This week I asked RoM favourite, Giles Oakley, to reflect on some of his favourite Manchester United moments. Here is his account on the first time he saw the King of the Stretford End, Denis Law, play.
I became aware of Denis Law a good couple of years before he joined United in the summer of 1962. I was at a friend’s house late one wintry evening in January 1960 when I was transfixed by all-too- brief and un-announced TV News highlights from an FA Cup replay played in swirling snow at Upton Park. It was very rare to see any footage of football in those days and live coverage was largely confined to the FA Cup Final, ‘Home Internationals’ and the occasional England friendly. I have no idea why this match got preferential treatment, and nor can I remember which channel it was on (there were only two then, BBC and ITV). I could be wrong but I associate the occasion with a late extra news bulletin prompted by the sudden collapse of the Leader of the Labour Opposition, Hugh Gaitskell, who died later that evening. Hard to imagine now, in our troubled and corrupt times, but Gaitskell’s death occasioned genuine national grief, as even among his political opponents he was respected as a man of principal and integrity. But for me the mood of sombre mourning was swiftly dispelled by this unexpected bonus of flickering black & white pictures of West Ham’s stunning home defeat by Huddersfield Town from Division II. At the heart of the underdog’s victory was an electrifying performance from a skinny kid called Denis Law, aged about 17, who scored two or three (I think the final score was 3-5, but I might be wrong). Law seemed to be at the heart of everything, and I can still picture his loose striped shirt flapping round his scrawny frame as he skimmed across the icy surface past floundering defenders in the deepening snow. The next day there was huge coverage of this rising star, and I wistfully wondered if United might make a bid for him, true to the spirit of the Busby Babes, little knowing that Matt had already tried to sign him from his old pal Bill Shankly, recently departed manager of the Town, now installed at Liverpool.
One of the best things about newspaper coverage in the 50s and early 60s was the use of photo-strips of goals and key incidents in games, showing successive frames all carefully captioned with arrows and dotted lines to show the flight of the ball and player movements. For this West Ham match I can still see a sequence showing Denis sliding in fearlessly to ram the ball home past the on-rushing ‘keeper for one of his goals. I used to love scrutinising those photo displays, so much better than today’s cliched and repetitive pictures of players leaping onto each other to celebrate a goal, lazy endorsements of the cult of celebrity. Among many other photo-strips, I remember another brilliant one from 1960, showing the build-up and completion of a United pass-and-move goal against Nottingham Forest, culminating in the ghosting in of Dennis Viollet at the far post to loop in a header.Another delightful picture sequence from 1960 showed Harry Gregg catching the ball in one hand while getting his falling cap cap with the other in a match against his nemesis, Bolton, a game that marked Nobby Stiles’ debut. Another fun photo sequence showed United players vainly trying to get a dog off the pitch, successfully achieved by Spurs’ Jimmy Greaves.
Of course it was very galling to see Man City snap up Denis Law for £55,000 not long after I’d first been so impressed by him in those fleeting pictures destroying the Hammers, and I couldn’t understand why United had let that happen. Fortunately of course, City failed to hold on to him and sold him to Torino at the same time as the Italian club signed Joe Baker (a good centre forward I later used to see a lot for Forest when I was student in Nottingam in the later 60s), a move that never really worked for the young Scot. In the spring and summer of 1962 there was a protracted tugging match between Torino, Juventus and United, eventually resolved in United’s favour when Denis effectively went on strike, fleeing from Italy, insisting he wanted to join Matt Busby at United. It helped that Denis knew Matt as manager of Scotland, and he’d already fallen under his spell. In the midst of all this speculation, I remember gloomily seeing United subside rather dismally at Fulham in the last game of the 1961/2 season, when Fulham easily won 2-0, and Bobby Charlton appeared to have been booked for the only time in his career. The caution was, I believe , later overturned for ‘mistaken identity’, perhaps because no-one could quite believe Bobby could do anything wrong. But the truth is, Bobby and the whole team seemed out of sorts and frustrated.
The only redeeming feature of this depressing match was sitting on the terraces before kick-off as Craven Cottage filled up, reading the papers and feasting on the rising hopes that United would be signing Denis Law in the close -season. It was abundantly clear throughout the actual game that several major signings were needed to take United back to the top. To show the scale of the problem in that Fulham game, Nobby Stiles was playing as an inside forward and alongside him we had yet another hopeful from the youth ranks who never made the grade, Sammy McMillan, who only managed a dozen or so appearences.
