Last updated 09:58, Sunday, 06 April 2008

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One of the few survivors of the legendary football match between Workington Reds and Manchester United 50 years ago, BILLY ROBSON - best known as ‘Workington Billy’ - recalls the glory days of West Cumbrian football . . .

Known as Workington Billy, he was a sharp shooting inside forward in the fine Workington Reds team which gave Manchester United a battle royal in the FA Cup third round before a capacity 21,000 crowd at Borough Park on January 4, 1958.

Only a few weeks later the Munich air crash killed half the Manchester United team.

Five of those Busby Babes who died had turned out against the Reds, including Duncan Edwards, hailed as the boy wonder of English football.

Billy Robson, Kells-born and bred, is one of the few survivors of the Reds side of that historic match.

He was a starlet himself when he headed for Borough Park from the Kells team to sign on as a semi-professional aged 17.

He went on to play under two of the game’s legendary characters, Bill Shankly and Joe Harvey, a personal friend.

The cocky, curly-haired la’al Whitehaven marra was soon to become Workington’s wizard of the dribble, so much so that he once outshone Stanley Matthews in an earlier unforgettable encounter on Borough Park.

But for the will-o’-the-wisp - who went on to score 53 Football League goals for Reds in 128 appearances - nothing could eclipse that Saturday afternoon when the Busby Babes came to town.

Teetotaller Billy, now a fit and healthy 76-year-old, says: “It was just a memorable, wonderful day and a wonderful week leading up to the match.

“When the third round draw was made I was working on a building site.

“We made sure there was a wireless and to say I was chuffed to bits to have the chance to play on the same field as the fabulous Busby Babes is an understatement.

“It turned out to be the most fantastic experience of my football life and still rates to this day as the biggest day in Workington Reds’ history.

“Although we were beaten 3-1, we played well against the best team in England and one of the best in the world.

“They were hoping to become our first European champions before the disaster.

“We even took the lead after six minutes. I fired the first shot which Harry Gregg parried away but fortunately Clive Colbridge was on hand to whip it in.

“I also hit the crossbar and scooped one over the bar.

“We were a very good side that played traditional Third Division football. Manchester United were obviously much more tactically aware, running a lot more off the ball in the free-flowing style that they are today.

“Our big centre half George Aitken kept being dragged out to the wing by Tommy Taylor which allowed Dennis Violett to keep bursting through the middle and score a hat-trick.

“If we’d taken our chances maybe we could have beaten them.”

“The match reports said I was one of the Reds’ top three performers and to be honest I thought I did marvellous bearing in mind I was the only part-time player in our side.

“When Duncan Edwards put his arm round me and said ‘brilliant, son’, it was one heck of a compliment from a lad who they said was going to be the greatest player England had ever produced.

“I was four or five years older than Duncan, but didn’t argue when he called me son; I was 5ft 6½in, and he was a big six footer, a massive lad who could fill a doorway.

“I knew what I was up against when I went to Wembley to see England play a few weeks before – Duncan cracked in a goal from 30 yards.”

On February 6, 1958, a month after the Borough Park tie, the plane carrying the Manchester United party home from their European Cup win over Red Star Belgrade, crashed in the snow and ice of Munich Airport, killing 23 of the 44 passengers.

Manager Matt Busby was left fighting for his life, and Bobby Charlton was among those injured.

Five of the team who played at Workington perished: Roger Byrne, Eddie Colman, Tommy Taylor, Mark Jones and Duncan Edwards. The young Charlton, goalkeeper Harry Gregg, and full-back Bill Foulkes, who also played, were spared.

“I was standing in the foundation of my younger brother’s house I was building when I heard the news,” remembers Billy.

“A lady off Prospect shouted over to tell us. We didn’t do any work after that.

“They were all young men, such brilliant players and I had played in one of the very last matches against them.”

Joe Harvey, of Newcastle United fame, was manager of the Reds team during those halcyon years.

Billy and Joe became friends, but he also played under an even greater legend – the late Bill Shankly.

Billy says: “I’d been at Borough Park since I was 16 and when Bill came I played under him for two years. He was a brilliant manager even then. You have to understand that a man like Shankly wanted full-timers, I was the only part-timer and explained to him that I couldn’t do anything about it.

“He took it badly at first, but after that we got on great.

“Shanks lived in Workington and one Saturday night after we’d been playing at home me and my mate Ernie Talbot went out, it was only about quarter past 10.

“There was Bill standing on the doorstep of his house on Victoria Road. He shouted out ‘where are you two going at this time of the night?

’. . . I called back ‘we’re going for fish and chips Mr Shankly.’ He said ‘it’s time you were in bed, so get going.’

“That’s the type of bloke Bill was, he was just dedicated to football.”

Billy Robson – known by the fans as “Workington Billy” – also lived for football.

“I loved it at Borough Park,” he says “but I was also working in the building trade seven days a week, so it didn’t bother me which team I was in.”

Billy reserved one of his finest performances for the big stage, against First Division glamour club Blackpool in a floodlit friendly on Borough Park.

And the 23-year-old didn’t even know he was playing until he arrived at the ground.

Jimmy Armfield and Stanley Matthews were among the internationals in a star-studded side.

“We’d just got our new floodlights, Blackpool were a top team, they’d been to Wembley, the Matthews final and all that, but we beat them 4-1.” he says.

With Robson in outstanding form in front of more than 16,000 fans, the Daily Express report of the match said of Billy: “This chunky little chap bustled through, a dynamo under lights, surging energy, cracking in a dozen shots that led to Ted Purdon’s goal, and whipped in the last two himself, all this with a broken hand.”

Generally considered good enough for today’s Premiership, “Workington Billy” had the chance to leave Reds and spent eight weeks in London having trials with Crystal Palace.

But leaving Reds eventually didn’t do Billy any harm, for at the age of 30 he joined Kendal club Netherfield as player-manager and in a sparkling swan song led them magnificently, scoring no fewer than 306 goals in six years.

“After that, I came back and played for a very good Haig Colliery side,” he says.

Billy’s three sons - Jim, Ron and Bill Junior - were chips off the old soccer block; Jim turned down Manchester City because, like his father, he never wanted to leave Whitehaven.

Billy , now president of Whitehaven AFC, adds: “Looking back, I wish I had played at a higher level but keep telling the kids today it’s all about enjoyment.”