FEBRUARY 6th: Plenty going on.

February 6th 1958 

• 1924: Born- Billy Wright English Captain (105 caps) footballer and club manager (d. 1994) and Wolves legend.

One of the saddest days in football history - the date of the Munich air crash. Manchester United were returning from a European Cup match in Yugoslavia against Red Star Belgrade and the aircraft they were travelling in, made a refuelling stop in Munich. In the wintery conditions the aircraft hit a slushy area on the runway and failed to take off, ploughing through the fence at the end of the runway and hitting a house. The crash claimed 23 lives - players, club staff, journalists, crew and other passengers. A tragedy for all the victims, a tragic day that will never be forgotten.

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAK2ouHNLYI

Same day 1999 On the 41st anniversary of Munich, top of the table Manchester United visited bottom of the table Nottingham Forest in a Premier League fixture. United brought on Ole Gunnar Solskjær as a sub in the 72nd minute with the Norwegian scoring 4 times in a 10 minute spell to help United to a 8-1 away victory. United went on to win the title, Forest finished bottom with the scoreline remaining a record Premier League away win until Leicester won 9-0 at Southampton in 2019

6th February 1961 Danny Blanchflower found footballing fame with Tottenham and Northern Ireland but he was also very much his own man. On this day in 1961 - he captained Spurs to the first League and FA Cup double in the 20th Century. He also became the first person to turn down the invitation from Eamonn Andrews to accept the red book and appear on TV's This Is Your Life. He said 'I consider the programme to be an invasion of privacy.....nobody is going to press gang me into anything.' At the time the programme was shown live, forcing the BBC to screen a reserve programme on the night.  He did, however, offer himself to this interview with the same interviewer, when the script wasn't so personal. 

Danny talks a good game, nevertheless....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spk6YF9t6n8

6th February 1965 

Sir Stanley Matthews made his final appearance in the League for Stoke v Fulham at the Victoria Ground. He made made his debut for Stoke back in 1932 and had celebrated his 50th birthday days before the Fulham match and so became the oldest player to play in the top flight. In later years he said he regretted retiring when he did and could have played on for another couple of years! Here he is bedazzling a Brazilian at Wembley in 1956.

6th February 1988 Playing in a First Division match at Wimbledon's home ground, Plough Lane, in 1988, opposing clubs were Wimbledon and Newcastle United, Opposing players were Vinnie Jones and Paul Gascoigne; two characters!! The clubs battled out a forgettable 0-0 draw, but the meeting of the players resulted in an iconic image that will never be forgotten. Much has been said about the incident that must have been reproduced a million times on everything from posters to t-shirts but the best quote I think came from George Best - "Hard men? Well, there was that picture of Vinnie Jones holding Gazza's wotsits. In my day we called someone who did that a poof."