Sir Matt Busby by Patrick Barclay

Author:Patrick Barclay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

KEEP THE FLAG FLYING

Harry Gregg and Bill Foulkes had travelled back to Manchester with Murphy by train and ferry. Foulkes was a tough ex-miner and yet, every time the train braked, his heart had skipped a beat. He and Gregg were needed because United would resume playing as soon as possible. As soon as the funerals were over.

At one stage ten coffins had lain in the gymnasium at Old Trafford awaiting collection. They were kept polished, never gathering a speck of dust, by Irene Ramsden – mother of Ken, later to become United’s secretary – and her sister Joan Taylor. In happier times, Irene and Joan were part of the fun around Old Trafford. They ran the laundry in a windowless cellar beneath the main stand and were known as Daz and Omo after the soap powders. No one knew which was which. ‘They’d answer to both or neither,’ said Ken Ramsden, ‘depending on who was asking.’ Apart from the first team’s kit, which on fine days would be strung on a line between the back of the stand and the railway fence, they might be handed a lipstick-smeared shirt which a player didn’t want to take home, or Walter Crickmer’s curtains: painful recollections as they dusted the coffins.

On the Mondays after Cup rounds, the players would gather in the laundry with Busby and his staff to listen to the draw, because Daz and Omo had the only radio in the stadium. Less than a fortnight earlier, perched on washing machines, the players had been pleased to hear they would face Sheffield Wednesday at home.

Murphy, anxious to get everyone away from the mourning city, now took those who remained to the Norbreck. And there pondered how to keep the flag flying.

To his own great credit, United were accustomed to reserve strength. But, of the best players outside the first 11 at the time of the crash, Pegg and Bent were dead, Blanchflower and Berry out of consideration for the foreseeable future, if not ever, Wood far from ready and McGuinness injured. Murphy needed to recruit. Fortunately, Busby had been working on that before the crash. With the help of Paddy McGrath and his Blackpool connections.

McGrath had been told by Ernie Taylor that the Bloomfield Road club would be willing to sell him for £8,000 given his age, 32. The accomplished inside-forward said he fancied going to Old Trafford as a squad player; he could help the younger ones in the reserves while being available for the first team if required. McGrath had put the idea to Busby, who liked it. But negotiations with Blackpool had stalled when they offered to swap Taylor for Colin Webster; Busby, pointing out that Blackpool had offered £12,000 for Webster, wanted a cash adjustment. Now Murphy needed to keep Webster. And bring in Ernie Taylor as well, to compensate for the lost wiles of Colman and Whelan. And so, despite reservations about McGrath’s place at the high table – Murphy was not a Cromford man,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.