Workington pin survival hopes on YouTube recreation of the biggest match in a small club's history – against the Busby Babes of 1958
Manchester United came to Workington in one of their final matches before the 1958 Munich tragedy
Manchester United faced Workington in one of their finals games before the Munich disaster
By Kevin Garside
Chief Sports Correspondent
May 24, 2020 4:37 pm(Updated July 13, 2020 3:41 pm)
The Last Dance it isn't, but for lovers of epochal teams the imminent YouTube evocation of the day in 1958 that Manchester United came to Workington in one of their final matches before the Munich tragedy is worth our time and money if it keeps a venerable ­community club from falling into the Covid-19 abyss.
On a midwinter pitch made even more inhospitable by overnight frost the champions of England faced what appeared to be the whole of Cumbria at a Borough Park sardined to its 21,500 capacity.
United fielded the same XI that a month later would line up for the last time in Belgrade to contest the second leg of the European Cup quarter-final against Red Star. The Busby Babes were on the point of redrawing the football map of Europe, challenging the early hegemony of Real Madrid, and here they were on the banks of the Derwent, a parade of football exotica from a world far beyond the reality known to Workington.
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The Busby Babes were on the point of redrawing the football map of Europe in 1958, challenging the early hegemony of Real Madrid
Five of those who drew gasps at Borough Park were among the dead in Munich, where United stopped to refuel on the return from Belgrade: Herculean Duncan Edwards, England's centre-forward Tommy Taylor, mesmeric half-back Eddie Colman, Roger Byrne, the finest left-back in England, and Barnsley oak Mark Jones. The tragedy was felt keenly by the people of Workington, their own brush with this fabulous ensemble affording by association a degree of connectivity.
Thus whenever mention is made of Munich, a communal sigh echoes about the Cumbrian coast. Workington's BBC Radio Cumbria broadcaster John Walsh (right) recalls playing rugby as an 11-year-old schoolboy in black armbands as a mark of respect. "We were devastated. We made the armbands ourselves. I remember the next day going on the bus to school from Maryport. Where it was usually heaving and noisy, it was quiet and respectful. It was so shocking because we had only just seen them a few weeks before."
The match remains the most treasured in the history of the Reds, then members of the Third Division North, now in the fourth tier of the National League, and it is to be revisited on Saturday in a fund-raising reimagining of that January afternoon, delivered as live via YouTube.
Like many a club dependent on matchday revenues to survive, Workington face extinction in the wake of Covid-19. By deploying old stills from the match, reports culled from newspaper cuttings, the testimony of the players, reflections of those still with us who were there, a glorious piece of newsreel reportage narrated by Walsh hopes to draw to YouTube a crowd to at least equal the club record.
A minimum donation of £2 per head would thus yield a fighting fund of £40k, of which £30k would go to the club, permitting the team to at least fulfil fixtures when the season restarts, and £10k to the NHS, to which 25 per cent of profits are pledged.
The initiative is the creation of Workington chairman Les Byers. "Small clubs like ourselves, playing in the lower leagues, do not benefit from generous TV payouts," says Byers. "Virtually all our revenue comes through our turnstiles and cash spent on food and drink. Now, with all games on hold, our share of any money raised from this online match is absolutely essential to our survival.
Only three of the 22 players from the 1958 match survive – Sir Bobby Charlton and Workington's Jackie Bertollini and Keith Burkinshaw.
"This is a bold undertaking for us, when you consider our average crowd is now little more than 500 fans. As well as the Workington supporters, we hope football fans everywhere, particularly from Manchester United, will help break our ground record, enjoy the game, save our club and help the NHS."
Only three of the 22 players from that 1958 match survive – Sir Bobby Charlton and Workington's Jackie Bertollini and Keith Burkinshaw, who had recently arrived from Liverpool and would later become one of the most successful coaches in the history of Tottenham Hotspur. Speaking from his home, 85-year-old Burkinshaw's recollections are framed in a series of grainy impressions.
"I was a newcomer to the side, really. Of course it was the match they will remember forever at Workington. You can imagine what it was like in a small town."
For Burkinshaw, playing at wing-half, the mighty Edwards stood out. "He was in the army at the same time as me. We played in the same Western Command side. He was a great lad, he could play anywhere, a wonderful player.
"It's difficult to compare to today. We were playing with different balls on different pitches. After two months of the season it was better to keep the ball in the air. It bobbled all over the place on the deck. And the boots had nails in them. You had to make sure they didn't go through the leather and into your feet."
And what of the match? "We were winning 1-0 at half-time because the field was really icy. It helped us to an extent. I thought we had a chance. But then Dennis Viollet got a hat-trick – what a player he was, by the way. I think they had had a talking-to at half-time. We couldn't get near them second half."
Workington are recreating their famous meeting with Man United
After the match Burkinshaw travelled to Manchester on the train with Sir Matt Busby and his assistant Jimmy Murphy. "I can't remember much about the conversation, just that they were terrific with me, really nice people."
The recollections of Walsh, in the crowd that day, are a tad sharper. "It was the plumb draw. For us to pull Man United was the talking point of the region, not just Workington. It was all everybody talked about – and I went to a rugby school.
"I remember the goal, Workington going in front. Man United were slipping all over the place. Second half they were a different side. Usually after a defeat you are down for a couple days. On that occasion I wasn't because we had played so well against the champions of England and were the better side for a half."
Thus far not a hint of support for Saturday's event from United. Workington won't admit it, but the reticence at Old Trafford disappoints. A word or two of recommendation across United's myriad PR platforms would make all the difference.
It goes without saying, Sir Matt and Co would not need to be asked. You can buy your ticket here.
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