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Old 16-06-2009, 09:39 AM   #11
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1950 - 1952: The Busby Babes are born

United fans were astonished when they read their morning newspapers during the summer of 1950. Charlie Mitten had deserted Old Trafford for an unknown Columbian team by the name of Santa Fe, after 113 consecutive appearances in the red shirt Mitten was off to South America. Mitten and his fellow professionals were earning a maximum 12 pounds a week, Santa Fe promised him a signing bonus of 2,500 pounds plus a salary of 2,500 pounds per year and a win bonus of 35 pounds a week, he was 29 years old.

Life in Bogata did not suit him however and he was soon on his way back to England, he was still officially a United player, but upon his return they made it apparent they would not continue with his services. He went on to sign with Fulham, later becoming manager of Mansfield before joining Newcastle as Manager.

On Saturday, 24th November 1951 United gave a debut to two youngsters who over the next few years would play a vital role in the club's fortunes. One of the players was named Jackie Blanchflower, the other Roger Byrne, they were selected to play against Liverpool at Anfield. Tom Jackson of the Manchester Evening News wrote: United's 'Babes' were cool and confident. It would be the first time the word `Babe' would be used in conjunction with United. The introduction of Byrne and Blanchflower signalled the beginning of changes in the team, United went on to win the Championship in 1952 with the old guard forming the backbone of the team, however in the reserve and youth teams players were pushing the older established players for their spots every week. Since the war United had never been out of the top four, so the title was long overdue when it finally arrived in 1952.

They moved on top in February and stayed there the rest of the season, even though in the end it took a win in the penultimate game of the season to secure the title. Arsenal needed to beat United by 7 goals to snatch the title, it was never to happen as the Reds finished the season in rousing form hammering the Gunners 6-1.

1952 - 1953

It was the day Stalin died, but more important to Man United fans it was the day United signed a young inside forward named Tommy Taylor. It was said that 17 different clubs had all put offers in to Barnsley for their free scoring gem, but Matt Busby was the manager who pulled off what was later to prove to be maybe his best signing. The highest fee United had ever spent (29,999 pounds) when asked why he had not made it 30,000 Busby replied that he had not wanted to burden the young man with a 30,000 fee.

Taylor was the final piece in the Busby jigsaw and went from strength to strength with the club. 1953 also saw the debut of another United great to be when a 16 year old Duncan Edwards was told by Busby `go get your boots son, you are playing for the first team against Cardiff City'. So on the 4th of April 1953 Edwards played against Cardiff City, he was the fifth teenager that year to wear the red of Man United.

1953 also marked the retirement of the great club servant Johnny Carey. Carey had appeared for United in no less than 9 different positions, and in seven different spots for his Country Ireland. He had played 344 games for the Reds and had cap***ned them to FA cup and Championship glory. His replacement was a cool young player by the name of Roger Byrne.

Carey went on to become manager of Blackburn Rovers, and later Everton, Leyton Orient, and Notts Forest. In this year the youth team won the FA youth cup. Over two legs they beat Wolves 9-3 on aggregate. The team was Clayton, Fulton, Kennedy, Coleman, Edwards, McFarlaine, Whelan, Lewis, Pegg and Scanlon.

All the youth players that made their debut in these years are a tribute to the scouting skills of Joe Armstrong who succeeded Louis Rocca after the war. The Champions finished the league at only a 8th place, in the FA Cup they came till the fifth round and then lost.

1953 - 1954

1954 saw United's Youth team repeat the previous years victory in the Youth Cup by defeating Wolves in a two legged affair 4-4 (home) and 1-0 at Molineux. The two games were watched by over 40,000 fans, United went on to capture the Youth Cup five times in succession. Many of the Youth team were being introduced into the senior side, Duncan Edwards had become a regular, while players such as Jackie Blanchflower, Dennis Violett, Colin Webster, Albert Scanlon, Mark Jones, David Pegg, Billy Whelan, and Bill Foukes were all experiencing their first taste of League soccer.

Roger Byrne although only 25 years old was already the established cap***n of the 1st Division side. Of the team that had beaten Wolves eight went on to claim regular spots in the starting lineup for the Reds, and three of these were to lose their lives in the Munich air crash. But still United did not became the champion of England, the finished 4th in the league and lost very disappointing in the third round of the FA Cup.

1954 - 1955

The Busby Babes were almost ready to take charge in the England football, but this year they couldn't bring the championship back home. The young team finished 5th in the league and managed to score 84 goals in 42 matches. United got till the fourth round of the FA Cup, while the youth team won another FA Youth Cup final, they won against West Bromwich Albion 7-1 on aggregate.

1955 - 1956: Busby Babes crowned Champions

United's new young team were making noises that they were ready to challenge for England's highest honor, the League Championship. Some football writers were predicting a great future for the exciting new team, but many of them quibbled that there was two much youth, and too little experience for the team to actually scale the top heights.

At the start of the season it looked like the media had been correct, with only three wins in 8 games, but from then on the youngsters found their feet and only lost 4 more games the rest of the season. By Christmas it was all over! United sat on top of the league and were never to look back, in the end they finished 11 points ahead of Blackpool, the youngsters had proved themselves and the English football public were in awe of the youthful Champions.

Young Denis Viollet scored twenty goals in this his first season with the senior squad (he had made his debut in 1953, but had to wait to 1955 to secure his spot in the team). Violett was born in Manchester and went on to score 20 plus goals a season for the next 6 seasons. When he left the Club in 1962 to join Stoke City he had scored 178 goals in 291 appearances (he went on to score 59 more at Stoke before leaving for the USA).