Thank God, or his representative on earth, Denis Law, we finally got our man in time to start the new season. He scored on his debut in a 2-2 draw with WBA at Old Trafford, but United were well-beaten in the next game, away to Everton. I couldn’t wait to see Denis in the flesh for United and I got my chance in his third game, against Arsenal at Highbury on 25 August 1962, a beautiful summer’s day, the perfect setting to see United’s new formation in eye-catching all-white, sparkling in the bright sunshine. I was standing behind the goal on the open terraces at the old Clock End, a good vantage point to observe what turned out to be Denis’s master-class demonstration of the art of mid-field generalship and all-round string-pulling orchestration. That might surprise many people today, as most probably now associate Denis with lethal finishing as an out-and-out striker, as we would call it today. We all think of his spectacular bicycle kick volleys and the astonishing salmon-leap headers of net-ripping power. The truth is, yes, Denis was always a good goal-scorer but when he first arrived at Old Trafford he seemed destined to become the mid-field hub round which United would turn. Even in those grim days Busby and Jimmy Murphy relentlessly tried to re-discover the elusive ‘rhythm’ that all their great teams had possessed, the ability to hold the ball and pass it in wave after wave of free-wheeling attacks.
I was mesmerised by Law on that magnificent day at Highbury, and his fizzing energy seemed to transmit itself to everyone on the team, including the youngster Phil Chisnall who scored a good goal and probably had his best performance in a United shirt that day. (It’s an aside, but about 10 years ago, I was interviewed by Colin Shindler for a documentary to accompany his affectionate autobiography as a City fan, ‘Man United Ruined My Life’. To vet the true extent of United commitment, prospective interviewees lined up by the BBC researchers were subjected to rigorous questioning by Colin. His first question to me was, ‘Who was the last United player to be transferred to Liverpool?’ When I instantly answered, ‘Phil Chisnall, and I saw him score against Arsenal in Denis Law’s third match for United in 1962′, Colin had no further questions.)
The first goal of the match was scored by the great David Herd, an ex-Gunner, and always one of my favourites. He was good in the air and had a tremendous shot on him, as good as Bobby Charlton’s on his day. Year in, year out Herd scored goals for United and always worked tirelessly for the team, never resenting the glamour and fame of the bigger names like Denis and later George Best. I can picture that first goal now, a wonderful curving cross from the right by the stocky winger Johnny Giles which Herd met at the far post with a genuinely thumping header which crashed into the net from close range. Why ‘genuinely thumping’? Because I was close enough to Herd to hear the sound of Herd’s head smacking the ball, followed by that gorgeous sound a fraction of a second later, of the ball ripping into the net. Herd was concentrating on the ball with such courage he almost dismembered himself on the goalpost, but you could see how excited he was. He always had a lovely grin on his face when he hit the net. (Sadly his United career pretty well ended when he broke his leg scoring a 35-yarder against Leicester City in 1967, his shin snapping on contact with a defender, a sound heard round the ground like a pistol shot. He recovered enough to play for Stoke, but United had lost a terrific player.) Of course on that day in 1962 at Highbury, I was surrounded by Arsenal fans, but in those pre-hooligan, pre-segregation days, there was no hostility when I yelped with delight. The fans round me all said how they thought manager Billy Wright was wrong to sell Herd to United, but his father, Alec Herd had played with Busby for Man City in the 30s, so there were close personal ties. It’s a sad fact that Herd had scored for Arsenal in that epic last domestic game of the Babes before Munich, when United won 5-4 at Highbury, said by some to be the greatest league match of all time.
Eventually United beat Arsenal 3-1, and it was probably the best performance I’d then ever seen from United, who I’d only seen in the flesh since early 1960, having supported the team from afar since Munich. So what can I remember of Law on that magical day? I was watching him closely from beginning to end and one thing I noticed was his ability to control the ball when running at high speed, without appearing to look at it, his eyes flicking too-and-fro in search of the right opening to play in a teamate. He could fool opponents with his look, just like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer used to do, giving goalkeepers ‘the eye’, looking one way, while slotting the ball in the other side (have a look at how he ‘did’ Liverpool with the last minute come-back winner in the FA Cup in ’99) Well, Law was doing that all over the pitch back in ’62. I can remember him facing a ring of 4 or 5 Arsenal players, all of whom he sent the wrong way with a look and a shimmy of his hips, leaving a couple of them on their backsides. I swear I saw a little laugh flicker across his mischievious lips as he nimbly skipped past them into acres of space.
