Munich Air Crash  

One of the biggest tragedies ever to hit English football the Munich air crash will will never be forgotten. 

Much has been written, and said, about the Munich air crash with the Manchester United club and the memories of the 23 victims being rightly celebrated.   

The events of that awful night in 1958 have been well documented elsewhere but the role that NonLeague Football played in the aftermath of the Munich air crash is perhaps sometimes lost in the sheer magnitude of events surrounding the disaster. 

With Manchester United pledged to carry on the clubs urgent search for new players took an unexpected turn when Jimmy Murphy, United’s acting manager with Matt Busby still hospitalised, approached amateur giants Bishop Auckland to bolster his squad.   

Two of the Bishop Auckland squad, Derek Lewin and Warren Bradley, joined the First Division club. The legendary Bishop Auckland captain, Bob Hardisty, was also tempted out of retirement with Murphy’s instructions to the old warrior were quite explicit, “Just stand in the middle of the pitch and give the youngsters the benefit of your experience.  There’s no need to do anything else at all.” 

The three English amateur internationals were brought into Old Trafford to bolster the ranks of the reserve side while giving the kids in the team a helping hand.   

With the United reserves the amateur trio were playing in front of crowds above 10,000 with the fervour of the Manchester supporters taking the players by surprise.   

While their Bishop Auckland team-mates were taking on South Bank in the Northern League the trio made their debut  against Burnley at Old Trafford.   

Lewin was later quoted as saying, “We met at the golf club and got the bus in. I remember being amazed at the crowds thinking we must have been brought to a first team game by mistake.  They said the gate was 11,000 but there must have been as many as that still outside.” 

Whilst Jimmy Murphy’s original plan was to play the amateurs exclusively in the reserves such was the impact made by Warren Bradley that United persuaded the hard-working winger to sign a semi-professional contract after promising to find him a teaching job in the city.   

Bradley was never interested in turning fully professional yet he made an astounding impact in the first team at Old Trafford. 

In the first season following  the Munich air crash the rebuilt United miraculously finished First Division runners-up to Wolverhampton Wanderers with much of the credit given to the prolific forward line of Bradley, Quixall, Viollet, Scanlon and, of course, Bobby Charlton.   

Bradley, capped 11 times at amateur level, was even called up by the full national team becoming the only Englishman to win full and amateur caps in the same season. 

He   netted a goal on his debut against Italy and another against the United States in his second match.  Derek Lewin said of his friend, “He made three appearances and scored twice.  These days he’d be a sensation, in 1959 he was dropped.” 

Lewin and Hardisty left Old Trafford at the end of the season but Bradley went on to make 63 appearances for the first team scoring 20 goals before returning to NonLeague Football in 1963 with Macclesfield  after a brief stint at Bury. 

The bond between Manchester United and Bishop Auckland that was built after the Munich air crash still continues.  When the Bishop’s eventually move into their new Tinsdale Crescent ground they will know the floodlights at the new stadium once graced Old Trafford and were donated to the club by United.