The Busby Babes

The Start of the Manchester United Renaissance
In 1945, just after World War II had ended Manchester United were looking for a new manager to lead them from the darkness; the man who ‘ticked all the boxes’ was former Man City Captain and war veteran Matt Busby.So began a remarkable quarter of a century for the reds in which triumph and tragedy brought themselves to the club. This bittersweet period in the history of Manchester United changed the shape of - not only Mancunian football - but football right across the globe.

During Sir Matt Busby’s tenure at Old Trafford three fantastic teams were built, five League Championships, two FA Cups, six FA Youth Cups, the European Cup were all won and all this while playing a brand of football which would become synonymous with the club.

When Busby took over the reigns at Man Utd they were £15,000 in debt and had to play their home games at rivals Manchester City’s Maine road stadium, as Old Trafford had been decimated by two direct hits by German bombs, not to mention some of the players were still away in the services. So to say that he had a tall order would’ve been a huge understatement to say the least.

The Busby Babes – The First Great Team is born
Straight away Busby showed his single mindedness in his pursuit in making Manchester United great; When the Chairman, James Gibson offered him a three year contract Sir Matt demanded a five year one on the grounds that he wanted time to create a team that would not only challenge for titles in the short term, but who would throw down the gauntlet for many years to come.

Unusually – for the day – Sir Matt adopted a hands-on approach to management; he put on his tracksuit and went out on the training field with the players. This was far from the norm, as captain, Johnny Carey testified, he declared:

‘When I joined United, Scott Duncan (former United manager 1932-37), with spats and a red rose in his buttonhole, typified a football manager. But here was the new boss playing with his team in training, showing what he wanted and how to do it. He was ahead of his time.’

The Busby Babes – Manchester United’s greatest ever signing?
Soon after he took over, Busby arguably made the greatest signing in the history of Manchester United when he brought the ex-West Bromwich and Wales player, Jimmy Murphy to the club as assistant manager. The manager’s new right-hand man would be involved in the cultivation of the best young players to have played the game, including Bobby Charlton, George Best, Eddie Colman, Nobby Styles, Liam ‘Billy’ Whelan, Tommy Taylor, Dennis Viollet and the great Duncan Edwards. Exciting times now lay ahead.

When the legendry pair took control of United the team was languishing in 16th place, by the end of that season the team had risen to a more than respectful fourth with a team the read: Crompton, Hamlett, Chilton, Aston, Whalley, Cockburn, Delaney, Pearson, Rowley, Buckle, Wrigglesworth.The 1946-47 season saw football return to a national league instead of the war time regional leagues. Manchester United were now gathering momentum with Jack Rowley 26 goals helping fire the club to second place finish in Division 1, just one point behind Champions Liverpool.

Although the League season was a relative successful it was in the FA Cup that the Busby Babes would come into their own. They dominated the competition right from the outset; they scored an amazing 18 goals in five games before reaching the final, knocking out Aston Villa, Liverpool, Charlton Athletic, Preston North End and Derby, before taking on Blackpool in the final.

The final took place at Wembley Stadium, London on 24 April 1948. In an open match – played in front of a crowd of nearly 100,000 it was Blackpool who drew first blood through Eddie Shimwell’s 12th minute penalty which was converted after Stan Mortenson was felled by Manchester United’s centre-half Allenby Chilton. However this led wouldn’t last long 16 minutes later their was a mix-up in the area between ‘Pool goalkeeper Joe Robinson and centre-half Eric Hayward, which was capitalised on by the prowling Jack Rowley, who had the easy task of tapping the ball into an empty net. The first half was pretty frenetic to say the least; just seven more minutes had elapsed when Stan Mortenson’s rocket beat Jack Crompton in the Manchester United goal.

Blackpool led until the 69th minute when The Reds immense pressure finally told when United were awarded a free-kick. It was taken by Johnny Morris who floated in a superb ball which was met by Jack Rowley’s powerful header. The game was now 2-2 and was now end-to-end stuff with both teams – what seemed like – taking turns in attacking the other. It was on one of these sorties by Blackpool that led to United’s third. Crompton pulled off a brilliant save from Mortenson, The Reds goalkeeper then turned defence into attack by clearing the ball quickly to John Anderson who then found Stan Pearson who hit a blinder from 25 yards which cannoned of the up-right and into the back of the Blackpool net. United were now in the ascendancy and three minutes later Anderson’s deflected long range effort wrong footed Robinson, putting The Reds 4-2 up. That quick-fire double knocked the stuffing right out of Manchester United’s Wembley opponents and the game finished with that scoreline.

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