If a football club had a feast day

If football clubs had a feast day which in the case of saints is usually fixed by the date of their death and heavenly resurrection Manchester Uniteds would be on February 6, the day on which in 1958 almost an entire golden generation of young football players perished in the Munich plane crash.

Let me declare that I am a supporter of Manchester United (never Man U!), a team I adopted as a young boy in 1975, when I learnt that this newly promoted team was performing very well in the English First Division. I had no idea of the clubs rich history and thought they were plucky underdogs; I might as easily have become a Queens Park Rangers or Norwich City supporter.

I didnt know then about the events of that February 6, 1958, and the astonishing story that followed it. Without a doubt, the tragedy set up Manchester United as one of Englandsindeed, the worlds favourite clubs.

It wasnt just the deaths of so many players in that young team which, with an average age of 22, had won successive league titles, but also the clubs dramatic resurrection from the ashes that captivated the people.

Less than a fortnight after the Munich crash which ultimately claimed the lives of eight players (all but one of them first team regulars) and 21 in totalUnited fielded a team of reserves and youth players in an FA Cup tie against Sheffield Wednesday. Amazingly, two crash survivors goalkeeper Harry Clegg and the tough-as-nails defender Billy Foulkestook to the floodlit field that evening (of all things, a Wednesday).

United won the tie 3-0 through a hat-trick by young Shay Brennan, who would go on to have a fine career. And United marched on through to the FA Cup final, to face neighbours Bolton Wanderers.

Every football fan, bar Wanderers supporters, seemed to will United towards victory. But the steam had run out: United lost owing in part to an illegal goal for which many found it difficult to forgive striker Nat Lofthouse, who had pushed Uniteds goalkeeper into the net. Memories of that game were revived on Lofthouses death last year.

Uniteds manager Matt Busbyhis young team had been nicknamed the Busby Babes after him was at Wembley that day. He had just returned from Munich, where he recuperated in the Isar Hospital from the injuries sustained in the crash. His recovery was more dramatic than these words suggest: the devout Catholic received the Last Rites more than once.

For weeks, the extent of the tragedy was withheld from Busby. Not until later did he learn of the deaths of his captain Roger Byrne (29; he never learnt that his wife was pregnant), striker Tommy Taylor (26, described by Real Madrids great Alfredo di Stefano as El Magnifico), winger David Pegg (22), full back Eddie Colman (21), pipe-smoking centre half Mark Jones (24), substitute Geoff Bent (25), and the free-scoring Irish midfielder Billy Whelan (22).

And Busby did not learn until much later of the death, two weeks after the crash, of 21-year-old Duncan Edwards, who doubtless would have become one of the great legends of the game.

Dublin-born midfielder Whelan was known to be a devout Catholic. With prescient foreboding, he reportedly made his peace with God minutes before his death in the aircraft that already had failed twice to take off. Well, if this is the time, then Im ready, he said as he boarded the ill-fated aeroplane.

Building on a core of the survivors chiefly Foulkes, Gregg and young Bobby CharltonBusby reconstructed his team, buying wisely and astutely spotting young talent. These three elements provided what 1960s fans called the Holy Trinity: crash survivor Charlton, record signing Denis Law and youth player George Best.

Five years after Munich, Busby finally won the FA Cup; ten years later, in 1968, the European Cup the competition in which the Busby Babes had played just hours before the crash.

If the Munich crash is a feast day for the club, Busby is the patron saint. Having nearly joined rivals Liverpool, he had come to United because of his friendship with club functionary Louis Rocca through their membership in the Manchester Catholic Sportsmans Club.

A few months before his death on January 20, 1994, Busby witnessed his beloved United win its first league title since 1967. The club has won ten league titles since under the guidance of another Scot, Alex Ferguson (who once was abused by fans of the club he played for, Glasgow Rangers, for marrying a Catholic).

And on May 26, 1999, the day on which Busby would have turned 90, United won their second European Cup (now rebranded Champions League) in a dramatic fashion, winning 2-1 with two goals in injury time. The opponent that day: FC Bayern, the famous team from, of all places, Munich.