The Forgotten Legends

By Charbel Boujaoude

Let us take a nostalgic trip back in time to the age of Harry Stafford, Charlie Roberts, Sandy Turnbull, Joe Spence, Johnny Carey and Jack Rowley. These were the greats who made Manchester United great. They could lick creation then have a laugh about it. They were real men who could fight in wars for their country and even die if they had to.

They had two more things in common: all made their United debuts before the start of the second world war, and none of them have had their story told. If poor Ralph Milne could make the Top 100 Manchester United players’ list by default, then these legends really ought to make it on merit.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Empire Publications
• Release date: Nov 21, 2012
• ISBN: 9781901746297

Book preview

Forgotten Legends

Manchester United's Greats of a Bygone Era

Iain McCartney

Charbel Boujaoude

Frank Colbert

EMPIRE PUBLICATIONS – WWW.EMPIRE-UK.COM

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First published in 2012 by Empire Publications

Smashwords Edition

© Charbel Boujaoude, Iain McCartney & Frank Colbert 2012

ISBN: 1901746 895

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Published by Empire Publications at Smashwords

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is available in print at:

http://www.empire-uk.com

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CONTENTS

Introduction

The Saviour of Manchester United

The Greatest Centre-half

Legend

Give it to Joe

Gentleman Johnny

The Gunner

Acknowledgments

Charbel Boujaoude would like to thank Iain and Frank for their collaboration on this project; Ted Roberts, Mary Stafford, Matt Johnson, and Mike and Diane Roberts for their contribution of personal information and memorabilia pertaining to their ancestors; Mark Wylie, Tom Clare and Ray Adler for their knowledge of Manchester United; my lovely assistant Gisele for all her help with research; Alex Paul for contact information; Ashley Shaw for the original idea and the final product; and my dear wife for her love, patience and unwavering tolerance.

Frank Colbert - It was a true labour of love to try to pen the biography of such a great fellow-Irishman as Gentleman Johnny Carey. My thanks to Arthur Fitzsimons and Eamonn D'arcy for their recollections of him. My gratitude for the great support and encouragement to Iain McCartney, my brother Maurice and especially my editor and mentor, Charbel Boujaoude. David Meek's highly recommended Legends of United was my inspiration. In particular, the forbearance and patience of my wife Kay helped to make it all possible.

Introduction

There comes the time every now and then for one of those surveys to determine the greatest players in Manchester United’s history. Now, for Reds fans, these are always enjoyable to complete mainly because we have been spoiled over the years with a plethora of fine footballers. There is the Holy Trinity of Charlton, Law and Best, or the Strength Quartet of Beckham, Keane, Scholes, and Giggs. We can choose Eric the King, or Duncan ‘Boom Boom’ Edwards, as the blitzed Germans took to calling him. Robson, Schmeichel, Taylor… the illustrious names are endless. Yet there is one thing that irritates whenever these lists are compiled. Sure enough, the names of Ruud, Rooney and Ronaldo are near the top, and the likes of Coppell, Whelan, and Stiles are deservedly up there too. But where is Billy Meredith? Where is Charlie Roberts? Mitten, Pearson, Rowley, and Carey? So many distinguished figures from the club’s long, long history… they are all missing. You could scroll down the list looking for Joe Spence, Sandy Turnbull, or Frank Barson. You would reach the end of the list, but there is no mention of their names.

Yet in their time these were the biggest stars that Manchester United had! Much like we chant for our heroes today, the Old Trafford masses sang their names back in the day. Heck, they even wrote poems about Turnbull and put Meredith in motion pictures. So, how come they have lost their exalted status with the passage of time? A spurious excuse often heard is that players from the past, talented as they were, simply would not have been able to live with the more athletic type that dwells in the faster game of today. Well, that is pure nonsense. If all that a star from the past needed to do to match his modern day equivalent was to get fit, then that is a much easier task than, say, acquiring the necessary talent.

