Flowers Of Manchester

It´s difficult for someone of my generation to comprehend or even begin to imagine the news of the 1958 Munich Air Disaster filtering through to the people of Manchester and the supporters of Manchester United Football Club. I´m used to disasters being relayed, reported and confirmed within minutes of them happening on satellite TV, the internet and through mobile phones. Back in 1958 it would have been word of mouth, with reality only hitting home when it was in the black and white print of the newspapers.

Today is the 50th anniversary of the Munich Air Disaster that claimed the lives of seven United players, with Duncan Edwards, a player Bobby Robson still claims to have been the best he has ever seen, dying 15 days later. The aircraft carrying the United team crashed on a snowy runway on it´s third attempt to take off, on the way back from a European tie. Matt Busby´s team was destroyed and it must have seemed that the future of the club was in doubt.

Things move on though, all too quickly sometimes. United played on, youth players and reserves were promoted to the first team. Amazingly, United won their first match after the crash, a young team inspired and moved by the passionate support defeated Sheffield Wednesday 3-0. It was to be the only league match United would win for the rest of the season, their league challenge faltering. They did reach the final of the FA Cup though, only to lose 2-0 to Bolton Wanderers.

Matt Busby was weakened by the crash, spending 3 months in hospital, but Busby vowed to bounce back and bring the European Cup to Manchester.

Things move on, but some things are never forgotten. On a balmy May night in 1968 at Wembley, 10 years after he lay among the snow on a Munich runway, Matt Busby lifted the European Cup for Manchester United. United defeated Euseubio´s Benfica 4-1. Bobby Charlton, who had been in the crash back in 58 scored two goals, with George Best and a young Brian Kidd bagging the other two.

It´s quite a story and there are many chapters still to be written about Manchester United Football Club, but you can be sure that 1958 will never be forgotten. Printed below is a poem written by a United supporter in the aftermath of the disaster.

Lyric by Eric Winter

One cold and bitter Thursday in Munich, Germany,
Eight great football stalwarts conceded victory,
Eight men will never play again who met destruction there,
The Flowers of English football, the Flowers of Manchester.

Matt Busby's boys were flying home, returning from Belgrade,
This great United family, all masters of their trade,
The pilot of the aircraft, the skipper Captain Thain,
Three times they tried to take off and twice turned back again.

The third time down the runway disaster followed close,
There was slush upon that runaway and the aircraft never rose,
It ploughed into the marshy ground, it broke, it overturned,
And eight of the team were killed as the blazing wreckage burned.

Roger Byrne and Tommy Taylor who were capped for England's side.
And Ireland's Billy Whelan and England's Geoff Bent died,
Mark Jones and Eddie Colman, and David Pegg also
They all lost their lives as it ploughed on through the snow.

Big Duncan he went too, with an injury to his brain.
And Ireland's brave Jack Blanchflower will never play again,
The great Matt Busby lay there, the father of his team,
Three long months passed by before he saw his team again.

The trainer, coach and secretary, and a member of the crew,
Also eight sporting journalists who with United flew,
and one of them Big Swifty, who we will ne'er forget,
the finest English 'keeper that ever graced the net.

Oh, England's finest football team its record truly great,
its proud successes mocked by a cruel turn of fate.
Eight men will never play again, who met destruction there,
the Flowers of English football, the Flowers of Manchester.