“Verses have been added about the other players who survived, but [initially] it just mentioned the eight that died. But that’s what we call the folk ‘process’. People like Harry Gregg did wonders, rescuing Bobby Charlton and others, which we found out about later.”
The Spinners were developed in Liverpool, yet Mick’s Salford as well as United origins have actually stayed securely undamaged because he initially saw the Reds play in 1946.
“By the end of the war I was 10 and I’d fallen in love with Man United. My dad was a City fan!” chucklesGroves “But he said: ‘I don’t mind taking you to Maine Road to see the United games, because that’s where City play,’ so he used to drop me on his shoulders on the big bank at Maine Road.
“When United eventually got back to Old Trafford in ’49, I started going to see them there. The Salford lads always sat at the Scoreboard End, and the Stretford lads were always in the Stretford End.
“I started life as a teacher around ’56 in Liverpool,” he proceeds. l read about it [Munich] on the bus when I was entering Liverpool from Wallasey, on the [newspaper] hoardings. I simply could not think it, like any kind of follower. ‘My god, what’ s occurred?’ It was really, really uncomfortable. Particularly as I was simply 20 at the time.”
