Who scored a hat trick in the famous 1953 'Matthews Final' at Wembley?

The Man Who Actually Scored the Goals in the "Matthews Final"

It's one of football's great ironies. The most famous FA Cup final in history is named after a man who didn't score a single goal. Stanley Matthews dazzled, twisted, and tormented the Bolton Wanderers defence on that sunny Wembley afternoon on 2 May 1953 — but it was his Blackpool teammate Stan Mortensen who put the ball in the net. Three times, in fact.

The Greatest Final Nobody Remembers Correctly

Blackpool vs Bolton Wanderers drew a crowd of 100,000 to Wembley and an estimated television audience of millions more. Bolton raced into a 3-1 lead, and Blackpool looked dead and buried. What followed was one of the most dramatic comebacks the stadium had ever seen.

Mortensen pulled one back to make it 3-2, then fired home a direct free-kick to level at 3-3 with just minutes to go. In the dying moments, Matthews finally delivered the cross the whole country had been waiting for, and Bill Perry slotted home the winner to seal a 4-3 Blackpool victory. The crowd erupted. Matthews wept. And the papers the next morning called it the "Matthews Final."

Stan Mortensen: The Forgotten Hero

Mortensen's hat-trick remains the only hat-trick ever scored in an FA Cup final at Wembley. That extraordinary, unique achievement was almost entirely overshadowed by the narrative surrounding his teammate. Matthews, already 38 years old, was adored by the public and had twice previously lost in FA Cup finals. The story of him finally winning a winner's medal was simply too good to resist.

Mortensen himself was famously gracious about it, reportedly quipping that it was "the only hat-trick ever scored in a final named after someone else." Whether he truly said it with a smile or a sting behind it, the line captures the absurdity perfectly.

Who Was Stan Mortensen?

Mortensen was no journeyman making up the numbers. He was a prolific England international striker who scored 23 goals in 25 appearances for his country — a remarkable record that still stands up today. He survived a wartime RAF plane crash in 1943, an ordeal that makes his footballing career all the more remarkable. At club level, he spent the bulk of his career at Blackpool, scoring over 200 goals for the club.

He was fast, clinical, and courageous — exactly the qualities you'd expect from someone who could complete a hat-trick in an FA Cup final while his side were trailing 3-1.

Why the Name Stuck

Matthews was the bigger star in the public imagination, and the media narrative of redemption simply took hold. In 1953, television was young, and the press shaped the story. Mortensen never quite got the credit the scoreline demanded. But history has the numbers, and the numbers don't lie: three goals, one man, one unforgettable afternoon at Wembley.