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The birth of Manchester United's Busby Babes... the incredible story of a waterlogged pitch in Wales where many of the club's finest heroes took their first strides towards immortality

Des Green says he will never forget how the opposition's 17-year-old captain scored a penalty in front of 3,000 spectators.

'Mark Jones stepped up, bounced the ball a couple of times, put it down and without any backlift — and they were heavy balls then — hammered it into the net.'

Green, 82, takes a wistful moment to summarise the events on that red letter day almost a lifetime ago: 'It was men against boys really. They were faster, stronger and more skilful than us.'

The two teams that competed in the gameu00a0at Cae Mawr in Wales, with Manchester United on the right of the photo
The two teams that competed in the game at Cae Mawr in Wales, with Manchester United on the right of the photo

As the 60th anniversary of the Munich air crash approaches, the story of the destruction of perhaps the most concentrated flowering of talent English football has seen — the Manchester United side known as the 'Busby Babes' — will be told again and again.