Blackpool mourn death of 'Matthews Final' hero Perry

Bill Perry, who scored the winning goal in the celebrated 1953 FA Cup final, has died aged 77, his former club Blackpool announced yesterday.

The South African-born former England international scored with almost the last kick of the game deep into injury time to give Blackpool a 4-3 win over Bolton Wanderers in the final at Wembley Stadium after they trailed 3-1 midway through the second half.

The match has been immortalised as the "Matthews Final" because Stanley Matthews, at the age of 38, turned the match around with a brilliant display in the second half to win the FA Cup at the third attempt. Perry's goal followed Stan Mortensen's hat-trick for Blackpool, the last time the feat was achieved in an FA Cup final.

Perry, who was born in Johannesburg, spent 13 seasons at Blackpool making 394 appearances and scoring 119 goals between 1950 and 1963. He also played three times for England.

Elsewhere, the man at the centre of the Carlos Tevez row, Kia Joorabchian, has admitted he remains interested in buying an English club. Joorabchian was initially seen as a potential buyer for the Upton Park side and was at the centre of the transfers of Argentina duo Tevez and Javier Mascherano.

An Eggert Magnusson-fronted consortium eventually took control of the Hammers, who were handed a £5m penalty for breaching League rules regarding third-party ownership due to the nature of their agreement with Joorabchian's company MSI. Now Joorabchian has conceded he could once again look to the Premier League for possible investment.

He told BBC1's Football Focus: "If the right club with the right investment opportunity comes up, we'll take a look at it.

"We're still very interested in having a club in the Premier League. It's not for the near future but I still haven't made up my mind about when it would happen or if it would happen."