Blackpool 4-3 Bolton Wanderers: 1953 FA Cup final – as it happened

• Stanley Matthews finally wins cup medal at 38
• Stan Mortensen scores hat-trick in dramatic comeback
• As it happened: our as-live reboots of classic events

5.09pm BST

So congratulations to Stanley Matthews, Stan Mortensen, Bill Perry, Joe Smith and everyone else at Blackpool. The FA Cup is still the trophy held in the highest regard by most fans in the land, and it’s the one England’s greatest player wanted to win. With genuine apologies to those in the Bolton area, a nation celebrates tonight. We’re sure Bolton’s time will come soon. Meanwhile let this final resonate down the years … but it probably won’t be remembered as the Joe Smith Final, no. How about the Mortensen Final? That sounds about right to us; he has just scored the first cup-final hat-trick at Wembley after all. Oh all right, the Matthews final it is … and the Old International has delivered his verdict on it. Enjoy, enjoy, and thanks for reading this MBM!

Related: Matthews undermines Bolton

5.03pm BST

A word with the runners-up, as they emerge from the dressing room suited and booted. “We were sitting in the bath together looking at each other, with tears rolling down our faces,” Eddie Moir, Bolton’s captain, reports. “I don’t think it was so much that we were losing. I think we were all jiggered.” And Nat Lofthouse adds: “You get over it. I’d like to go to Wembley every year in a cup final, even if we lost. Still be nice! I think the honour is getting to Wembley.”

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