IN TRAGEDIES WAKE – MUNICH 1958

 

At Old Trafford

In tragedies wake

In the eerie quiet

The terraces echoed

The mournful silence

And even the empty

Seats shed tears

For The busby babes

A MARK OF RESPECT – ARE YOU LISTENING LEEDS UTD

In the aftermath of Munich

All of football felt the loss

In an altogether more

Caring and respectful time

When fans of all teams

Out of respect, wore black

And stadia were universally quiet 

CALLOUS UNITED - GREGG AND FOULKES

 

Manchester United’s

Callous attitude

So cold and harsh

Towards the survivors

Beggared belief

And was never more

Keenly felt than when,

Only days after

The Munich Disaster

Gregg and Foulkes,

Though traumatised

And grieving and feeling

The guilt of the survivor

Were forced to play

Afterwards Harry Gregg

And Bill Foulkes

Forced to play too soon

With the guilt of the survivor

Sat in the dressing room

Staring with empty eyes

THE HERO OF MUNICH

 

In the wake of tragedy

Harry Gregg arose

And with no thought

Of himself 

Pulled survivors

From the burning plane

Assisted latterly

By Bill Foulkes

Though he thought

His action unremarkable

George Best, said of him

“Bravery is one thing

But what Harry did

Was about more than bravery.

It was about goodness”

 

THE BUSBY BABES - THE HOLLYWOOD OF BRITISH FOOTBALL

 

Bright lights

Shining like stars

In the twinkling

Football firmament

Sparkling lights

From gritty towns

In the shadow of the

Dark satanic mills

Shining out from

Industrial heartlands

Like beacons

Bright lights of youth

Illuminating the lives

Of the terraced fans

Young men from the dark

Industrial landscapes

Youth’s bright flames

Snuffed out

In the snows of Munich

CALLOUS UNITED – BLANCHFLOWER AND BERRY

 

Manchester United’s

Callous attitude

So cold and harsh

Towards the survivors

Beggared belief

And was never more

Keenly felt than when,

They could no longer play

Jackie Blanchflower

And fellow survivor Berry

Were forced to vacate

The homes they lived in

A TALE OF HEROES

 

Young heroes returning

From a far off foreign field

With hard fought victory won

Where the valiant refused to yield

 

Like heroes from Homers Iliad

Exalted in the legends

But in the Germanic snows

The heroes journey ends

 

As the Gods of winter struck

Fire and ice took its toll

And the names were duly writ

Upon an eternal honour roll

 

Geoff Bent, Roger Byrne (Capt)

Duncan Edwards, Billy Whelan

David Pegg, Tommy Taylor

Mark Jones and Eddie Colman

QUIET PLEASE

 

If you are a City fan

Keep silent if you can

As you stand at Old Trafford

As silence falls in accord

Please don’t speak out

Please don’t scream or shout

Acknowledge the silence

For those who lived once

Don’t think about the “Babes”

Cold and dead in the carnage

If hatred in your heart and head

Stops you honouring United’s dead

Give your silence as a gift

In remembrance of Frank Swift

MANCHESTER UNITED’S DARKEST HOUR

 

Broken in he twisted wreckage

The victims of Munics winter carnage

Crashing in the snow and ice

There would have to be a fearful price

And when the bill was finally reckoned

Deaths reaper grimly beckoned

Towards the twenty three poor souls

That appeared on his fearsome rolls

Young men cut down in their prime

Older ones who thought they’d more time

Were all taken from that grissly place

To feel the breath of heaven on their face

Taking the souls who died in the snow

To where the innocents and the heroes go

JIMMY MURPHY 6TH FEBRUARY 1958

 

In those brief moments,

Jimmy was happy,

On top of the world.

He had reached the pinnacle

Wales in the World Cup Finals

United in the European semis

Life was good

Life was very good indeed

 

Then the news came

Of a crash in the snow

And suddenly

Life wasn’t so good.

Information,

Patchy at first

Trickled in,

Not all reliable

Miss information

Spread like the plague,

Then the facts emerged

From amongst the fictions

So many dead

So many lost

And for the living

Life would never be the same

 

Jimmy blamed himself

For being so smug

For being so happy

For being alive

THE BUSBY BABES

 

The young lads played the game

The Busby Babes was their name

Though they played like magic

They embraced tragedy in Munich

Their plane crashing in the snow

The wreckage burning all aglow

Eigth of  their magnificent number

Would not see another summer