Remembering Munich: The day the press box died

David Peace’s gripping account of the Munich air disaster, 67 years ago today, has much to say about the way media has changed.

Few players and staff members of the Manchester United football team, and sport journalists prepare to board, in February 1958 in Manchester, the BEA Elizabethan plane, which will crash in a blizzard on Munich airport 06 February 1958. The aircraft stopped at the snowbound German airport to refuel and crashed on its third attempt to take off, as the Manchester "Busby Babes" team returned from Belgrade after beating Red Star Belgrade in the European Cup. Twenty-one passengers on board the aircraft lost their lives, including eight players of the team. From L to R : journalist Don Davies, Jack Blanchflower, William Foulkes, club secretary Walter Crickmer, Roger Byrne, Duncan Edwards, Albert Scanlon, journalist Frank Swift, Ray Wood, Dennis Viollet, Daily Mirror journalist Archie Ledbrooke, Geoff Bent, Mark Jones, journalist Alf Clarke. Pic: OFF/AFP via Getty Images

AMONG the thousands of words that marked the Europa League appearance of Shamrock Rovers at Stamford Bridge — a match more important for its symbolism than its result — there were several understated references to Dalymount Park’s most famous night.

That, as former player Paddy Mulligan pointed out in his programme notes in West London, took place on September 25, 1957, when Manchester United, the Busby Babes in their pomp, defeated Rovers 6-0 in the European Cup. Two goals were scored by the elegant master of midfield, the Irish international Liam Whelan, and two others by the former miner Tommy Taylor, a roving centre-forward who possesses the greatest time/goals ratio in United’s history.