Firsly, Stan Mortensen emphatically did not score the first and only FA Cup Final hat-trick. The opening Blackpool goal was an own goal, as your writer clearly suggests in his article. A viewing of the DVD of the final reveals that in all likelihood goalkeeper Hanson would have saved Mortensen’s shot towards the far post (though judging by the overall standard of goalkeeping on the day, I would agree that this is far from certain). The attribution of this first goal to Mortensen is part of the re-construction of the event by subsequent media outlets to mythologise the final.

Secondly, though there is clear evidence in the videotape of the game that Matthews was an absolutely outstanding footballer in his time – his pass completion rate was over 90% in a match where overall the rate was barely 60%, a dismal statistic given the slowness of the pace relative to today, the wide open spaces of a flawlessly flat Wembley pitch and the ’stretched’ nature of the play from early in the match – the standard of play overall can be safely summarised as being somewhere between painfully mediocre and downright abysmal (a view corroborated by The Guardian’s David Lacey in an article in the early 1990s where he expresses disillusionment with the fare when finally getting his hands on a tape of a game that in his youth he believed had epitomised everything that was great about English football).

Thirdly, Matthews’ contribution to his team’s second goal was to provide a highish cross which goalie Hanson made a dreadful hash of, dropping it in front of him to enable Mortensen to slide the ball into the net from a yard.

Fourthly, the final goal is mis-described above on at least 3 counts: one, Matthews beat defender Banks on the outside before crossing low for Perry to score; two, the ball was not heading out of play by the bye-line, it was totally under Matthews’ control throughout the movement and three, it was not remotely luck that Perry was on hand to complete the pass.

A key factor in the final result is also the extraordinarily benevolent refereeing of one Mr Griffiths. Mortenen was allowed to score with a spectacular looking free kick around the 89th minute of the match only because the Griffiths imagined he saw a foul where none existed: a Blackpool forward trying to run through with the ball is dispossessed, but there is no sign whatsoever of more than the slightest brush of bodily contact with his opponent.

One final point about the reality of ‘53: striking though Matthews’ talent is during the game (notwithstanding the flat mediocrity of much of his crossing), a more likely man of the match is his inside-right, Ernie Taylor. The diminutive Taylor demonstrated a prodigious talent as a ball-playing inside forward mould beloved of the traditionalists. He constantly carried the ball threateningly towards the Bolton goal and combined beautifully with the veritable Stanley, feeding his frequently with perfectly measured passing almost without error. Fittingly, it was Taylor who gave Matthews a pass of stunning accuracy and weight from which he created Perry’s opening with that outside-foot touch and glide.

The term, ‘The Matthews Final’ has become a canopy of falsehood, then, obscuring the reality of a game of football that was as stupendous in errors as it was intense in drama. And one final pin in the myth of the heroic tragedy of the Bolton Wanderers team: the DVD shows many of them in close up, smiling in defeat. Did they really take football as seriously as we think back then?