Which leaves us with one plausible reason for their exclusion – the passage of decades has ensured that a new, younger breed of fans has evolved, some that have never heard of legends of a century ago, or others who might have briefly read about them but have never seen their brilliance to believe in them. That is the only acceptable explanation as to why modern-day journeymen spring readily to mind whereas legends of the past have been left behind by history. So, let us take a nostalgic trip back in time to the age of Harry Stafford, Charlie Roberts, Sandy Turnbull, Joe Spence, Johnny Carey and Jack Rowley. These were the greats who made Manchester United great. They could lick creation then have a laugh about it. They were real men who could fight in wars for their country and even die if they had to. And they had two more things in common: all made their United debuts before the start of the second world war, and none of them have had their story told. If poor Ralph Milne could make the Top 100 Manchester United players’ list by default, then these legends really ought to make it on merit.

Charbel Boujaoude - To read more United articles from Charbel please visit his website at: www.munitedhistory.com

Iain McCartney

Frank Colbert

The Saviour of Manchester United

The Harry Stafford Story - by Charbel Boujaoude

Saint Harry

Were it not for Harry Stafford, there would be no Manchester United. Do you understand what I am saying? Were it not for Harry Stafford, Manchester United would not exist, the name would never have been uttered, and all of us would instead be supporting some other club that we really do not care much about. Fortunately, miraculously, Harry was present at the moment of reckoning to fulfill his destiny as the saviour of the club and the empire that followed. On talent alone Harry perhaps does not belong in such a book, for the only way you can compare him to Manchester United greats is by stating that he dribbled like Beckham, tackled like Scholes, and passed like Ronaldo. In reality, he was an average fullback of second tier standards, yet he ought to rank among the club’s legends purely because, were it not for him, there would be no greats to talk about. His claim to eternal fame comes not from any deeds on the field of play but, as we shall see from his life story, from his role as captain of Manchester United starting back when they were still called Newton Heath. What he did a hundred years ago is not something that has been replicated by any other Red in history. In fact, his actions and influence have no documented match by another footballer anywhere in the world at any time. Accordingly, for anyone for whom Manchester United is the religion, it would be considered blasphemous if Harry was not the first name in a book about the club’s past legends. Forget a knighthood - a sainthood is a more appropriate title to bestow upon Harry Stafford, the Saviour of Manchester United.

The Boilermaker

The way I have introduced Harry Stafford makes it seem like a surprise that he was not born in a manger. Mind, the modest home through which he entered the world could not have been much better. Crewe was a railway town and his parents were railway folks - the hardworking type, to be exact, who cared not for the luxury of a home as long as their sweat and toil were rewarded with a roof for the family. The father, George, had travelled from Leicestershire looking for a job as an engine-fitter in the railway company. The mother, Eliza, not to be outdone, came all the way from France to infuse some Gallic flair into Manchester United a whole century before Eric Le Roi.

Harry was born in late 1869. Or was it early 1870? Like a lot of relevant issues later in Harry’s life, mystery surrounds the exact date. Either way, what is clear is that his arrival preceded his ultimate calling, for it would be another eight years before a group of workers on the Newton Heath end of the railway line decided to form a future empire, and a further 24 years before they required his intervention to prevent its extinction. But he was not going to simply wait around until that moment came, opting instead to live out half a lifetime. Harry grew up at 26 Crofts Street in nearby Nantwich, located southwest to Crewe. He was the youngest child in his family following his sister, Mary, and his brother, Walter. Times were tough for the Staffords, like most families of the era, but young Harry concentrated on school during the day and football in the afternoons.

It was the time of the Industrial Revolution, of railways and emerging electricity. Bowler hats were all the rage, complimented by a waistcoat and a jacket. And you were not a man unless you sported a coiffured moustache – the ‘walrus’ was as rugged as they come but the ‘handlebar’ would do. Yet Harry was ahead of his time on this particular subject, eschewing any facial hair for the refined, clean-shaven look which heralded the age of the modern, civilized man. But hats and waistcoats were firmly within his trendsetting tastes… provided they fit specific criteria: the hat had to be white and, as for the waistcoat, the brighter the better!

