'Digger' shares 66 years of Wembley memories

The north Manchester-based supporter has been following the Reds since 1946, when his father took him to his first game – a 5-2 victory over Arsenal at Maine Road, when war-damaged Old Trafford was out of use. From a very early age, Derek was captivated by the lure of the FA Cup and, in particular, the Twin Towers.

 

“My dad tried to get tickets for the ’48 final, but he couldn’t,” remembers the man affectionately known as ‘Digger’ by fellow United fans. 

 

“He promised me that if we got there the following year, he’d get tickets. Well, we got as far as the semi-final, but in the replay we got beat one-none [by Wolves, after a replay]. I’d be nine then and I cried for about a bloody hour! That’s because I thought, I’m going to miss going to Wembley. But from then on, the cup ties were the main thing for me.

 

“I got the bug about Wembley, for some reason. I’ve seen every game there since I was born, except that ’48 Cup final. My first one was Villa in ’57, then Bolton [1958], then Leicester [1963], when we won. The European Cup was the best one, obviously when we won 4-1 [against Benfica in 1968]. I’ve seen us lose there quite a lot too. But we’ve won some memorable games.”

When we suggest he must have missed the occasional Charity/Community Shield fixture, he chuckles and shakes his head: 

 

“I always put my holidays around United. I was never daft! I’ve been to all the Charity Shields, the Milk Cup, the semi-finals...”

 

The upcoming final against City will be our 24th match at the new Wembley Stadium (a number which includes two Premier League games against Tottenham), but Digger still yearns for its previous incarnation. 

 

“The only bad thing about the old Wembley was the toilets – oh, they overflowed! But my first impression in ’57 was just ‘wow’. You’d never been in a stadium or a crowd as big as that. 

 

“It would have been 100,000 and the majority of us were stood up. They had all the community singing and the fella that sang Abide With Me. They gave you a song sheet and all the fans would wave it. When you saw it, it was just this mass crowd of these white sheets.”

Perhaps surprisingly, when we ask him to nominate his most memorable FA Cup final, he opts for a year that would cause many fellow Reds to wince.

 

“The Arsenal one in ’79,” he replies. “It was one I enjoyed a lot, even though it was disappointing at the end. We were getting beat 2-0 with five minutes to go, then we equalised, and unfortunately [Alan] Sunderland put that ball in the net past [Gary] Bailey. But for my money, it was the best [final]. There’ve been some good ones and some bad ones.

 

“When we beat Liverpool in ’77, that was one of the better games, because we were real underdogs. But I can remember them all vividly. Some of the finals, I didn’t have tickets, but I got in with my police warrant card! I’d just go up to the turnstile, see a bobby, show them my police warrant card and say: ‘I’m a policeman from Manchester’ and they’d say ‘Oh, come with me’ and get us in. They loved having policemen in. I got in about four cup finals with that card! For the Southampton one in ’76, I even got my 10-year-old son in on it!”

When we speak, Gardner is still on a high from attending the penalty shoot-out success against Brighton at Wembley, in the FA Cup semi-final. His application for a ticket to the final on 3 June will be going in later this week, and the 83-year-old is optimistic about getting one, having been to every home game this season, plus many aways.

 

“I get about with two sticks now and my legs are really bad, so I’ve got to sit down, even though most people stand at away games,” he explains. 

 

“The Brighton game could have gone either way, couldn’t it? We’ve got to do better when we play City. But deep down, I’m still thinking of ’77, when we stopped Liverpool winning the Treble. Let’s hope it happens again!”