There was another thing I liked which I tried for years to emulate. It was in the second half, when I was now behind the United goal facing the attacks mounted by the largely outplayed Gunners. I’m sure everyone has seen a flicked pass, and you will also know what is meant by a ‘cushioned’ ball. Well, Denis could combine the two, which is no easy thing. He was back helping out in defence, close to the United keeper, Dave Gaskell, under pressure from a big powerful Arsenal forward, who was following up a shot that rebounded off the post. The ball flew out to Denis who had no time to think, but instinctively flicked at the popping ball as it came out. What was so extraordinary was that, despite the speed of his foot, Denis controlled a perfectly weighted back-pass which curved away from the forward into Gaskell’s grateful arms. A small moment, possibly unnoticed my most there, but for me it was fabulous. It was an introduction to so many of Denis’ skills, his control of the ball from any angle at any speed, his mastery of surprise, the abrupt switch of direction, the cheeky fearlessness of improvisation under pressure, the amazing will to win and all-over -the -pitch energy.
One other thing I recall was the prodigious height he could get up for headers, which became his trademark as a goalscorer. Hacks would write about him ‘rising on an invisible ladder’, and I got a real thrill when a pal wrote a report of a match I played in at University when he indeed claimed that I had ‘risen on an invisible ladder’ to score with a header. That’s the closest I ever got to emulating the great man. So, after that Arsenal game, I of course saw Denis many more times, and he became one of my all-time favourite players, the greatest goalscorer I ever saw. That raises the question, why didn’t Denis continue in his midfield role, after such a promising start? Sometime later that season Busby asked Denis to take on the role of ‘thruster’, pushing up front to become a striker, as we would now say. It was a masterstrok, giving United the electric cutting edge that carried the team to greatness, while Bobby Charlton, with whom Denis struck up such intuitive understanding, eventually dropped back to take the commanding role at the centre. Denis scored so many fabulous goals it’s hard to single them out. But which was the best I ever saw? That’s a tale for another day.
Man Utd News 24/7
Giles Oakley you are so lucky
i got to meet him last year at a dinner
but to see him play
wow
p.s. i cant wait to hear the tale of the best law goal you ever saw
Great article.
Fantastic article!Thank you Giles Oakley.And it was very detailed.I hope that i will be able to remember the current era as detailed as this 40 years later.Thanks for giving him the platform Scott.
Thanks for that lads. Very enjoyable and brings back great memories.
@Giles : excellent article and i almost could see the videos of Law in my mind.
btw, you have a great memory Giles to remember the exact dates & names of players.would like to hear bout Sir Matt one day soon.
Scott we appreciate you for giving Giles the chance for this article & maybe some more to come
em… i’m in awe..
a guy from works brother is married to Denis Law’s sister.
small world
meet him in a bar in manchester once, the guys a gentleman, talked utd none stop, LEGEND
A wonderful read. With a lack of video from that era, insights like these are invaluable. Keep ‘em up, Giles.
WOW!!! …Giles… WOW!!!
Giles, I can’t wait for the follow-ups. You’ve got a strong style and a great memory. More, please.
Thank you very much Giles from the botttom of my heart, Dennis was the King and will always be it. Seen him played late 60s early 70s (the dark ages). Some things about players stick out, maybe a goal, a tackle that sets them apart. My one of Dennis was probably one of the saddest days of my life. The day at OT when he scored for Shitty that relegated us.
He instinctively backheeled the ball, to his horror he scored. He didn’t celebrate he just walked off the pitch, he hadn’t been subbed, he didn’t care, I think he felt the same as I did. Even with my heart breaking, my utter respect for Dennis was blinding. One of the Immortals
Long live the KING
Great read Giles! Your writing style’s fantastic and it’s a joy to manufacture the images in my head as I read your descriptions.
Keep up the good work mate!
I remember his worst ever goal….. he was playing for Shitty and he scored to send us down a division….. but fair play he didn’t celebrate just simply turned and trotted back to the centre circle shrugging off Shitty’s celebrations….
Also I read in one of Besty’s autobiographies that he was a goal poacher of some repute…. when Man Utd were at their peak after one cross that Denis had scored from he ran over to Besty and moaned at him. When Best asked what he was moaning at, cos after all it was his cross that he headed in, Denis told him that when he headed it the laces on the ball were making his forehead sore, so to make sure that when the next cross came over could he make sure the laces were to facing away from him…..
Always nice to hear stories of the Babes, well written Giles, you have a bloody good memory too.