By his late teenage years Harry had begun a career in football, though that was not the only career he pursued. Of course, times back then were far removed from today. Chronologically, the eras may be just over a century apart but, financially, the gap was perhaps about a million years wide. These days top pros can make a killing making a living. For Harry, however, his football gig merely provided him with just some bonus pocket money, if any. The bulk of his meagre wages instead came from his day job. For people in the area, day jobs were aplenty, though they were mostly concentrated at the Crewe Works, which was part of the London and North Western Railway. At any given time, thousands of the town’s inhabitants were employed by the company, and the Staffords were no different. They were working class folk, hard-working class, even. His father toiled there for years and it was inevitable that Harry would eventually get absorbed into the harsh reality of a nineteenth-century teenager with a job of his own. Occupation: boilermaker. Job description: welding metal into large containers inside which water could be boiled to searing temperatures to provide energy. What’s not to love about it? Apparently, so thought Harry for he performed this task for years.

Of Optimal Talent

Although he was born in Crewe and was now employed there, Harry did not begin his football career with the town’s team. Crewe Alexandra had been around since 1877 alright, but there was a little drawback: they did not entertain thoughts of turning professional until 1893. In the meantime, Harry had heard about some interesting developments emanating from across Lancashire by the seashore. A team newly renamed Southport Central was enticing footballers from everywhere by paying them wages. This was indeed interesting because, before the summer of 1888, the team consisted entirely of local men. In fact, the one time they had attempted to field ‘foreign’ imports, several of the local players refused to play! Consequently, this turnaround was designed to raise the club’s profile, especially as the Football League had just been launched and football was about to take off in a big way. But Central’s renaissance was not without some labour pains – when they asked a team called Lytham FC for a friendly match, they were rejected with the message: We do not know this club!

By 1889-90, however, Central’s name was known enough to get them accepted as founding members of the regional Lancashire League. More outsiders flocked to Sussex Road, lured by competitive action and a wage packet. Young Harry became one of those outsiders when he first set about on his ultimately eventful career. As Central plugged away in that inaugural season to finish sixth out of 13 teams, Harry did his bit at right-back. However, as a relative novice, he was not an ever-present member of the side.

In truth, Harry never developed into a top class footballer such as, for instance, the outstanding Charlie Roberts who inherited his symbolic standing as Manchester United’s defensive lynchpin and guiding light. There is a revealing story in Percy Young’s 1960 book, ‘Manchester United’, that was passed down by an actual eyewitness. Not too impressed with Harry’s constructive play, or lack of, one terrace pedant taunted him by saying Harry, you can’t play football, though he probably did not use such nice language. Yet Stafford instantly quipped: No, but I can stop those that can! The irony, if you think about it, is that it was indeed Harry’s superhuman efforts that allowed hundreds of future Manchester United footballers to play.

In fairness, he was fast and full of energy and enthusiasm for the game. Reliable and resolute described his play. For the times, he was physically imposing – 5’9" in height and 12st 9lbs in weight – and that is probably why he was asked to play at the back to block or tackle anything that came his way. Additionally, he was very vocal that you could tell he would one day make a fine captain for some team. But that was about it. And not much else was expected of him. Running up and down the flanks a la Patrice Evra was not in the job description for a nineteenth century fullback. Harry may have been ahead of his time in his grooming habits and overall mentality, but on the field of play he was rigidly cemented to his defensive duties. He played football the way God originally intended, without the fancy fanfare or finesse. Consequently, he never attained the highest – or even lofty – standards of footballing excellence.

Yet this was a good thing. A great thing, in fact. Had Harry been any better, he might never have signed for lowly Second Division side Newton Heath. And even if he did, a top flight team would have whisked him away sooner rather than later. Either way, he would not have been around when the Heathens needed him during their darkest days of 1901 and 1902. Consequently, the club would in all probability have folded for, chances are, no equivalent replacement could have been present within the club to perform the same rescue mission when the whole football world lacked one.