The championship was secured on April 7th when 62,277 fans watched the Red Devils beat Blackpool 2-1 at Old Trafford. In a period of 10 years United had only been out of the top 4 spots twice, and the latest Championship had been won by a team whose average age was just 22. United's fourth league title was ample consoladation for a shock exit from the FA Cup at the hands of Bristol Rovers. They still hadn't managed to win the double.
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Old 16-06-2009, 09:39 AM   #12
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1956 - 1957: United's first steps into Europe

The Championship in 1955 had entitled United to play in a new competition named the European Cup. The competition had been dreamed up by the French Newspaper 'L'Equipe'. Chelsea had been invited the previous year but at the prompting of the Football League they had turned the chance down. United also heard serious argument from the football powers, but Manager Matt Busby stood defiant, even risking sanctions to accept the offer and to pave the way into Europe for the English. Busby as always was on the cutting edge of the game, he believed his young side were a match for the best in Europe, and was determined to prove his point. The Football league eventually backed down to him and United were in Europe!

At this time Old Trafford did not have floodlights, and it was our friends from across the City who once again came to our rescue. all United's home games in the European cup were to played at Maine road, the home of Manchester City. In the first tie they were drawn against Belgian Champions Anderlecht, who they disposed of 10-0. The next game they were drawn against the German team Borussia Dortmund, who they also disposed of to go on to meet the Spanish Champions Bilbao. Playing in Spain in the first leg the team slumped to its first defeat in the competition losing 5-2, on the return over 70,000 fans packed into Maine Road to watch them make a stunning comeback and defeat Bilbao 3-0 on goals from Taylor and Violett (2). By this time the accolades were pouring in, Jeff Mermans the Anderlecht cap***n called them 'Worldbeaters', and the Daily Herald's George Follows described the Bilbao game as "the greatest football match he had ever seen, the greatest football crowd he had ever heard, and the greatest centre forward display he had ever seen."

Everyone agreed, it had been Tommy Taylors Night! The team had also been on a big bonus to win the tie, a whopping 3 pounds! United were through to the semi-final, and the Mighty Real Madrid. The Spanish team boasted World class stars like Alfredo Di Stefano, Raymond Kopa, Puskas, Gento and the Russian keeper Yashin. On the first leg the youth of the United team showed and Madrid tore them apart before 125,000 Fans in Bernabeau Stadium 3-1. The Old Trafford floodlights had been installed in time for the second leg and the game was played before 65,000, but it was not to be United's day and they settled for a 2-2 draw and elimination from the competition. Interestingly United's late equaliser came from a young forward named Bobby Charlton.

In addition to the good European Cup run, things had being going well on the domestic front with United through to Wembley to face Aston Villa, having already clinched the League Championship by finishing 8 points ahead of Spurs. The team were odds on favourites to clinch the Double with a win against Villa, but with just six minutes gone Villa's flying winger Peter McParland recklessly charged United keeper Ray Wood, who had possession of the ball and was preparing to kick upfield. It was a particularity nasty foul, and it has been debated many times over the years why the ref allowed McParland to remain on the field.

Woods' cheekbone had been shattered, and the United team were down to 10 men, (No subs allowed) so Jackie Blanchfower donned the goalie shirt for the rest of the second half which finished 0-0. Woods made a brave effort to return to the goal in the second half, but the weakened United team succumbed to two goals from McParland and their dream of League and Cup double had been extinguished. The building of a team that was christened the `Busby Babes' around 1956 was complete, but actually started in the youth teams of 1952 and on. The United youth team won the FA youth cup from the years 1952 through to 1957.
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Old 16-06-2009, 09:39 AM   #13
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Munich Memorial, February 6th 1958

Introduction

The team Matt Busby had built from the club's successful youth policy seemed destined to dominate football for many years. Such was the power of the Babes that they seemed invincible. The average age of the side which won the Championship in 1955-56 was just 22, the youngest ever to achieve such a feat. A year when they were Champions again, nothing, it seemed, would prevent the young braves of Manchester United from reigning for the next decade.

Players, officials and journalists prepare to board the BEA Elizabetha which was to crash at Munich. The aircraft stopped at the snowbound German airport to refuel as the party made its way back to England from Yugoslavia.


United had taken their first steps into European football in defiance of the football authorities and it was on foreign soil that the final chapter in the story of the Babes was to be written. The aircraft carrying the United party back from a victorious visit to Yugoslavia crashed in the snow of Munich airport and the Babes were no more.

The young Champions flew out of Manchester to face Red Star Belgrade remembering the cheers of 63,000 intoxicated football fans. Five days before Munich, United had played Arsenal at Highbury and thrilled all those who witnessed that game with a display of the attacking football that they had made their trademark. Nine goals were scored ... four by Arsenal, five by United.

That game, on Saturday, 1 February 1958, had typified the Busby Babes. They played with such flair and enthusiasm that they thought nothing of conceding four goals in their efforts to score five. United were trying to win the League Championship for the third successive season and by then had already reached the fifth round of the FA Cup.

To set the scene for the tragedy which was to shock football, let us consider how the 1957-58 led up to a symbolic game with Arsenal and the fateful journey to Yugoslavia. For United, the season had started well, victories over Leicester at Filbert Street, then Everton and Manchester City at Old Trafford being the perfect launch towards the title. Their scoring record was remarkable with 22 goals coming in the opening six games. Yet when they lost for the first time it was not by just an odd goal, but by 4:0 at Burnden Park, where Bolton Wanderers ran rampant in front of a crowd of 48,003.

