The Splash
Competition: Football League First Division | Result: Chelsea 1–0 Preston North End | Date: 25 August 1956
A Fraction of a Second That Became Football History
Heavy rain had left Stamford Bridge waterlogged when Preston North End visited Chelsea in August 1956. As Tom Finney drove through the standing water, Press Association photographer John Horton caught the extraordinary instant in which the Preston great appears to carve his way through the flooded pitch, throwing a spectacular curtain of spray into the air. Chelsea defender Wally Bellett is almost completely hidden behind the wall of water.
The resulting image became known simply as “The Splash”. It was named the 1956 Sports Photograph of the Year and grew into one of the most recognisable photographs in British football. Its power lies not merely in the identity of the player but in the instant Horton captured: Finney's balance and movement, the exploding water and the packed terrace beyond combine to preserve something that lasted only a fraction of a second.
A Remarkable Detail from 1956
A contemporary football album in the Soccer Illustrated archive adds a fascinating detail to the story. Its original caption beneath the photograph states: “For the last 15 minutes of this game Finney moved into the middle for his first try at centre forward.”
That contemporary description is particularly significant because the experiment was to become an important late chapter in Finney's career. Preston manager Cliff Britton subsequently deployed him as a deep-lying centre-forward. Far from being merely a veteran winger moved inside, Finney proved outstanding in the position, using his balance, passing, two-footed ability and intelligence to become the hub of Preston's attack.
From Winger to Centre-Forward
During 1956–57 Finney produced one of the great late-career reinventions. Preston finished third in the First Division and Finney became the first player to win the Football Writers' Footballer of the Year award for a second time. The following season Preston finished runners-up to Wolverhampton Wanderers, with Finney again scoring heavily.
His versatility was extraordinary. Finney represented England at outside right, outside left and centre-forward, ultimately winning 76 caps and scoring 30 international goals. What the old album caption records as a first experiment through the middle therefore foreshadowed a position in which he would play some of the finest football of his career.
The Photograph Becomes a Monument
Nearly half a century after Horton pressed the shutter, the image acquired a second life. Preston-born sculptor Peter Hodgkinson created The Splash, a bronze water-feature sculpture inspired by the photograph. Sir Tom Finney unveiled it outside Deepdale on 31 July 2004, aged 82.
The sculpture ensures that the moment captured at Stamford Bridge remains physically associated with Preston North End and its greatest player. A fleeting incident on a rain-soaked afternoon in 1956 had travelled from a press photographer's camera, through newspapers and football albums, into sporting folklore — and finally into bronze.