Weekend Railwayman

A waste of time is not worth your dime. If that is not already a proverb then it should be. It did not take long for Harry to come to the conclusion that his first stab at professionalism was not all that it was cracked up to be. Sure, he earned a bit more money, but all that trekking across county for an occasional game was simply not worth it. This was especially more so given that his mates at the works were always excitedly talking about the exploits of the town’s own team. Crewe Alexandra were not formed by the railway company but the majority of their players worked there. As a result, there was a sense of attachment by most employees to the football team, who someone quickly dubbed the ‘Railwaymen’. Whether they liked it or not, it didn’t matter – the name stuck.

The ‘excitement’ in question centered on Crewe’s involvement in the Football Alliance. There is something you have to understand about the game in 1890. Already the Football League was up and around, but it consisted of one division with twelve clubs. That was it. And that was great as far as the Alliance was concerned because it was now generally considered as the next best thing. Several big teams of the time, the likes of Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest, were in it, though I suppose it suffices to say that so were Newton Heath. Perhaps not surprisingly, an enchanted young Harry now wanted in too. He was a Crewe man by birth and a railway man all week long - it felt the natural thing to do was to become a Railwayman on weekends as well. So he left the riches of Southport behind and returned home. Although it seems strange that Harry had originally headed west for the money only to give it all up for better prospects of career advancement, this turn of events would become a recurring theme in his life. You could even argue that every time Harry put himself in a situation where money came first, it was so that the next time he would not have to.

And so Harry headed to Gresty Road for his own long-term good, for the subsequent good of Manchester United, and, hence, for the good of the whole world. Crewe’s home, Alexandra Recreational Ground, backed up against the railway tracks. Accordingly, by virtue of good positioning, Harry could simultaneously protect both his goal and his livelihood. Crewe had not set the Football Alliance alight in the inaugural season. And, at the risk of spoiling the intrigue, even for the subsequent campaigns, about the only thing they set alight was perhaps the fire back at the works. Two months into the second season of 1890-91, you could see where the problem was: the defence had shipped 23 goals in seven matches. The main culprit was deemed to be Bayman, a fullback so incompetent, if he fell in the sea, he wouldn’t know how to drown. As destiny would have it, this was the cue for new signing Harry Stafford to make the Crewe cut. Only it was not in his more commonly known position of right-back. That was the property of the reliable George Swift, so Harry took over incompetent Bayman’s left-back slot instead.

November 22nd, 1890, was the date when Birmingham St. George came to town for Harry’s Alliance debut and proceeded to batter the home team 4-1. As far as Stafford debuts go, this was not so bad – wait to see his Football League bow! As a matter of fact, he performed well enough to keep his place for the rest of the season, missing only two matches. One of those was an embarrassing 0-7 loss to Nottingham Forest. However, lest he feel left out, the Railwaymen re-enacted their humiliation when he was present in the side a month later at Sunderland Albion. He was also present on February 14th for a first meeting with Newton Heath. Whether he got a good first impression of his future employers is not clear, but he did receive the mandatory Heathen ‘treatment’ that left him too battered and bruised to turn out in the following fixture.

By the end of the season, Harry had appeared in 13 matches as Crewe finished eighth in the table. Perhaps I should not mention this as it does not reflect well on Harry, but the Railwaymen contrived to concede the most goals in the Alliance. Apparently, the management did not seem to mind. Instead, he had shown himself to be as adept at making tackles as he was at making boilers, and he was earmarked as a permanent fixture in the first team from now on.

Alliance Days

By the start of the 1891-92 Alliance campaign, not only was Harry a staple of the defence, he was also the senior figure. George Swift had made a swift exit to Wolverhampton Wanderers to be replaced by Alf Cope. Alf and Harry now constituted Crewe’s entire defence. You have to remember that, way before all this 4-4-2 nonsense, those were still the days of the original formation with just the two fullbacks. Then there was the halfback line which is known today as midfield. The remaining five players all went on endless attacking forays totally oblivious to such mundane tasks as tracking back or defending in numbers. The result was entertaining matches with goals galore. This was the way football was played back then and a similar format existed at Crewe where most of the team hared forward leaving behind just Stafford and Cope to, er, cope.

