If ever a team needed a goalkeeper to be bold and courageous, a dominant character who could perform minor miracles between his posts while doubling as an inspirational presence in the dressing room and beyond, it was Manchester United in the autumn of 1958. Step forward, Harry Gregg.
The big, flame-haired Ulsterman, who had become the costliest goalkeeper on the planet when he joined the Reds from Doncaster Rovers for £23,500 in December 1957, had already gone way behind the call of duty in demonstrating his personal and professional mettle.
Not only had he justified manager Matt Busby’s judgement by proving a magnificent net-minder, he had emerged from the horror of the Munich Air Disaster, in which eight players died, as a genuine hero – despite his unwaveringly modest protestations that he had acted purely on instinct – by hauling fellow passengers from the burning wreckage.