As 1957 drew to an end the Babes lost 1-O to Chelsea at Old Trafford, then picked themselves up to beat luckless Leicester 4-0. On Christmas Day goals from Charlton, Edwards and Taylor secured two points against Luton in Manchester. On Boxing Day they met Luton again at Kenilworth Road and drew 2-2 and two days later the `derby' game with Manchester City ended in the same scoreline at Maine Road. A crowd of 70,483 watched that game as the old rivals battled for pride as well as points.

As the European Cup-tie with Red Star approached, the side also made progress in the FA Cup with a 3-1 win at Workington and a 2-0 victory over Ipswich at Old Trafford to see them through to the fifth round, where they were to meet Sheffield Wednesday.

But the third target for Matt Busby, success in Europe, was perhaps the greatest. In 1956 United had become the first English club to compete in the European Champions' Cup, falling at the semi-final to the might of Real Madrid, winners of the trophy in the competition's first five years.

That year, the European seed had been sown. Manchester had witnessed the skills of di Stefano, Kopa and Gento, had seen United score ten times against Belgian club Anderlecht, then hang on against Borussia Dortmund before a remarkable quarter-final against Atletico Bilbao. In this match the Babes defied the odds by turning a 5-3 deficit from the first leg into a 6-5 victory, with goals from Taylor, Viollet and Johnny Berry, to win the right to challenge Real Madrid in the penultimate round.

That was where the run ended, but when United qualified to enter the European competition again in the 1957-58 season it was clear where the club's priorities lay. Matt Busby wanted a side which was good enough to win everything. The FA Cup had been snatched out of his grasp because of an injury to goalkeeper Ray Wood in the 1957 final, but his Babes were capable of reaching Wembley once again, and having secured the League Championship in 1956 and 1957 they could cer***nly emulate the great side of pre-war Huddersfield Town and Arsenal and win it for a third successive time.

United's second European campaign saw them stride over Irish champions Shamrock Rovers before beating Dukla Prague 3:1 on aggregate to reach the quarter-final against Red Star. The Yugoslavs came to Manchester on 14 January 1958, and played a United side which smarting from a 1:1 draw at Elland Road against Leeds United, who had been beaten 5:0 at Old Trafford earlier in the season.

Bobby Charlton and Eddie Colman scored the goals which gave United the edge in a 2:1 first leg victory over Red Star, but it would be close in Belgrade. The run-up to the second leg was encouraging. A 7:2 win over Bolton, with goals from Bobby Charlton (3), Dennis Viollet (2), Duncan Edwards and Albert Scanlon, was just the result United needed before visiting Highbury, then leaving on the tiring journey behind the Iron Cur***n.
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Old 16-06-2009, 09:40 AM   #14
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Munich Memorial, February 6th 1958

Highbury Classic

The United side which faced Arsenal was the eleven which was to line up against Red Star four days later. With Irish international Harry Gregg, a new signing, in goal, United were without some of their regulars. Jackie Blanchflower, the centre-half who had replaced Ray Wood in goal in the FA Cup Final, was missing from the side along with wingers David Pegg and Johnny Berry and the creative inside-forward Liam Whelan, all of whom are being rested by Busby.

The two full-backs were Bill Foulkes and cap***n Roger Byrne, with the half-back line of Eddie Colman, Mark Jones and Duncan Edwards supporting the forward line of Ken Morgan, Bobby Charlton, Tommy Taylor, Dennis Viollet and Albert Scanlon.

Jack Kelsey was in goal for the Gunners and he was first to feel the power of United. Only ten minutes had gone when Dennis Viollet laid off a pass to an advancing Duncan Edwards who struck the ball with such ferocity that it was past Kelsey and in the net despite the efforts of the Welsh international. The goal was typical of Edwards. His power and strength had become a hallmark of his game despite his youth. Duncan was just 21, yet had played for England 18 times and represented his country at every level. In his short career with United he played 151 games and that first goal on that February afternoon was his 19th and final League strike.

Duncan Edwards spreads his arms to appeal for a goal kick as keeper Harry Gregg tries to claim the ball.


Arsenal fought back, urged on by the huge crowd, and it took a superb save by Gregg to prevent them from equalising. He somehow kept out a cer***n scoring chance by grabbing the ball just under the crossbar and his clearance led to United's second. The ball was pushed out to Albert Scanlon on the left wing and he ran virtually the full length of the field before crossing. Two Arsenal defenders had been drawn into the corner by the United winger and his centre found Bobby Charlton running into the centre from the right. Charlton's shot was unstoppable and all Kelsey could do was throw up both arms in a token gesture as he dived to his right, but the shot was past him and the young Charlton was turning to celebrate the Babes' 2:0 lead.

By half-time it was 3-0, and again Scanlon's speed had played its part. The winger broke down the left, rounded Arsenal right-back Stan Charlton and crossed to the far side of the pitch where right-winger Kenny Morgans met the cross and chipped the ball back into the penalty area. England centre-forward Tommy Taylor scored his 111th goal in the First Division after five seasons with United.

United seemed to be on their way to a comfortable victory, ready to take four points away from the London club following a 4-2 win in Manchester earlier in the season. High scoring clashes between the two seemed commonplace, United having beaten Arsenal 6-2 on their way to the 1956-57 Championship. Was this to be another massive victory for the Babes?