And so the pair filled in at fullback, right or left, it changed every weekend. In fact, they swapped positions so frequently it is as if they randomly decided who was playing where with their own coin toss before kickoff. Having said that, Harry did turn out in midfield at left halfback on one occasion on November 28th… and it proved to be a masterstroke. Up until that afternoon, Crewe had yet to pick up a single point in the Alliance, sitting comfortably four points adrift at the bottom of the table and a mere twenty off leaders Nottingham Forest. But Harry’s presence in midfield helped boot Bootle 4-3 to finally kick-start Crewe’s season.

A typically high-scoring encounter took place in January 1892 in the battle of the railway teams: Newton Heath 5 – Crewe Alexandra 3. It was Harry’s first and solitary visit to the Heathens’ then home of North Road. Just over a year later, the Mancunian club would move to Bank Street. Consequently, Harry remains the only outfield footballer to have played at North Road then represented Manchester United after the name change of 1902. Apparently, Harry was so bent on joining the Mancunians that in the home Alliance fixture, he inadvertently helped Newton Heath win by scoring an own goal as a brief glimpse of the future services he would render. He truly had United’s best interests at heart all along.

The Railwaymen improved as the season wore on to commendably finish in the top half of the table. Harry appeared in 21 of the 22 Alliance games and he added half a dozen fixtures in the FA Cup. These days you need six matches to win this competition but, during that season, Crewe contested that many just to be knocked out in Round One after having negotiated endless qualifying rounds.

Bottom and Out

Something fantastic happened in the summer of 1892: Harry Stafford became a Football League player. And he did not have to switch clubs to achieve that, nor did he need to help his team get promoted. The good people of the Football League, they of the big beards and bigger waistcoats, had decided to expand into an even bigger money-spinning behemoth. Eventually the League would come to constitute 92 clubs, but the first step was for the Original Twelve to absorb the Football Alliance in one whole piece then chew it into two parts. A lucky select - Newton Heath included – became First Division fodder. The rest, of which one was Crewe, made up the new Second Division.

Harry was still playing footy for kicks, the Railwaymen having resisted the urge to accept professionalism for one more year. Which was fine by Harry, who had kept his day job and had gone back to living in Crewe around this time. Thus, he was already building a sound financial basis as he made his league debut on September 3rd, 1892. It was the very same day that Newton Heath played their first ever league match, losing 3-4 to Blackburn Rovers in Division One. Crewe Alexandra’s inaugural Division Two clash was an even more high-scoring affair, Burton Swifts ‘edging’ an eight-goal thriller by seven goals to one!

If that gave you the impression that Crewe were a useless crew then you were correct. About the only decent quality that could be labeled to them in their introductory phase to League football was that they were at least consistent – they let in 44 goals in the first 11 matches, having apparently upset the God Defence somewhere along their short existence. I can only imagine how hectic a spell that must have been for Harry. All season long, in match after match (he missed only one), there he was pluckily putting away fires all across and around the penalty area; wholeheartedly tackling and blocking as a bevy of opposition forwards swarmed around him like a horde of savage wolves; frantically calling his teammates to track back while urging them to hold the fort. All to no avail.

Obviously, Crewe had to file away any promotion plans… for seventy years. However, come the season’s end, they did keep themselves busy filling the re-election application, courtesy of a bottom-but-two placement influenced by a winless away record. 1892-93 was just one season but it would be the template for pretty much the remainder of Harry’s stay at the Recreation Ground. The best they could do was finish twelfth out of 16 teams in 1893-94, and you can blame that on an improved professional approach after the club started paying Harry and his teammates at long last.

Once the novelty of money had worn off, however, Crewe plummeted to bottom spot in 1895. Harry was earning a salary both at the works and with the club now, but prosperity had to wait – he did not collect a single win bonus away from home all campaign. He had also developed the habit of picking up injuries as a result of his tenacious, all-action style. As the league program was expanded to 30 matches, the number of times he preferred to be fit was in the low twenties. Also in 1894-95, he did something that was totally unlike him: he scored a league goal. If you had not been keeping count, after two Alliance campaigns and a further three in Division Two, this was his first league goal ever. And then he went on to add another goal to make it a prolific season that was possibly talked about for years in the Stafford household!

