The story behind the picture – Manchester United’s second visit to Borough Park
Many thousands of words and dozens of photographs have told the story of Manchester United’s inaugural visit to Borough Park on FA Cup Third Round day in 1958.
A less publicised event was United’s second visit to the town on 9th August, 1986 for what, we thought, was a decent pre-season friendly against a Red Devils second string.
Brian Whitehouse was in charge of the United team with Wayne Harrison the Reds’ boss.
The United selection included a handful of players who would eventually make the Old Trafford first team with skipper Billy Garton and Lee Martin probably the better known. Martin scored the winning goal in the 1990 FA Cup Final when United got the better of Crystal Palace.
To facilitate United playing in their world famous red shirts, complete with Sharp logo, Reds used their sky blue outfit for the match.
And it was the Manchester Reds who emerged deserved winners thanks to first half goals from Dennis Cronin and Martin Russell. The attendance of 500 was about 20,000 down on United’s more publicised visit twenty eight year earlier.
Martin Gaffney skippered the Reds team with Brent Hetherington featured in the photograph.