For 15 minutes of the second half there was no further score, then Arsenal took heart when David Herd, later to be a United player, broke through and hit a fierce shot at Gregg's goal. The big Irishman tried to keep the ball out but Herd's power and accuracy beat him. It was 3-1 with half an hour remaining.

Within two minutes the scores were level as Arsenal staged a sensational fight back. Wing-half Dave Bowen was the man driving Arsenal forward. It was from his cross that Herd had got the first of the home side's goals and he was involved in the move which led to the second Arsenal strike. Vic Groves jumped above the United defence to head down a cross from Gordon Nutt which fell to Jimmy Bloomfield, who scored. It was Nutt again who made the pass to Bloomfield some 60 seconds later for the London-born striker to dive full length and head home a magnificent goal which turned Highbury into a deafening stage for the final drama.

No scriptwriter could have dreamt up the plot for the last chapter of the Babes' challenge for Football League supremacy. No-one in that arena knew that they were witnessing the last magnificent demonstration of sheer genius which had taken English - and to a cer***n extent European - football apart in that decade. Under Busby the Babes had created a new style, a game that was refreshing, flowing, enter***ning, and a game which was putting England back on the map after falling to the skills of the Hungarians and the Brazilians in the early and mid-1950s.

Would United collapse under the Arsenal onslaught? Lesser teams would have been forgiven if they had defended in depth to hold out for a draw, having seen a three-goal lead disintegrate, but Manchester United went all out in search of more goals, and got them.

The speed of Scanlon and the skill of young Charlton combined to give Dennis Viollet a goal. The Manchester supporters screamed their delight, and were in raptures a few minutes later when Kelsey had to retrieve the ball from his goal for a fifth time, after Eddie Colman had found Morgans with a precise pass and Tommy Taylor had scored his last goal.

Yet even then this magnificent game had not ended. Derek Tapsfott ran through the centre of United's near exhausted defence to put Arsenal within one goal of United again. But it was the final goal of the afternoon. The referee blew for time and the players collapsed into one another's arms. United, their white shirts mud-spattered and clinging to their breathless bodies, shook hands with the opposition and each other. Supporters on the terraces embraced one another as a reaction to the sheer enjoyment of the game, and the massive crowd left the stadium with a feeling that they had witnessed something unique in football.

Fate had decided that for fans at home this game would be the epitaph to those young heroes of Manchester. In the weeks which were to follow many words would be written about the greatness of Busby's Babes and in the years which have passed since the Munich air disaster they have become legendary characters, but that 5-4 scoreline, in a game played with all the passion and creative expression those tens of thousands had watched, said all that needed to be said as far as the ordinary football fans were concerned. They knew they had seen something special in Busby's young cavaliers.
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Old 16-06-2009, 09:40 AM   #15
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Munich Memorial, February 6th 1958

Belgrade

After that symbolic game, all thoughts were now on Europe. Could United hold on to that slender lead from the first leg? For the supporters left behind it seemed a narrow margin, but they had faith in those young pIayers - after all had they not proved themselves time and again in similar circumstances?

Matt Busby chats to his players following their pre-match meal in Belgrade. Listening to his words Bert Whalley rest an arm on the shoulder of Tommy Taylor as next to him stand Jackie Blanchflower and Duncan Edwards. Seated right is Dennis Viollet and in the foreground Bobby Charlton (right) and Ken Morgans.


For the players the damp, grey smog of Manchester's winter was replaced by the fresh crispness of mid-Europe. They had seen snow on their journey to the Yugoslav capital yet they had been welcomed with warmth by the people of Belgrade who understood the greatness of Manchester United in the common language of football.

It was time for the game and as the two sides lined up in the stadium the roar of thousands of Yugoslav voices rang in the ears of the Babes. Cameras clicked as last-minute photographs were taken, and above the players in the press area British journalists filed stories which were to be read in England the following morning. Among them was Frank Swift, a giant of a man who had kept goal for Manchester City and England, and who had a reputation of being the gentle giant. Big `Swifty' had retired from the game and taken a job as a sportswriter with the News of the World, and his role in Belgrade was to write a column for the following Sunday edition.

Frank had played in the same Manchester City side as Matt Busby and was a team-mate of the United manager when City won the FA Cup in 1934. The big goalkeeper had made headline news in that game when, aged just 19, he had fainted as the final whistle was blown, overcome with the emotion of such an occasion. Perhaps he, more than any other spectator, understood the feelings of the young players as they stood together for the last moments before the start of the game.

The last line-up of the Busby Babes. 5 February, 1958, Belgrade.
From left to right: Edwards, Colman, Jones, Morgans, Charlton, Viollet, Taylor, Foulkes, Gregg, Scanlon, Byrne.
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Old 16-06-2009, 09:40 AM   #16
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Also looking out from that crowded press box were journalists who had travelled to Europe for each of United's previous games: Tom Jackson of the Manchester Evening News and his close friend and rival Alf Clarke of the now defunct Manchester Evening Chronicle. Both men loved Manchester United and lived to see their every game. Alf Clarke had been on United's books as an amateur, and was with the club before Matt Busby arrived to rebuild it after the war.

Because Manchester was a printing centre for the northern editions of the national newspapers, and also because of the tremendous popularity of the United side, most other daily newspapers were represented.

