The autumn of 1957 was a carefree, buoyant time for Manchester United fans. They had watched as the team had made a decent start to the season and also as they had brushed aside the Shamrock Rovers club from Dublin, in the first round of the European Cup. After being League Champions for the previous [...]

After the euphoria of the victory against Bilbao on that never to be forgotten evening of 6th February, 1957, the fans had to wait until the 11th April for the 1st leg of the European Cup semi-final. United also had to wait to find out who they would be playing as joining them in the [...]

It was quite late on Thursday January 17, 1957, when the silver Elizabethan aircraft lifted out of Bilbao’s small municipal airport, and into the dim, grey, wet and cloudy, Spanish afternoon. The United players had spent the previous four hours or so helping to free the aircraft of ice and snow, and now they just [...]

After the hard fought battle with Borrussia Dortmund towards the end of November 1956, Manchester United had to wait another eight weeks before they would face European opposition again in the European Cup. They had been paired with Athletico Bilbao in the forthcoming quarter final tie, and the matches were to be played in Bilbao [...]

The City of Manchester, and also the rest of the country, started to feel for the very first time, “European Football Fever” in October of 1956, following the emphatic demolition of Belgian Champions Anderlecht by United in their very first tie in this new European Cup competition. Significantly, the 10-0 winning margin, and the display [...]

History was made on the evening of September 12, 1956 – when thanks to the vision of United manager Matt Busby, the club became the first English club to compete in European competition. In truth, if Busby had wanted to test his beloved “Babes” in competition against the cream of Europe’s best football teams, the [...]

Good Friday fell on April 19th in 1957 – 50 years ago . I have some very strong and fond memories of that day and the weekend that followed. Being brought up in a strong Catholic environment, Good Friday was a “Holy Day” and in our family, was normally observed in just such a way. [...]

If all good things must come to an end, it was certainly true of Matt Busby’s first post-war United side at the dawn of the 1950’s. Dressing room dissent led to the break-up of the 1948 FA Cup winning team, with Johnny Morris departing for Derby and Charlie Mitten exporting his wing wizardry to Colombia. [...]

The outbreak of the Second World War forced football to the very back of people’s minds between 1939 and 1946. But even in the absence of League football, Old Trafford was still the focus of attention. On 11 March 1941 the stadium was bombed during a German air raid. The attack destroyed the main stand, [...]