A FOOTBALL used in the legendary 1953 FA Cup final has sold at auction for £5,250.

The brown leather ball which featured in Wanderers’ famous 4-3 defeat to Blackpool at Wembley went under the gavel on Thursday.

It went to a lifelong Blackpool fan, who wished to remain anonymous but expressed a wish to loan the historic sporting artefact to museums.

The match saw the Seasiders’ Stan Mortensen score a hat-trick with the help of Stanley Matthews, in a game nicknamed the Matthews Final.

Bill Ridding's Wanderers team had been 3-1 up with goals from Nat Lofthouse, Willie Moir, and Eric Bell.

Charles Hanson, owner of Hansons Auctioneers in Derbyshire, said: “We had three phone bidders vying to buy this ball as well as bidders online and I was delighted to see it sell just above its top estimate of £3,000 to £5,000.

“It’s been incredible to handle a football used in the famous Matthews FA Cup final.

“The ball was given to Stan Mortensen at the end of a game which was watched by 100,000 fans on May 2, 1953."

Giving a bit of history to the footballing item, Mr Hanson added: “The brown leather, 18-panel football was in a modern style for the period and would only have been used for internationals and finals.

“Back then, most footballs were of the cheaper laced variety.

“We expected the football to create worldwide interest and it did.”

The ball was put up for auction by 57-year-old IT business analyst Chris Cook, from Surrey, who said he was ‘delighted’ a Blackpool fan had landed the ball.

It had originally been donated to an FA charity raffle, possibly the Stan Mortensen tribute dinner, held at Blackpool’s Savoy Hotel in 1989.

In 2010, Matthews’ cup final boots were auctioned at Bonhams in Chester for £38,400, and in 2014 his winners’ medal was sold for £220,000.