From the Daily Mirror was Archie Ledbrooke, who had only just made the trip having been on the point of being replaced by Frank McGhee because he (Ledbrooke) had still to complete an outstanding feature only hours before the flight had left England. Others included Eric Thompson from the Daily Mail, George Follows of the Daily Herald - the daily newspaper which was succeeded by The Sun following its closure - Don Davies of the Manchester Guardian, Henry Rose of the Daily Express and Frank Taylor from the News Chronicle, another publication which has since gone out of existence.

Don Davies wrote under the pen-name of `Old International' and had been in the England amateur side which played Wales in 1914, having been a member of the famous Northern Nomads side. On 5 February 1958 this is the story Davies filed back to the Manchester Guardian office in Cross Street, Manchester:

"Who would be a weather prophet? At Belgrade today in warm sunshine and on a grass pitch where the last remnants of melting snow produced the effect of an English lawn flecked with daisies, Red Star and Manchester United began a battle of wits and courage and rugged tackling in the second leg of their quarter-final of the European Cup competition. It ended in a draw 3-3, but as United had already won the first leg at Old Trafford by 2-1 they thus gained the right to pass into the semi-final round of the competition for the second year in succession on a 5-4 aggregate.
Much to the relief of the English party and to the consternation of the 52,000 home spectators, Viollet had the ball in the net past a dumbfounded Beara in ninety seconds. It was a beautifully taken goal - a characteristic effort by that player - but rather lucky in the way a rebound had run out in United's favour. But, as Jones remarked, `You need luck at this game'; and he might have added, `a suit of chain mail also would not have come amiss'. A second goal almost came fourteen minutes later, delightfully taken by Charlton after a corner kick by Scanlon had been headed by Viollet, but this was disallowed, because of offside, by the Austrian referee whose performance on the whistle so far had assumed the proportions of a flute obligato. Thar was due to the frequency which fouls were being committed by both sides after Sekularac had set the fashion in shabbiness by stabbing Morgans on the knee.

But in spite of many stops and starts events in the first half ran smoothly for United, on whose behalf Taylor led his line like a true Hotspur from centre-forward. Other factors telling strongly in Manchester's favour at this time were the clean hands and sound judgement of Gregg in goal.

Further success for United was impending. Charlton this time was the chosen instrument. Dispossessing Kostic about forty yards from goal, this gifted boy leaned brilliantly into his stride, made ground rapidly for about ten yards, and then beat the finest goalkeeper on the Continent with a shot of tremendous power and superb placing. There, one thought, surely goes England's Bloomer of the future. Further evidence of Charlton's claim to that distinction was to emerge two minutes later. A smartly taken free kick got the Red Star defence into a real tangle. Edwards fastened on the ball and did his best to oblige his colleagues and supporters by bursting it (a feat, by the way, which he was to achieve later), but he muffed his kick this time and the ball rolled to Charlton, apparently lost in a thicket of Red Star defenders. Stalemate surely. But not with Charlton about. His quick eye detected the one sure route through the circle of legs; his trusty foot drove the ball unerringly along it. 3-0 on the day: 5-1 on the aggregate. Nice going.

As was natural, the Red Star players completely lost their poise for a while. Their forwards flung themselves heatedly against a defence as firm and steady as a rock; even Sekularac, after a bright beginning in which he showed his undoubted skill, lost heart visibly and stumbled repeatedly. Nevertheless there was an upsurge of the old fighting spirit when Kostic scored a fine goal for Red Star two minutes after half time. It ought to have been followed by another one only three minutes later when Sekularac placed the ball perfectly for Cotic. Cotic's terrific shot cleared the bar by a foot - no more. Next, a curious mix-up by Foulkes and Tasic, Red Star's centre-forward, ended in Foulkes falling flat on top of Tasic and blotting him completely out of view. According to Foulkes, Tasic lost his footing, fell over, and pulled Foulkes over with him. But it looked bad and the whistle blew at once with attendant gestures indicating a penalty. Tasic had the satisfaction of converting that one, although his shot only just evaded Gregg's finger tips.

The score was now 3-2 and the crowd broke into an uncontrolled frenzy of jubilation and excitement. So much so that when Cotic failed to walk the ball into a completely unprotected goal - Gregg was lying hurt and helpless on the ground - a miniature repetition of the Bolton disaster seemed to occur at one corner of the arena.

Down the terraces streamed a wild horde of excited spectators who hung limply along the concrete walls with the breath crushed out of their bodies, if indeed nothing else had befallen them.

A quarter of an hour from the end Red Star, with their confidence and self-respect restored, were wheeling and curvetting, passing and shooting in their best style, and the United's defenders had to fight their way out of a regular nightmare of desperate situations.

It was significant hereabouts that United's inside forwards were not coming back to chase the ball as they had done so effectively in the first half and this, of course, threw added pressure on the rearguard. As soon as this fault was rectified the Red Star attacks, though frequent enough, lost something of their sting. In fact, United began to pile on the pressure at the other end and once Morgans struck a post with a glorious shot.

The furious pace never slackened, and as England's champions tried to find their flowing, attacking play of the first half, they were pelted by a storm of snowballs. Two minutes from time Harry Gregg came racing out of his goal, and hurled himself full length at Zebec's feet. He grasped it safely, but the impetus of his rush took him outside the penalty area with the ball, and Red Star had a free kick some twenty yards out.

Kostic watched Gregg position himself by the far post, protected by a wall of United players. There was just a narrow ray of light, a gap, by the near post, and precision player Kostic threaded the ball through as Gregg catapulted himself across his goal. Too late. The ball eluded his grasping fingers, and hit the back of the net. The score was 3-3."


