One cold and bitter Thursday in Munich,
Germany,
Eight great football stalwarts
conceded victory,
Eight men will never play again, who
met destruction there,
The Flowers of English Football, The
Flowers of Manchester.

Matt Busby's boys were flying
returning from Belgrade,
This great United family all masters
of their trade,
The pilot of the aircraft, the skipper
Captain Thain,
Three times they tried to take off and
twice turned back again.

The third time down the runway
disaster followed close,
There was slush upon that runway and
the aircraft never rose,
It ploughed into the marshy ground, it
broke and overturned,
And eight of that team were killed
when the blazing wreckage burned.

Roger Byrne and Tommy Taylor who were
capped for the England side,
And Ireland's Billy Whelan and
England's Geoff Bent died,
Mark Jones and Eddie Coleman and David
Pegg also,
They all lost their lives as it
ploughed on through the snow.

Big Duncan he went too, with an injury
to his brain,
And Ireland's brave Danny Blanchflower
will never play again,
The great Matt Busby lay there, the
father of this team,
Three long months passed by before he
saw his team play again.

The trainer, coach and secretary and a
member of the crew,
Eight great sporting journalists who
with United flew,
And one of them was Big Swifty who we
will ne'er forget,
The finest English keeper that ever
graced a net.

Oh England's finest football team it's
a record truly great,
It's proud successes mocked by a cruel
turn of fate,
Eight men will never play again who
met destruction there,
The Flowers of English Football, The
Flowers of Manchester.