SOCCER - Joie de vivre died in Man United crash

HAMISH BIDWELL
FEBRUARY 6, 1958 remains something of a "JFK moment" for English football fans.
No matter which club you supported, the news that Manchester United's plane had crashed after taking off from a Munich airfield stopped everyone in their tracks.
Twenty-two people died on that freezing night, including seven of the United team known as the "Busby Babes", after their manager Matt Busby. That figure rose by one when Duncan Edwards, still regarded as one of the finest players to ever don the club's famous red shirt, passed away in hospital.
A Liverpudlian and lifelong Everton fan, Dave Ryan was 23 at the time and found himself affected in the same way as most supporters. Even though his allegiances lay elsewhere, the youth of the Babes and the joie de vivre with which they played meant you couldn't help but feel engulfed by sadness.
Ryan emigrated to New Zealand later that year and when he went, he kept the newspapers he bought the day news of the crash broke. Fifty years on they serve as a chilling reminder of a moment Ryan likened to "the All Blacks' plane crashing".
"Because it happened at three o'clock in the afternoon, it was too late for the evening papers in the north of England, so we didn't get the full magnitude of it until the following morning.
"Once we did, everyone was in a state of shock about it," Ryan told SportToday earlier this week.
"Their loss was a very big blow to everyone because they were so young. Having been in the semi-final the year before, they were expected to win the European Cup and they'd just secured an away draw against Red Star Belgrade, having won the first leg.
"I remember there was a lot of mourning and games were cancelled. I know United's games were cancelled for a couple of weeks because they just didn't have the players.
"I don't remember the funerals or anything else but I remember people were hanging on because one of the better players, Duncan Edwards, was in hospital for a week or so before he died.
"He was supposed to be the next captain of England and they were all such young and vibrant sorts of players and that's why people took them to their hearts.
"I've always collected things, especially connected with football and Everton, and I remember thinking to myself 'this is something you will most probably never see again'. Over the years I looked at these papers and thought 'you might as well throw them away' but I kept hanging on to them."
As Ryan paid his own quiet tribute to the Babes this week, so did the club, with a memorial service at their Old Trafford ground. Club captain Gary Neville lit 23 candles in honour of the victims and five survivors of the crash - Sir Bobby Charlton, Harry Gregg, Bill Foulkes, Kenny Morgans and Albert Scanlon - were among those who attended.
On the local front, Hawke's Bay United travel to Auckland to play Waitakere United today. Cole Peverley is back from suspension, in place of Regan Cameron, while Dean Johnston comes into the squad for Sam Jenkins, who has a knee problem.
* Hawke's Bay United: Mitch O'Brien, Chris Davies, Jonathan Taylor, Campbell Parkin, Ian Hogg, Chris McIvor, Cole Pevereley, Greig Henslee, Graham Fyfe, Stuart Hogg, Sam Messam. Substitutes: Scott Dunn, Dean Johnston, Leon Birnie, David Gearey, Jeremy Brockie.