More on Harry's heroism. When the plane crashed, Harry with a fractured skull, was about to escape the smouldering wreckage, which was in immediate danger of exploding in flames, when he realised that some others were still alive. He heard the wailing of a crying baby and fought his way into the tangled wreckage to drag her to safety. He returned to bring her maimed pregnant mother to safety as well and then realised that some team mates had also survived the crash. In turn he pulled Bobby Charlton then Jacky Blanchflower followed by Dennis Viollet and finally Matt Busby to safety. In all he saved 6 lives and possibly seven if the unborn child survived. Given his heroism on top of his illustrious football career, it's an absolute scandal that he didn't receive a knighthood later in life, being awarded a 'mere' MBE in 1995. Makes my blood boil when year after year I see a bunch of total no-mark wankers strutting around with knighthoods that we all know they don't deserve. A young George Best as a trainee at United commented that it was an honour to clean his boots!
On the football front, Harry was in action just 13 days after the crash whilst later that year, he played for Northern Ireland in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden and made several astonishing saves in a 2-2 draw with West Germany despite carrying a severe foot injury. He was later voted the best goalkeeper in the tournament. In the aftermath of the crash, United with a patched-up team of reserves and hastily signed make-weight players (including Colin Webster who later played for the Swans), amazingly made the FA Cup Final only to lose 0-2 to Bolton after Gregg was ferociously barged over the line by Nat Lofthouse. The goal was legal in those days but a red card today. Don't modern keepers have it so cushy in comparison?
Here's a 46 second video of the game and interesting footnotes include: Kenny Morgan, known to our
@Jackflash survived the crash but wasn't selected for the Final. Alex Dawson scored a hat trick in the 5-3 semi-final game against Fulham - the same Dawson who scored the penalty against us at Villa Park in 1964 when we lost our own semi 1-2 to Preston after leading at half time.
