FAREWELL TO THE FLOWERS OF MANCHESTER

Manchester United had to continue and chairman Harold Hardman had made this clear in his message on the front cover of the Sheffield Wednesday programme:

"United will go on .... the club has a duty to the public and a duty to football. We shall carry on even if it means that we are heavily defeated . Here is a tragedy which will sadden us for years to come, but in this we are not alone. An unprecedented blow to British football has touched the hearts of millions. Wherever football is played United is mourned".

• Roger Byrne would have learned when he returned to Manchester that his wife Joy was expecting their first child. Eight months after his death, Roger's son Roger junior was born and during the 1970s became a ball boy at Old Trafford.
  
• Geoff Bent treasured a picture of himself taking the ball off Tom Finney in one of the 12 First Division games he played, and the newspaper cutting was kept by his young wife Marion. His daughter Karen was only four months old when he died.
  
• Eddie Colman, the `cheekie chappie' from Salford and nicknamed "Snakehips" for his trademark body swerve was just three months past his 21st birthday when he was killed.
  
• Duncan Edwards, the youngest player to appear for England, was planning to get married to his fiancé, Molly. He had been a senior footballer for only four years, and was 21. Today, a stained glass window in St Francis' Church in his home town of Dudley remains as a tribute to a great player (right).
  
• Mark Jones left a young wife, June, and a baby son, Gary. The ex-bricklayer was just 24 years of age. He doted on his black Labrador retriever, Rick. The dog pined away to its death shortly after the disaster.
  
• David Pegg was only 22 and had edged himself into the England side at a time when Tom Finney and Stan Matthews were ending their international careers. His ambition was to be successful with United, and he had achieved that aim.
  
• Tommy Taylor was also planning to marry and had told his fiancé, Carol, that he was looking forward to getting home from Belgrade for a pint of Guinness and to listen to his records with her.
  
• Liam Whelan was a deeply religious boy, and Harry Gregg remembers clearly his last words as the aircraft accelerated down the runway: `If the worst happens I am ready for death .... I hope we all are.'

Eleven years later an official inquiry cleared Captain James Thain of any responsibility for the accident. The official cause was recorded as a build-up of melting snow on the runway which prevented the Elizabethan from reaching the required take-off speed.

Old Trafford has it's own memorial clock of the disaster.The clock pictured is situated to one side of the South Stand. Most fans visiting Old Trafford believe that the clock shows the actual time the disaster took place. In fact it doesn't, it just shows normal time (the disaster actually occurred at 3.04pm). However, the date of February 6th 1958 is recorded on it.

A tribute song called "The Flowers of Manchester" was written by Eric Winter, editor of "Sing" magazine and published in the October 1958 edition of the publication. It was sung by (among others) The Spinners, and is still occasionally sung in folk song clubs today. For further information and to download the song, check here. The lyrics are as follows :
 

The Flowers Of Manchester

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

The Busby Babes 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 tried to take off and twice turned back again.

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

Roger Byrne and Tommy Taylor, who were capped for England's side,
And Ireland's Liam Whelan and England's Geoff Bent died.
Mark Jones and Eddie Coleman 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 this team,
Three long months passed by before he saw his team again.

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

England's finest football team it's record truly great,
It's proud success mocked by this cruel turn of fate.
Eight men will never play again who met disaster there,
The flowers of English football, the flowers of Manchester.