Heroic moments: 11-20
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George Best was the British game's first superstar, and he features in the second part of our look at United's 50 most heroic moments from the last half a century...
11. Foulkes’ finest hour: Real Madrid, 15 May 1968
Was there ever a more unlikely goal-scoring hero than battle-hardened defender Bill Foulkes? More than a decade after tasting defeat in the Bernabéu in our first European Cup semi-final, Foulkes found himself back in Madrid, again staring up a mountain as Real built a 3-2 aggregate lead. David Sadler levelled matters with 19 minutes remaining, and a replay in Lisbon loomed. Just six minutes later, as George Best pulled a ball back across the hosts’ penalty area, there was Foulkes, “the last man any of us wanted to see there” according to Sir Bobby Charlton, to calmly sidefoot home a tie-tipping goal – one of only nine in 688 appearances. Foulkes recalled: “Matt asked me what on earth I had been doing in their penalty area, and I could offer no rational explanation.” Being 10 years after Munich, divine intervention wasn’t far from the mind…
12. Robson eclipses Maradona and dumps out Barcelona, 21 March 1984
You have a two-goal first leg deficit to overturn in Europe. You’re at home, but you’re playing Barcelona. And Diego Maradona. Tall order… unless your name’s Bryan Robson. Herculean efforts were run-of-the-mill for Captain Marvel, but this 1983/84 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup quarterfinal clash was something else. Maradona was outshone by Robbo, whose goals either side of half-time broke Catalan resolve. Frank Stapleton applied the coup de grace on one of the legendary Old Trafford nights.
13. Charlie Roberts faces down the FA’s bigwigs, 1909
In an era where shorts were long and moustaches were must-haves, box-to-box centre-half Charlie Roberts’ shortshorts, clean-shaven face and close crop went against the grain. And he was as forward-thinking off the pitch. In 1909, Roberts and United team-mates – including Billy Meredith – railed against the game’s administrators and conditions they considered exploitative. In a bid to abolish the maximum wage and challenge the restriction of player’s movement between clubs, Roberts restored the defunct Players’ Union in 1907. And he came within a hair’s breadth of leading a national strike in 1909, just weeks after lifting United’s first FA Cup. At the 11th hour the Football Association agreed to recognise the union, and Roberts – who had stuck resolutely to his principles – struck a huge blow for player power. He duly became the union’s chairman.
14. “United will go on” – United Review, 19 February 1958
The programme cover said it all. Just 13 days after Munich, with 11 spaces where the team-sheet should have been, the Reds returned to the pitch. Crash survivors Harry Gregg and Bill Foulkes, supplemented by reserves, juniors and Stan Crowther (signed an hour beforehand), meshed with the fans on a night none of the 59,848 present – or the thousands locked outside – would forget. Debutant Shay Brennan, European Cup winner 10 years down the line, scored twice in a 3-0 FA Cup victory over Sheffield Wednesday.
15. Turin cowed: Roy Keane leads from the front, 21 April 1999
“Competing as if he would rather die of exhaustion than lose, he inspired all around him.” That’ll be Sir Alex on Royston Maurice Keane. Booked in the second leg of the 1999 Champions League semi-final against Juventus in Turin, with United 3-1 down on aggregate, Keane scored United’s first in a powerhouse performance. His display set up a date with destiny at the Nou Camp that was unthinkable 11 minutes into the game.
16. Schmeichel savesthe Reds – at the other end, 26 September 1995
Unbeaten European home record to defend? Two minutes left and 2-1 down? Send up your goalkeeper. They don’t normally score. Peter Schmeichel did, though, sprinting the length of the pitch to head home against Rotor Volgograd in the 1995/96 UEFA Cup first round to give United a 2-2 draw.
17. The battle of wounded knee – League Cup final, 21 April 1991
“I remember looking down and seeing this big flap of skin,” said Les Sealey. Most players would want to come off at this point but not the late Sealey, custodian in the 1991 League Cup final. He violently refused the advice of physio Jimmy McGregor to leave the pitch with his lacerated knee. Les later, however, collapsed en route to his flight home and underwent emergency surgery at Middlesex Hospital. A gallon and a half of saline solution was needed to flush out the wound. Nails.
18. George Best’s debut against the Baggies, September 1963
George Best’s place in the pantheon is undoubted. He changed the football landscape forever; the original pin-up, a style icon with film-star looks and female adulation by the bucketload. But his hip-swivelling, shoulder-dropping and fleet-footed work with a ball is what endures. “I think I’ve found you a genius,” were the words of United scout Bob Bishop to Matt Busby. And few doubted it when, in a seminal moment, the spindly 17-year-old from Belfast took his bow at Old Trafford in a 1-0 win over West Bromwich Albion, leaving Baggies’ full-back Stuart Williams with an early version of twisted blood.
19. A brilliant Best batters Benfica, March 1966
Two seasons on from his debut, Best almost single-handedly inflicted a first home reverse in Europe on the mighty Benfica, scoring twice in the 5-1 European Cup quarter-final win. A sombrero-wearing George was then famously dubbed ‘El Beatle’ by Lisbon’s gobsmacked media men as he returned home.
20. Chopper who? Best crushes Chelsea’s hard man, October 1970
One of Best’s finest attributes was courage, never more apparent than for his wonder goal against Chelsea in a League Cup tie at OT in 1970. He gleefully rode horrendous tackles every week, but Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris’s lunge should have come with an ‘18’ certificate. Bestie merely regained his balance, glided forwards, rounded the keeper and slotted home. Few summed up Best’s brilliance more succinctly than Sir Bobby Charlton: “Our glorious history was created by people like George. He enriched the lives of everyone that saw him play.”