouse.
“The enduring image of Nat Lofthouse, who has died at the age of 85, is of an England centre-forward racing half the length of the pitch to score the winning goal against Austria in spite of colliding painfully with the goalkeeper. “I would have left my leg at the halfway line rather than miss the chance,” he said.
So not for nothing was Lofthouse known for ever afterwards as the Lion of Vienna. He had suffered a painful blow on the shin, and, in the modern game, would have been substituted immediately. But this was 1952, and, not only did he limp on for the final 10 minutes, he might have scored another two goals.
Austria were one of the strongest teams in Europe at the time, and England’s 3-2 victory was seen as a vindication of the English style of play – a proposition exposed as a fallacy by the Hungarians at Wembley the following year. Yet Lofthouse still represented the strength and character of the English footballer and the victory was important to the country’s footballing prestige.
At the final whistle, British soldiers of the Dorsetshire Regiment rushed across the pitch and carried off the winning team shoulder-high.
Lofthouse, born in Bolton, bred in Bolton, and a Bolton Wanderers player from first to last, scored 285 goals in more than 500 games for the club. For England, he scored 30 in 33 appearances. The Austrians labelled him “The Tank” but Lofthouse was no mere battering ram. While he certainly had a strong physical presence, he also possessed a shrewd footballing brain, along with that invaluable quality in a centre-forward, the ability to hold the ball up and bring others into an attack.
Alan Shearer was strongly reminiscent of Lofthouse and both strikers shared that almost sixth sense in knowing when a scoring chance was about to present itself. The present Bolton attack is led by another reminder of what Lofthouse was about, Kevin Davies, who tends to be booked for challenges which, in his predecessor’s time, would not even have warranted a free‑kick. Back then, there was a more general acceptance of football’s physical side, and players were less inclined to writhe in agony after a hard tackle. Or, as Lofthouse himself put it: “There were plenty of fellers who would kick your bollocks off. The difference was that at the end they’d shake your hand and help you look for them.”
Lofthouse was probably the last player to score in a big game by charging the goalkeeper into the net. It happened when Bolton met Manchester United in the 1958 FA Cup Final. Lofthouse went into the match with a pin in a shoulder injured two months earlier, yet within three minutes he had beaten Harry Gregg. That goal brooked no argument. But Lofthouse’s second in Bolton’s 2-0 win caused much controversy. Ten minutes after half-time, Gregg blocked a close-range shot from Dennis Stevens, pushing the ball above his head, then catching it as it fell. But as he did so, Lofthouse barged goalkeeper and ball over the line, and the goal stood.
“If I had been in Nat’s place, I would have done the same,” said Gregg gallantly. But United supporters, still bitter about the reckless challenge by Aston Villa’s Peter McParland which had deprived them of their goalkeeper, Ray Wood, in the previous year’s final, were furious.
Lofthouse’s version was that he had headed the ball over the line before making contact with the goalkeeper. Either way, such a goal would not be allowed now, and, in all probability, Lofthouse would be booked.
When Lofthouse retired in 1960, a local poet celebrated him in verse which ended thus:
Harry Gregg just after t’final
Went into Nat’s for a beer
Who returned his money and told him
We don’t charge goalkeepers here.
Lofthouse belonged to an age when football was played and watched by the working class and run by the merchant class. For all the tough tackles and juddering shoulder-charges, the game had a warmth and humour about it, and players respected one another. When he learned that Stan Mortensen had died, Nat Lofthouse wept.”
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Can Manchester United lose? They never lose!
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/premier-league/8262956/Tottenham-Hotspur-0-Manchester-United-0-match-report.html
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Samtliga fyra matcher i söndags slutade alltså oavgjort.
Birmingham och Aston Villa gjorde varsitt mål, likaså Sunderland och Newcastle där däremot Asamoah Gyan kvitterade för The Black Cats långt in på tilläggstiden.
Merseysidederbyt mellan Liverpool och Everton var en svängig historia men i slutänden var 2-2 sannolikt resultatet som bäst speglade matchbilden. Kenny Dalglish får vänta på sin första seger.
Och var det någon av matcherna jag trodde skulle sluta mållös – så inte var det matchen på White Hart Lane.
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Crawley Town är ju the next big thing i The Football Conference – det är en klubb som siktar högt med ambitioner på att etablera sig i The Football League.
Det är också en klubb som har spenderat stora summor på transfers vilket naturligtvis har lett till att de kritiserats för att försöka köpa uppflyttning och för att vara en nonleague-variant av Man City.
Men en artikel i Daily Mail visar att verkligheten kanske inte är fullt så enkel som dikten vill få oss att tro.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1345561/Crawling-way-Crawley-Town-tidy-testament-frugality-care.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
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Omspelen i FA-cupen äger rum den här veckan. På tisdag har vi Wolves vs Doncaster, Man City vs Leicester och Cardiff vs Stoke. Och på onsdag smäller det på Elland Road mellan Leeds och Arsenal.
Många godsaker att se fram emot. Här har ni en gammal karamell att suga på.
Be Champions!!