1895-96 was an outstanding campaign for Harry, at least in the FA Cup. The record books indicate that Crewe were trounced 0-4 by Bolton Wanderers in the very first round. But to get there the Railwaymen, and Harry especially, had starred in seven qualifying matches. Conveniently, this extended cup run came in handy as an excuse for their abysmal league form which consisted of another winless away campaign and a last place ending. You see, while Crewe’s day crew specialized in railway matters, the footballing side concentrated instead on applying for re-election. This was the third application in four years and by now the re-election committee had read their application one too many times. It was catastrophic for the Railwaymen - they were expelled from the Football League for the next 25 years! Only by the time their fate was sealed, Harry was no longer around…

On a Whim

You may never have heard of him but Walter Cartwright was a valuable player for both Newton Heath and Manchester United. From the time he joined in the summer of 1895 and for nearly a decade afterwards, he catered to the team’s every need. If there was a tackle to be made in the mud, he would get muddy. If any running, clearing or covering were required, he would put his heart into it. Positions? He filled virtually every one of them: all across the midfield on a normal basis; both fullback spots and most forward slots when needed; and even in goal on a couple of occasions. The only position he was never selected for was out on the right wing, though he probably ventured there once or twice during each match. Yet Walter’s lasting contribution to Manchester United was not for any activity on the field.

In the spring of 1896, Newton Heath were short one right-back. When the club manager casually asked Walter for his opinion, the few words he spoke right then and there changed my life and yours. If that does not make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up then you have probably shaved them. You see, Walter was born in Nantwich, not far from Harry Stafford’s birthplace. The year was 1871, which was shortly after Harry’s naissance. And when Heath signed Walter in 1895, his previous club had been Crewe Alexandra. It should not come as a surprise then that, when a fullback vacancy came up at Heath, Walter recommended his ex-teammate and good friend Harry. Of course, little did he know that, in doing so, he was altering the history of English football.

In how it significantly influenced the story of the club we love and know today, this moment ranks as arguably the most important in Manchester United’s history. The only other event that might be considered of equal magnitude is when United official Louis Rocca sounded out a certain Matt Busby about a managerial job in 1944. Because in bringing Stafford to Newton Heath, by divine intervention or simply on a Cartwright whim, it ensured that, at the moment of reckoning a few years on, a commanding captain would be present to single-mindedly perform whichever daunting task it took to save the club from extinction. As you will see later, were it not for Stafford, it is plausible the term ‘Manchester United’ would never have been uttered.

But couldn’t Harry have performed such heroic deeds at his previous club? Crewe, after all, was the place he was born, dwelled, and made a living. By the end of 1895-96, the Railwaymen would be ejected from the Football League and doomed to eke out a nomadic existence for a quarter of a century. In fairness, Harry did not know in advance the fate that awaited his hometown team. Although they were rock bottom when the transfer to Manchester was proposed, there were still six league matches to go. Crewe might have pulled themselves out of trouble or they might have negotiated another successful re-election, as it had become their habit.

Perhaps Harry had had enough of Alexandra’s all-out defence style of play. Since 1890 he had been part of a back line that was habitually at sixes or at sevens, quite often at both. He had toiled wholeheartedly in 142 matches in the League, Alliance, and FA Cup, scoring four goals. He had even helped Crewe to what still constitutes to this day their highest ever ranking: 26th best team in the land in 1892-93! Yet through all those years he had craned his neck while continuously looking at the other clubs up the table. One of these clubs, a previous Division One inhabitant, no less, was now offering him a way out of his footballing misery. He took it and, to be frank, so would you. A case in point: If you were driving on the road and found yourself stuck behind someone moving slowly, you would not wait there endlessly. You would change lanes and move on with your life. Harry would have been in his right to move on with his career.

Perhaps, too, he really did want to help; he cared to prevent Crewe from drifting out of the League. But he was too young, too inexperienced, not enough of a senior voice at the club yet. We should be thankful then that such an episode shaped Harry for the bigger role that awaited him at his next stop. He may have sought to help, it is just that it was not his time yet. He was born to lead, but forced to wait.

