THEY came in their thousands to watch the master known as ‘The Wizard of Dribble’ but they departed disappointed after Sir Stanley Matthews was upstaged by the man who was once his apprentice.

That man being one of the greatest players to pull on the blue and white halves of Blackburn Rovers, Bryan Douglas.

Today’s FA Cup fifth-round tie between Rovers and Stoke City is the first time the sides have clashed in the competition since January 27, 1962.

That day, in front of 49,500 fans at the old Victoria Ground, most of whom were there to see the 46-year-old Matthews in his final stint at his beloved Potters, Douglas was the difference between the teams.

He converted a penalty Fred Pickering did not fancy taking to send Rovers through to the fifth round.

But Douglas, now 80 and as passionate about his boyhood club as ever, will best remember the match as the second and final time he faced Matthews, the man he called his ‘mentor’.

“Matthews had gone back to Stoke that season from Blackpool and that had rekindled the interest of the public as their crowds previously had between 5,000 or 6,000,” said Douglas, who scored 115 goals in 503 appearances for Rovers between 1954 and 1969.

“I remember the game well, it was a cup tie, played at the old Victoria Ground, and really Fred Pickering was supposed to take the penalties.

“But when we got one I could see he didn’t fancy it, so I took it, I blasted in it and we won 1-0.

“Keith Newton played up against Matthews that day. He was usually right-back, Keith, but he played left-back up against Matthews.

“Matthews was still very, very fit, as he’d looked after himself. He didn’t smoke, drink and all that jazz.

“I’d only played up against him once before, when he was playing for Blackpool, but he was my mentor when I was a young boy.

“He was a guy I went to see a few times at Blackpool but I only played against him twice, once at Blackpool and once in that cup game at Stoke.

“When I got into the England team I got a little letter from him congratulating me.  That showed what a great guy he was. I thought that was big of him.”

It was previously unthinkable for an England side to be without Matthews. The emergence of Douglas, however, changed that.

A twinkle-toed winger or inside forward, blessed with immaculate touch, balance and vision, which he combined with a fearlessness that belied his relatively small stature, Douglas won his first England cap in October 1957, five months after Matthews won the last of his 54.

The man affectionately known as ‘Duggie’ went on to play 36 times for his country, including at the 1958 and 1962 World Cups.

But he looks back just as proudly on the fact that he was asked by Matthews to appear in his testimonial match at the Victoria Ground in 1965, when a ‘Stan XI’ took on an ‘International XI’ featuring Eusebio, Ferenc Puskas, Alfredo Di Stefano  and Lev Yashin.

“I took Matthews’ England place when he was about 40-odd,” remembers Douglas, who was part of the Rovers side that lost the 1960 FA Cup final to Wolves.

“People had tried to take it before but he’d always won it back.

“Two of the things I’m proud of, apart from my England caps, was that I was asked to play in Matthews’ benefit and Tom Finney’s benefit.

“They were two of the greats of football and I played in of both their benefits. They are two feathers in my cap.”

Douglas was at Ewood on Tuesday night to watch Rovers snatch a late victory over Rotherham United and he will be cheering them on today when Gary Bowyer’s Championship side attempt to knock Premier League opposition out of the FA Cup for the second round running.

He said: “Let’s hope history repeats itself but of course it’s a reverse of what’s happening now as we were the First Division side then and they were in the Second Division.

“I think for teams like Blackburn there was a gap when we played but now the gap is tremendous between the big city clubs and the smaller ones.

“So the cup is the one thing the smaller clubs should enjoy and have a bit of a chance in.

 “It’s the biggest disappointment of my football career losing the final at Wembley in 1960 but we had 10 men and Wolves were a very good side. But it’s all history now.”

The Rovers team that beat Stoke that day was: Else, Taylor, Newton, Clayton, Woods, McGrath, Douglas, Lawther, Pickering, Byrom, Ratcliffe.