@GILES Oakley- must say that this is one of the finest articles i have ever read on ROM. Please write more about these past events as they are very insightful and makes us aware of the greatness of the players that have represented United over the years. Please continue the articles and also write about the current crop of players or the golden generation of scholes,giggs,beckham,neville.
Just one question to you- was stepaney the goal keeper in the european cup final against benefica as good as Vds or peter schmeical because he really made some very good saves against a pretty strong benefica attack especially the one wonder save against Eusebio.
Great read, thanks for enlightening some of us who never saw the great man in the flesh.
Good read that Giles thanks. I can remember being at the Cliff training round with a mate who’d beeen offered trials at United and one of the highlights of the day was meeting Denis Law Bobby Charlton and my favourite player then George Best plus a few more. What a day that was apart from the fact my mate didnt get selected from the trials. Can remember it like it was yesterday.
Many thanks for all those kind comments from everybody, which mean a lot to me coming from people who love United and know their football. Thanks also to Scott for inviting me to write in the first place, I feel very honoured. I was rather shocked at how long it was when I saw what I’d written on the site, I had no idea I’d gone at such length, it just sort of poured out. Some of you have commented on my good memory, but it’s actually a variable thing, I can remember all sorts of things with great clarity from some matches, and nothing at all from maybe hundreds of others, not just United but other teams as well. I check the odd date or programme where I can but otherwise it’s just how I remember it. It’s probably lucky there is no footage from those distant days so no-one can contradict me! It’s interesting how many of us remember Denis’s back-heel which helped send us down in 1974. I wasn’t there, but what I recall from the TV pictures was his tremendous dignity as he walked off with such visible sadness in his heart. He’d played fair by his team mates, which was the honourable thing to do, but could take no pleasure in scoring against United, even though he’d been treated appallingly by Tommy Docherty when he got rid of him.TonyBee, I loved the story about Denis demanding Besty cross the ball with the laces facing away from him. It is said that Stanley Matthews would always cross that way to his centre forwards such as Tommy Lawton for England or Stan Mortensen for Blackpool (I saw Stan just once, aged 50 playing for Stoke at West Ham. He still had that mesmeric little shuffle to beat his man, but no longer had the acceleration to get away.) In answer to ManchesterUnited For Ever about how Alex Stepney compared with Schmeichel or Van der Sar, it’s a tough question. I have so many favourites I hate having to choose between them, it’s like choosing between one’s children. I would say this though, Stepney was a great goalkeeper, as shown by how long he remained at the club. He was a good shot-stopper and capable of outstanding saves, always appearing unflustered and secure. I’m sure he made errors, all keepers do, including PS and VdS, but I don’t remember any off hand. It’s worth remembering that Stepney played for United when they were at their best, as in the championship-winning team of ’67 and the European Cup winning team of ’68, but also in the worst team of the post-war era, the team that went down to Division 2. He helped that team to come back as Second Division Champions and went on to help win the FA Cup in 1977. That’s a terrific record, putting Stepney in the top 3 or 4 keepers in United’s history, if not higher. It’s much easier to be a good ‘keeper in a successful team than when you’re covered by low-quality defenders who lack confidence and skill. That wonderful save of his against Eusebio in the European Cup Final popped into my mind when I was unusually playing in goal 3 or 4 years ago, and I saved a piledriver which almost buried itself in my midriff. As to my amazement I held on to the shot, I shouted out, ‘Just like Alex Stepney!’ to which my teamates said, ‘Who the fuck is Alex Stepney??’
Denis’s best goal will follow soon. All I’ll reval about it is that I wished I’d worn another layer of clothing that day.
@Giles : we all loved the article and definitely some more to follow soon.you must be a healthy man to be playing in your 50′s as gk.
i would also like to hear the story of Sir Matt as i asked you the other day.
What a fabulous article Mr Oakley, the length doesn’t matter when the quality of the material is such as yours.
May I throw in my fourpennath so to speak of the man you call ‘The King’ but we call him ours!
The man himself did in fact score against WHU but it enabled us to earn a replay in London following our home 1-1 draw in the 3rd Round of the 1960 F A Cup campaign.
January 13th was indeed a wonderful day to be a Town fan as a Denis Law inspired visiting team won 5-1 on a frost bound pitch. Jack Connor and Les
Massie got a brace apiece with one from Bill McGarry.
Until reading your article I did not know any footage of the scintillating display of our young Scot and his teammates was around. How I would love to see it.