New Old World

When Harry got off the train in Clayton in March 1896, he was stepping into a whole new world… which was much like his old world. On the one hand, there he was in a much bigger city, one of the foremost temples of the Industrial Revolution. There is a short newsreel film in existence today, titled ‘Manchester Street Scene’, that shows a busy crossroad in the city around the turn of the century, when Harry was with the club. The sidewalks are packed with hundreds of Mancunians, immaculately clad in suits or fancy dresses to the very last one of them. The road is jammed with moving vehicles: horse-ridden carriages transporting barrels, boxes and such, or trams taking passengers to places like Burlington or Brooke’s Bar. It is the perfect snapshot of a breathing, thriving modern city that seemed to fit perfectly with Harry’s own forward-thinking, metrosexual approach to life. Even back then the lure of Manchester was impossible to resist.

On the other hand, when it came down to actual substance, Harry’s life would very much be the same. For a start, he would continue living in Crewe, preferring to take the train to Manchester on a daily basis – on the new company’s expense, it must be added. Also, whereas he used to be a boilermaker at Crewe Works, he would remain a boilermaker only at the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway (LYR) in Manchester now. And, finally, he would continue to operate at fullback, though now he belonged to the superior outfit of Newton Heath.

‘Superior’ is a relative term here. The Heathens were originally put together in 1878 by the more athletic employees of the Carriage and Wagon Works department of the railway company based in Newton Heath. In the subsequent 18 years their development was mostly on an upward curve: from best side in the LYR, to top team in Manchester, likewise in the Football Alliance, until they reached the First Division of the Football League. Once among the elite, however, the Heathens took a mostly acrophobic view of the division – the lowest spot was good enough for them. After two years of this, they were relegated to Division Two, and now they were in the second of umpteen seasons of trying to bounce back up.

Their pitch at Bank Street was notable for having no grass, and the coffers equally contained no brass. If anything, they were rich in poverty. This was the stark reality of Manchester United when Harry Stafford arrived at the club. It was much like the first time Matt Busby surveyed a derelict Old Trafford, complete with German bomb; or when Alex Ferguson came down from Aberdeen and gathered his player assortment of alcoholics and has-beens who had not been for a long time. This, right here, was Square One for Harry. At least the Heathens were superior to Crewe Alexandra, so thought the newcomer as he was immediately pitched into a glamorous friendly against the reigning champions of England, Sunderland, when he played capitally - to quote the Manchester Guardian - in front of 6,000 spectators. The most incredible journey of his life was about to begin.

There is a reason April 3rd, 1896, was called Good Friday: Harry made his league debut for Newton Heath, who marked the historic occasion with a 4-0 pasting that put a dampener on Darwen’s evolution. Harry was selected at right-back for the first of 200 competitive fixtures for his new club. His left-back partner for the afternoon – and the subsequent half a dozen years – was Fred Erentz. Behind them in goal was local lad Ridgway. The midfield consisted of Fitzsimmons, McNaught, and Harry’s old mate, Walter Cartwright. And the forward line comprised Clarkin, hat-trick hero for the afternoon Kennedy, old stalwart Bob Donaldson, youngster Vance to balance him out, and Smith, because every side needs to have one. Despite the victory over Darwen, the chance for promotion was gone, but Harry kept his place for the remaining three matches of the season as the Heathens claimed sixth place in the table.

A Decent Defender

Before Harry could embark on his momentous salvation job so that future generations can cherish a Wayne Rooney overhead winner or a John Terry slip, he had to become captain of Newton Heath. And before he could be handed the Heathens’ figurative armband, he had to prove himself as one of the leading players on the pitch. And in 1896-97, his first full season with Heath, he did just that. I may have mentioned that he was not the greatest footballer, but I did not say that he was inept either.

On the contrary, once Harry settled at Clayton, he quickly formed part of a formidable defensive trio that can be considered Newton Heath’s answer to Manchester United’s own protective triangle of Schmeichel, Pallister and Bruce – minus the ‘motivational’ obscenities. Left-back Erentz, we already met, while the goalkeeper was Scottish international Frank Barrett, signed in late September. Frank would