It had always been Davies's ambition to be a football writer. For most of his life he had worked as an education officer with a Manchester engineering firm, but after it was suggested that he should try his hand at journalism he had been taken onto the Guardian staff when the editor saw a report of a fictitious match. It was the key he needed to open the door to a career of full-time writing. His style was that of the essayist, ideally suited to the Manchester Guardian, and contrasting totally with that of Henry Rose, the most popular daily writer of that time - cer***nly with the Old Trafford supporters.
Rose saw the game from the same vantage point as Davies, yet his description was totally different:

Red Star 3 Manchester United 3
Star Rating ***


"Manchester United survived the Battle of Belgrade here this afternoon and added another shining page to their glittering history by drawing 3-3 with Red Star and winning the two-leg tie 5-4.

They had to fight not only eleven desperate footballers and a fiercely partisan 52,000 crowd, but some decisions of Austrian referee Karl Kainer that were double-Dutch to me. I have never witnessed such a one-sided exhibition by any official at home or abroad.

The climax of Herr Kainer's interpretations, which helped inflame the crowd against United, came in the 55th minute when he gave a penalty against Foulkes, United's star defender. Nothing is wrong with my eyesight - and Foulkes confirmed what I saw .... that a Red Star player slipped and pulled the United man back down with him. A joke of a ruling it would have been had not Tasic scored from the spot."


Later in his report, Rose wrote:

"Gregg was hurt, Morgans and Edwards were limping; Byrne was warned for wasting time. United players were penalised for harmless looking tackles. I thought Herr Kainer would have given a free-kick against United when one of the ballboys fell on his backside!"

He described the United side as:

"Heroes all. None greater than Billy Foulkes. None greater than Bobby Charlton, who has now scored twelve goals in the eleven games he has played since he went into the side at inside-right on 21 December. But all eleven played a noble part in this memorable battle."
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Old 16-06-2009, 09:41 AM   #17
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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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Old 16-06-2009, 09:41 AM   #18
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Munich Memorial, February 6th 1958

Munich

Those on board were in a relaxed mood when the plane landed on German soil. They had played cards, chatted over the latest news, read any books and magazines which were around and passed the time away as best they could. There was the usual air of nervous apprehension about the flight, but card schools and conversation hid any fears of flying and some even managed to catch up on lost sleep rather than gaze out on the snowscape below.

By around 2 pm G-ALZU AS 57 was ready once more for take-off with Cap***n Kenneth Rayment, the second in command, at the controls. The man in charge, Cap***n James Thain, had flown the plane out to Belgrade, and his close friend and colleague was now taking the `Lord Burleigh' home again.

At 2.31 pm the aircraft control tower was told that `609 Zulu Uniform is rolling' and Cap***n Thain later described what happened:

"Ken opened the throttles which were between us and when they were fully open I tapped his hand and held the throttles in the fully open position. Ken moved his hand and I called for `full power'. The engines sounded an uneven note as the aircraft accelerated and the needle on the port pressure gauge started to fluctuate. I felt a pain in my hand as Ken pulled the throttles back and said: `Abandon takeoff. I held the control column fully forward while Ken put on the brakes. Within 40 seconds of the start of its run the aircraft was almost at a halt again".

The cause of the problem had been boost surging - a very rich mixture of fuel causing the engines to over-accelerate - a fault which was quite common in the EIizabethan. As the two men talked over the problem Cap***n Rayment decided that he would attempt a second take-off, this time opening the throttles gradually before releasing the brakes, and then moving to full power.

The telegram Duncan Edwards sent to his landlady back in Manchester telling her of the delay.....but a third attempt at take-off was made. The telegram was delivered after the crash.

At 2.34 pm permission for a second take-off attempt was given by air traffic control and for a second time the plane came to a halt. During their wait while the aircraft was being refuelled, the passengers had gone into a lounge for coffee. Now, after the two aborted attempts to take off, the party was in the lounge once more. It had begun to snow quite heavily. Full-back Bill Foulkes remembers:

"We'd been playing cards for most of the flight from Belgrade to Munich, and I remember when we left the aircraft thinking how cold it was. We had one attempt at taking off, but didn't leave the ground, so I suppose a few of those on board would start to worry a little bit, and when the second take-off failed we were pretty quiet when we went back into the lounge".

Some of the players must have felt that they would not be flying home that afternoon. Duncan Edwards sent a telegram to his landlady back in Manchester: "All flights cancelled returning home tomorrow". The telegram was delivered at around 5 pm.

Bill Foulkes recalls how after a quarter of an hour delay the passengers were asked to board again but it was another five minutes before everyone was back in the aircraft.

"Alf Clarke from the Evening Chronicle had put a call through to his office and we had to wait for him to catch up with us. We got back into our seats, but we didn't play cards this time.... I slipped the pack into my jacket pocket and sat back waiting for take-off. I was sitting about half-way down the aircraft next to a window, on the right-hand side of the gangway. Our card school was Ken Morgans, who was on my right, and facing us David Pegg and Albert Scanlon. Matt Busby and Bert Whalley were sitting together on the seat behind us and I remember how Mark Jones, Tommy Taylor, Duncan Edwards and Eddie Colman were all at the back.
David Pegg got up and moved to the back: `I don't like it here, it's not safe,' he said and went off to sit with the other players. I saw big Frank Swift back there too, he also felt that the rear was the safest place to be. There was another card school across the gangway from us, Ray Wood and Jackie Blanchflower were sitting on two of the seats, Roger Byrne, Billy Whelan and Dennis Viollet on the others with one empty seat amongst them".


