When Jimmy Guthrie picked up the FA Cup for Portsmouth in 1939 it was a notable event in many ways. In simple football terms it was a big upset.
Most observers, according to Pathé News, speculated as to how many goals Wolves, who had beaten Grimsby 5-0 in the semis, would put past relegation-threatened Pompey. Adding to the pre-match talk was the belief that the favourites, under hardline coach Major Frank Buckley, were taking staminaenhancing monkey gland injections. It has since been claimed these were flu jabs “talked up” to intimidate the opposition. Portsmouth were among the teams to take it seriously and also tried performance enhancers. A picture appears in Guthrie’s autobiography of the team apparently downing medicinal-form monkey glands before the final.
This story is from the May 2017 edition of When Saturday Comes.
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This story is from the May 2017 edition of When Saturday Comes.
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