Great Games
Wanderers 6, Manchester United 3
United get lost in the Burnden fog
FA CUP-WINNERS Bolton met a rebuilt Manchester United at Burnden Park on Saturday, November 15, 1958. Nine goals were scored or so the record shows. Not all the crowd could see them.
The match was shrouded by a "pea-souper" of a fog, the kind commonplace in industrial Bolton of the 1950s when 60,000 chimney pots belched out filthy black fumes.
It descended slowly at first, teasing the officials that it was ever really fit to play, then mocking them as it swallowed up half the pitch and more than half the goals scored.
Bad news for fourth-placed Wanderers; Nat Lofthouse's presence would be missing after he failed a fitness test. The ever-reliable Ralph Gubbins would again fill The Lion's boots. Gubbins apart, it was the FA Cup final side.
A new-look United were, not surprisingly, struggling in the First Division. They had England amateur international Warren Bradley making his debut and Harry Gregg, Billy Foulkes and an embryonic superstar in Bobby Charlton adding a sprinkling of quality. But Munich's scars were a long way from healing.
| I do remember a young Bobby Charlton running through with the ball. When he saw me – he just said ‘Here, you ’ave it’ | | - Tommy Banks remembers |
|
Doubts about whether the game should ever start were present until 40 minutes before kick-off. The crowd of 33,000 were locked out until referee Mr Luty made up his mind.
The fog wasn't too bad when play started and Bolton were soon two up through a Bryan Edwards shot and a Dennis Stevens header. Alex Dawson, a fearless striker, headed United back into the game before Stevens made it 3-1 from 30 yards. It needed a Roy Hartle goal-line clearance to preserve the score.
The fog closed in for the second-half and soon "The Tramp", reporting under that pseudonym for the Bolton Evening News, was recording a second United goal, scored by Charlton. "How it was obtained one could not possibly tell," he wrote in the style of the day, "but it was scored by Charlton".
Gubbins got a fourth for Bolton, Dawson replied, then as "The Tramp" recorded "the game came to a halt in the far distance where, apparently, a penalty-kick was being taken for an unknown offence". There was a pause, and Ray Parry netted. Gubbins' final Bolton goal was heralded only by another muffled roar.
Wanderers' legend Tommy Banks, now 75, played in the game and his recollection is somewhat "foggy".
"It finished 6-3," he said immediately. "It was 1957; just before Munich. I am sure of it," he added. When he was reminded that it was actually 1958; he quipped: "Well we played a lot of games in the fog in those days. It wasn't that unusual. But this was a real bad 'un. Where I was playing, at left back, I hardly saw any of our goals.
"Mind you, I do remember a young Bobby Charlton running through with the ball. When he saw me he just said Here, you 'ave it'".
WANDERERS: Hopkinson, Hartle, Banks, Hennin, Higgins, Edwards, Birch, Stevens, Gubbins, Parry, Holden.
UNITED: Gregg, Foulkes, Greaves, Goodwin, Cope, McGuinness, Bradley, Quixall, Dawson, Charlton, Scanlon.
11:43am Friday 30th December 2005
Print 
Email this
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