A last photograph of Henry Rose (right) and Tommy Taylor as they share a moment together on the Elizabethan aircraft which crashed at Munich.


Back on the flight deck Cap***n Thain and Cap***n Rayment had discussed the problem they were having with the station engineer William Black, who had told them that the surging they were having was quite common at airports like Munich because of its altitude. At 3.03 pm 609 Zulu Uniform was rolling again. Cap***n Thain describes the next attempt at take-off:

"I told Ken that if we got boost surging again, I would control the throttles. Ken opened them to 28 inches with the brakes on. The engines were both steady so he released the brakes and we moved forward again. He continued to open the throttles and again I followed with my left hand until the levers were fully open. I tapped his hand and he moved it. He called `Full power' and I checked the dials and said: `Full power'".

Cap***n Thain again noticed that there was a sign of boost surging and called this out to Cap***n Rayment above the noise of the engines. The surging was controlled and the throttle pushed back until it was fully open:

"I glanced at the air speed indicator and saw it registered 105 knots and was flickering. When it reached 117 knots I called out `V1' [Velocity One, the point on the runway after which it isn't safe to abandon take-off]. Suddenly the needle dropped to about 112 and then 105. Ken shouted, `Christ, we can't make it' and I looked up from the instruments to see a lot of snow and a house and a tree right in the path of the aircraft."

Inside the passengers' compartment Bill Foulkes had sensed that something was wrong:

"There was a lot of slush flying past the windows and there was a terrible noise, like when a car leaves a smooth road and starts to run over rough ground".

Friday, Ferbruary 7, 1958 and the full horror of the crash is revealed. In the foreground the shredded ***l of the aircraft is almost unrecognisable. This part of the Elizabethan had struck a house, setting it on fire. In the centre background is the main body of the craft.


The Elizabethan left the runway, went through a fence and crossed a road before the port wing struck a house. The wing and part of the ***l were torn off and the house caught fire. The cockpit struck a tree and the starboard side of the fuselage hit a wooden hut con***ning a truck loaded with fuel and tyres. This exploded.

Bill Foulkes had crouched down in his seat after tightening his safety belt. He remembered afterwards a terrific bang, then after being unconscious for a few moments, seeing a gaping hole in front of him.

"The back of the aircraft had just disappeared. I got out as quickly as I could and just ran and ran. Then I turned and realised that the plane wasn't going to explode, and I went back. In the distance I could see the ***l part of the aircraft blazing and as I ran back I came across bodies. Roger Byrne still strapped to his seat, Bobby Charlton lying quite still in another seat, and Dennis Viollet. Then Harry Gregg appeared and we tried to see what we could do to help".
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Old 16-06-2009, 09:42 AM   #19
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The two team-mates helped the injured. Matt Busby, badly hurt, was taken away on a stretcher, Bobby Charlton had walked over to Gregg and Foulkes and was helped into a mini-bus, sitting alongside Dennis Viollet in the front seats as other survivors were picked up. They were taken to the Rechts de Isar Hospital in Munich. It was the following day before the true horror of the air crash became evident to Bill Foulkes and Harry Gregg:

"We went in and saw Matt in an oxygen tent, and Duncan Edwards, who seemed to be badly hurt. Bobby Charlton had a bandaged head, Jackie Blanchflower was nursing a badly gashed arm which had been strapped up by Harry Gregg in the snow of the night before. Albert Scanlon lay with his eyes closed, he had a fractured skull, and Dennis Viollet had a gashed head and facial injuries. Ray Wood's face was cut and he had concussion and Ken Morgans and Johnny Berry lay quite still in their beds. I spoke to a nurse and she told me that she thought Duncan had a better chance of making a full recovery than Johnny did....
We came across Frank Taylor in another bed; he was the only journalist around and he asked if we'd like to have a beer with him. Like us, he didn't know the full implications of what had happened the afternoon before. We were about to leave the hospital when I asked a nurse where we should go to see the other lads. She seemed puzzled so I asked her again: `Where are the other survivors?' ....
`Others? There are no others, they are all here.' It was only then that we knew the horror of Munich. The Busby Babes were no more."


Bobby Charlton, aged 20 at the time, sits at the bedside of goalkeeper Ray Wood in the Rechts der Isar hospital in Munich a few days after the crash. Charlton was able to return to play in the sixth round FA Cup tie on 1 March 1958, but Wood was to lose his place in the team to Harry Gregg in the following weeks.


Roger Byrne, Geoff Bent, Mark Jones, David Pegg, Liam Whelan, Eddie Colman and Tommy Taylor had been killed instantly. Club secretary Walter Crickmer had also died, along with the first team trainer, Tom Curry, and coach Bert Whalley.

Duncan Edwards and Johnny Berry were critically injured and fighting for their lives, Matt Busby had suffered extensive injuries and was the only club official to survive the crash.

Eight of the nine sportswriters on board the aircraft had also perished: Alf Clarke, Don Davies, George Follows, Tom Jackson, Archie Ledbrooke, Henry Rose, Eric Thompson and the gentle giant, Frank Swift. One of the aircrew had been killed, together with two other passengers: the travel agent who had arranged the flight de***ls, and a supporter who had flown out to watch the game. Nine players had survived, but two of them, Johnny Berry and Jackie Blanchflower - brother of Tottenham Hotspur's Danny - never played again.

