The game over and the work completed, it was time to relax, and the party of journaIists joined the United officials, pIayers and their opposite numbers from the Red Star club at a banquet in the Majestic Hotel in Belgrade. It was a friendly affair, despite the disappointment felt by the host club at losing such an important game. There was a great friendship between the clubs in those early years of the European competition.
In a moving scene the meal ended when waiters entered the dining room carrying trays of sweetmeats lit by candles set in ice. The United party stood to applaud the skill of the Yugoslav chef, and Roger Byrne led his colleagues in song:
We'll meet again, Don't know where, don't know when, But we know we'll meet again some sunny day....
That scene was remembered clearly by Yugoslav writer Miro Radojcic in an article for his newspaper Politika, which he translated into English 20 years later for Geoffrey Green, and which was published in `There's Only One United' (Hodder and Stoughton, 1978). Part of it read:
"Then followed the simple warm-hearted words of Matt Busby and Walter Crickmer as they said: `Come and visit us, the doors of Old Trafford will always be open to you'.... and after that lovely, crazy night as I parted from `Old International' - Don Davies from the Manchester Guardian - he said to me: `Why didn't you score just one more goal then we could have met for a third time!"
Radojcic sat up throughout most of the night musing over a feature article he planned to write for his newspaper. Politika was not a sporting publication - in fact he was a political writer but he had a great love for football and the flair of Manchester United's young side attracted him.
After chatting and drinking with Tommy Taylor and Duncan Edwards in a bar named Skadarija, Radojcic was left alone with his thoughts. He decided that he would arrange to fly back to Manchester with the team, and write his story from the Manchester angle, a look at England's top team seen through the eyes of one of Yugoslavia's most celebrated journalists.
The players had gone off to bed when Radojcic came to his decision so he went back to his flat, packed a bag and made his way to the airport only to discover that he had left his passport at home. He asked the airport authorities to hold the aircraft for as long as possible while he took a return taxi trip back to his hime. By the time he got back with his passport the twin-engined Elizabethan had taken off, bound for England via Munich where it was to stop to re-fuel.
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