Stan Mortensen
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Stanley Harding Mortensen | ||
| Date of birth | 26 May 1921 | ||
| Place of birth | South Shields, County Durham, England, UK | ||
| Date of death | 22 May 1991 (aged 69) | ||
| Playing position | Centre forward | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1941–1955 | Blackpool | 317 | (197) |
| 1943–1944 | → Bath City (guest) | ||
| 1944–1945 | → Arsenal (guest) | 19 | (25) |
| 1955–1957 | Hull City | 42 | (18) |
| 1957–1958 | Southport | 36 | (10) |
| 1958–1959 | Bath City | 45 | (27) |
| 1960–1962 | Lancaster City | ||
| National team | |||
| 1943 | Wales (wartime guest) | 1 | (0) |
| 1944–1945 | → England (wartime) | 3 | (3) |
| 1947–1953 | England | 25 | (23) |
| Teams managed | |||
| 1967–1969 | Blackpool | ||
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* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
Stanley Harding "Stan" Mortensen (26 May 1921 – 22 May 1991) was an English professional footballer, most famous for his part in the 1953 FA Cup Final (subsequently known as the "Matthews Final"), in which he became the only player ever to score a hat-trick in a Wembley FA Cup Final. He was also both the first player to score for England in a FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign and the first England player to score in the tournament proper.
South Shields-born Mortensen went to war in 1939 as a wireless operator and overcame an injury – sustained when his RAF bomber crashed, leaving him as the only survivor – to become one of England's best post-war players.
During the war, he scored dozens of goals before making a strange piece of history by switching teams to play for Wales when they needed a reserve during a game against England on 25 September 1943. Wales' Ivor Powell was injured and had to leave the field and, as England's reserve, Mortensen took his place in the Welsh side. Wales lost 8–3, and Stanley Matthews later wrote of the game: "Nobody in the 80,000 crowd had any idea that Mortensen was going to change. When, a quarter of an hour later, the player in the red jersey returned to the field, a cheer went up from the crowd, who — not knowing the seriousness of Powell's injury — were under the impression the injured Welsh wing half was returning. Even when "Powell" went to inside-left, the onlookers did not suspect anything unusual, as team switches are often necessary after a player has been injured. Even some of the England players did not know that Mortensen was playing on the other side, and the football reporters, whose headquarters at Wembley are at the top of the main stand, did not know of the change until after half-time."
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