Two photographers, the travel agent's wife, and two Yugoslav passengers, one with a young baby, had survived, together with Frank Taylor. On the afternoon of the crash 21 people had died, 18 had survived, of whom four were close to death.

Of those four, Duncan Edwards, Matt Busby, Johnny Berry and Cap***n Kenneth Rayment, two would survive. Three weeks after the aircrash which had become known simply as `Munich', Duncan Edwards and Kenneth Rayment had lost their battle to live.
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Old 16-06-2009, 09:42 AM   #20
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Munich Memorial, February 6th 1958

Manchester Mourns

On the afternoon of the crash Alf Clarke had telephoned the Evening Chronicle sports desk to say that he thought the flight would be held up by the weather and made arrangements to return the following day. By three in the afternoon the paper had more or less `gone to bed', and the final editions were leaving Withy Grove. In other parts of the city the daily newspaper staffs were beginning their routines. Reporters were heading out on diary jobs, sub-editors were looking through agency stories to see what was to form the backbone of the Friday morning editions.

That weekend United were to play League leaders Wolves at Old Trafford. Despite the long journey home it looked on form as if the Reds would close the four-point gap at the top of the table, putting them just one victory behind Billy Wright's side, and ready to increase their efforts for that third successive Championship. Could United emulate Huddersfield Town and Arsenal? Surely if they did it would be an even greater achievement than in those pre-war days. Saturday was coming round again. United would make the headlines. Then on the teleprinter came an unbelievable message: `Manchester United aircraft crashed on take off..... heavy loss of life feared.' The BBC interrupted its afternoon programming to broadcast a news flash. The football world listened to the words but few understood their meaning.

Jimmy Murphy, Matt Busby's wartime friend and now his assistant, was manager of the Welsh national side, and a World Cup qualifying game had coincided with the Red Star fixture. Murphy told Matt Busby that he would go to Yugoslavia rather than the game at Ninian Park, Cardiff, but his manager told him that his place was with the Welsh side.

"I always sat next to Matt on our European trips," Murphy recalls, "but I did what he said and let him go off to Red Star without me. Mind you, I've got to be honest - my mind was more on our game in Yugoslavia than the match I was watching. When I heard that we were through to the semi-final it was a great load off my mind; I didn't like not being there."

He had just returned to Old Trafford from Wales when news of the aircrash reached him. Alma George, Matt Busby's secretary, told him that the charter flight had crashed. Murphy failed to react.

"She told me again. It still didn't sink in, then she started to cry. She said many people had been killed, she didn't know how many, but the players had died, some of the players. I couldn't believe it. The words seemed to ring in my head. Alma left me and I went into my office. My head was in a state of confusion and I started to cry."

The following day Jimmy Murphy flew out to Munich and was stunned by what he saw:

Matt Busby lies in the oxygen tent as he fights for his life in the Rechts der Isar Hospital.


"Matt was in an oxygen tent and he told me to `keep the flag flying'. Duncan recognised me and spoke. It was a terrible, terrible time."

Murphy was given the job of rebuilding. Life would go on despite the tragedy, and Manchester United would play again:

"I had no players, but I had a job to do."

After the agency newsflash had reached the Manchester evening newspapers, extra editions were published. At first de***ls were printed in the Stop Press. By 6 pm a special edition of the Manchester Evening Chronicle was on sale:

"About 28 people, including members of the Manchester United football team, club officials, and journalists are feared to have been killed when a BEA Elizabethan airliner crashed soon after take-off in a snowstorm at Munich airport this afternoon. It is understood there may be about 16 survivors. Four of them are crew members".

The newspaper, which was carrying Alf Clarke's match report and comments from the previous night's game, said on its front page: `Alf Clarke was talking to the Evening Chronicle reporters in Manchester just after 2.30 pm when he said it was unlikely that the plane would be able to take off today.' Even though only three hours had elapsed since the crash the newspaper had a de***led report of how the disaster occurred.
Twenty-four hours later, as the whole of Europe reacted to the news of the tragedy, the Evening Chronicle listed the 21 dead on its front page under a headline: `Matt fights for life: a 50-50 chance now'. There was a picture of Harry Gregg and Bill Foulkes at the bedside of Ken Morgans, and de***ls of how the other injured were responding to treatment. The clouds of confusion had lifted - Munich had claimed 21 lives, 15 were injured and, of these, four players and Matt Busby were in a serious condition.


Workmen pay their respects as a cortege leaves Old Trafford. Supporters kept vigil at the stadium as the football world mourned the passing of the Babes.


In the days following, Manchester mourned as the bodies of its famous footballing heroes were flown home to lie overnight in the gymnasium under the main grandstand before being passed on to relatives for the funerals. Today that gymnasium is the place where the players' lounge has been built, where those who succeeded the Babes gather after a game for a chat and a drink with the opposition.

Thousands of supporters turned out to pay their last respects. Where families requested that funerals should be private, the United followers stayed away from gravesides but lined the route to look on in tearful silence as corteges passed.

Cinema newsreels carried reports from Munich, and the game itself responded with memorial services, and silent grounds where supporters of every club stood, heads bowed, as referees indicated a period of silence by a blast on their whistles. Desmond Hackett wrote a moving epitaph to Henry Rose, whose funeral was the biggest of all. A thousand taxi drivers offered their services free to anyone who was going to the funeral and there was a six-mile queue to Manchester's Southern Cemetery. The cortege halted for a moment outside the Daily Express offices in Great Ancoats Street where Hackett wrote in the style of Henry:

`Even the skies wept for Henry Rose today.....'
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