Morty's cap and medals go under the hammer

The cap was awarded to Stan Mortensen when he played for England against Italy at White Hart Lane, London, on November 30, 1949,which was the fifteenth of his 25 appearances for England.

Despite “a little discolouration” the cap is expected to sell for between £600 and £800 at Graham Budd Auctions in London on Tuesday.

Just moments earlier,at the same sale, Stan Mortensen’s cigarette lighter – inscribed: “SM,Blackpool FC,FA Cup finalists,1948,1951 & 1953” – along with two mystery silver medals presented to Mr Mortensen are tipped to fetch between £150 and £250.

Stanley Matthews & Stan Mortensen, October 1953.

One of the medals, hallmarked 1937, is “presumably a junior competition medal” while the other medal, hallmarked 1974,is a post-career medal,but otherwise nothing is known about it.

The Blackpool and England star was born in South Shields in 1939 and in the Second World War, was a wireless operator. He overcame an injury after he was the only survivor of an RAF bomber crash, to become one of the country’s best players.

‘Morty’ scored 197 goals in 319 Football League matches for Blackpool and made history on May 2 1953,when he became the first and only player to score a hat-trick at the old Wembley Stadium – and in doing so helped Blackpool win the FA Cup for the first and only time in the club’s 129-year history by beating Bolton 4-3.

However, despite his heroic exploits on the pitch that day, the final has always been known as ‘The Matthews Final’ after fellow Blackpool star, Stanley Matthews, finally won an FA Cup winners’ medal at the age of 38.

Stan, who died in 1991 at the age of 69, was also a manager at Bloomfield Road, leading the Tangerines from 1967 to ’69.

In 1953,Stan Mortensen was earning £12 a week and 30 years later,in 1983,long after he had retired from football, he told a reporter: “When I played football, players really enjoyed the game and they really got a lot of entertainment out of it.

“We played without any thought of making money.

“The problem in the game now is that a lot of people are only interested in the money.”

There is a road named after the footballing great in the new Foxhall Village, built close to Bloomfield Road.

And there was uproar last year when the £25,000 bronze statue of Mr Mortensen, paid for by supporters and the council, was removed by Blackpool FC from its prominent position outside Bloomfield Road when fans were protesting at the club’s  demise.