What was worth seeing was the early days of Denis when he first joined Huddersfield bespectacled and scrawny the club thought the wrong lad had caught the train from Aberdeen.
Indeed a team mate of his, to be, Kevin McHale on first sight thought he had just delivered the milk to Leeds Road when he saw him coming out of the main entrance – going to the local hospital for his eye operation he was.
But when he pulled on his kit and stepped onto the Beck Lane pitch at Heckmondwike and bambozzled our entire first team defence in his first training session we knew the diamond we had on our hands.
What a player sadly not to remain with us too long as my heart was broken well and truly within a couple of months as a British transfer record took him over the Pennines.
Having watched him as part of the triad of Best Law and Charlton on what I think was their last appearance as a threesome for United at Leeds Road in October 1971 you could say I had the honour and pleasure of seeing from a distance one of the finest playing careers ever.
I have tried many times to make contact with the great man as to shake his hand would indeed be likened to a Lotto winner though I would settle for featuring him in our ‘Legends’ feature on http://www.thisisthebarmyarmy.co.uk
On our family website for any readers who are interested is an article on another Manchester United great the one and only Jimmy Nicholson. My boy hood hero and there are many, many more links between our great clubs.
Ian Greaves, Henry Cockburn whose England shirt I had the pleasure of wearing and nearly buckling at the knees when it was put on me by the man himself in ’64. Goalkeeper Ray Wood and more recently Ben Thornley.
By chance I came across this article and website what further wonderful memories you have provided. Thank you so much.
Beat wishes, David.
Thanks for your comments David @TerrierMirren, I’m so glad you had good memories of the King we have shared. Thanks also for the correct score in that FA Cup match in 1960. I had thought Denis scored in the replay, as with the mis-remembered photo-sequence of him sliding in on the keeper. Guess he missed or the keeper saved it. I was thrilled to hear how fondly-remembered Jimmy Nicholson still is, as shown in the delightful Huddersfield Town Legends site. Thanks for drawing our attention to that. I saw Jimmy play many times and was really sad when he left Old Trafford. It’s good to know he’s not forgotten, and that he enjoyed his time at the Town. I always liked Ian Greaves and it was good to see how well remembered he was at the time of his death.
Lovely article. Just to clarify, that story of the ball, the laces and the forehead first was read by me coming from the mouth of Tommy Lawton to Stanely Matthews. Its far more believeable, because firstly, Tommy was a whiner, albeit a great centreforward, but secondly, the ball was a hell of a lot harder 20 years before Denis appeared on the scene.
A Scouser’s childhood hero
I first saw Denis Law play at the awful defeat of Scotland at Wembley (you know the one) I was a10 year old. Travelling there with my Scottish father and Scottish relatives England played no part in my support, I was heartbroken at the defeat.
Denis played a big part of my life having various pictures of him on my bedroom walls along with the current Everton squads. I followed his career with as much interest as if he were an Evertonian and what joy to see him play at Goodison. Denis had so much ability to capture the imagination of youngsters new to watching professional football which I am sure resulted in lifelong support.
I had occasion to meet Denis at Manchester airport on the day of Jim Baxter’s funeral, he was alone in the smoking area having a cigarette until I walked in, but it was not really football we talked about but rather our respective fathers serving in the Navy during the war. Nice to have met a childhood hero who lived up to my expectations of being not just a great player but also a good man. To all the Mancunians out there I may have been born in Liverpool but I realised and recognised the gift of the wonderful Denis Law you had with you at Old Trafford. Here endeth my Liverpudlian praise, and my envy Denis was with you. John.
A belated correction… I just read this to check something and I’m embarrassed to see that I said Labour Leader Hugh Gaitskell died in 1960 on the same night as Denis had his magic performance for Huddersfield v West Ham. In fact it was in 1963 that Gaitkell died, as on 99 days out of a hundred I could tell you without a moment’s thought. The only reason I may have wrongly conflated the two events was that I was watching TV at my friend’s house on both of the two occasions. Bad mistake though, and I apologise for the record.
As a further update on Denis in December 2011 he returned to Leeds Road, sorry there I go again, the Galpharm and at last, again I got to meet the great man. As we shook hands I asked him if he remembered Beck Lane. He replied, ‘I certainly do, is it still there?. Yes Sir it is and still a football ground I proudly informed the Law Man.
A couple of weeks later a Town friend and long time fan gave me an envelope.
On opening it later at home. He had only taken a photo of me with Mr Law when shaking hands and I have now another very proud photograph to cherish.