Farewell to the King

Denis Law, that is, not Elvis who I saw only last week pottering around the local Waitrose. Denis Law was the doyen of Manchester United strikers (yes, I know he also played fir Manchester City, but we'll gloss over that). He died last week, aged 84. He scored 237 goals in 404 appearances for United, an incredible goals to matches ratio. He also remains Scotland's equal top goalscorer with Kenny Dalgleish although Law got his 30 goals in just 55 games, a lot fewer than Dalgleish. He was part of what was dubbed the 'Holy Trinity', the attacking spearhead of Best, Law and Charlton that led the renaissance of Matt Busby's United  team after so many of its predecessor team, the Busby Babes, were lost in the 1958 Munich air crash. I was privileged to see Best, Law and Charlton play as I used to travel up from Kent to watch their away games in the capital. The photos are of the programme from one of those games - an evening fixture in September 1964,  Chelsea v Manchester United, at Stamford Bridge. United won 2 nil that evening with goals from Denis Law and George Best. I vividly remember Best turning the Chelsea fullback, Eddie McCreadie, inside out throughout the game. Best was the most gifted player I have ever seen and Denis Law and Booby Charlton were perfect foils to him and no less skilled in their own right. And those were the days, 1964, when a 14 year old could travel up to London with his mates, pay at the turnstiles and stand on the terraces to watch their heroes.