Shamrock Rovers v Busby Babes - European Cup 1957

In the latest extratime.ie advent calendar podcast, we looked back on the very first European Cup tie played by a League of Ireland side. 

The preliminary round of the 1956/57 European Cup saw Shamrock Rovers take on Manchester United and the match of course has great resonance due to the fact that eight United players were to die in the Munich Air Disaster just four months later. 

The English champions won the first leg 6-0 but it wasn’t the one sided game as maybe the scoreline suggests. The first clear cut chance of the game fell to Rovers with Liam Tuohy’s effort cleared off the line. Tommy Taylor gave United a 1-0 half time lead before Dubliner Liam Whelan scored twice before the hour mark.

It remained that way until the final 11 minutes when in front of a 46,000 crowd at Dalymount Park, the Busby Babes scored three more times through Taylor again, Denis Viollett and David Pegg.

The next day the Irish Press match report noted “that’s not the sort of score-line you expect to see when Shamrock Rovers are playing; but then, this was one occasion on which the Hoops came up against a side of the class of Manchester United. Yet, in the end it was not so much lack of skill as lack of power and stamina that sent them crashing to such a heavy European Cup defeat.

"Beaten they were, but not disgraced. Right through a thrill-packed first half they had every bit as much of the play as did Matt Busby's Red Devils.”

In the second leg, Rovers found themselves 2-0 down in front of a crowd of 33,000 spectators in Old Trafford before Maxie McCann scored the first European goal for a League of Ireland side. The match finished 3-2 to United after Tommy Hamilton got a late goal for the Hoops. 

“Without for a moment losing sight of the fact that they lost the tie on an aggregate of 9-2, Shamrock Rovers nevertheless emerged from their European Cup engagement against Manchester United with full credit,” said the Irish Independent. 

“In both games they concentrated on playing football, and I believe that the 3-2 defeat at Old Trafford was a truer reflection of their merits than the 6-0 crushing defeat at Dalymount. They are to be commended on bringing Irish soccer into this important event and it is to be hoped that this precedent will be followed.”

Champions two years later Rovers would get another chance to enter the European Cup but by then tragedy had hit the Manchester United team. Six of the players who played in Dalymount Park aginst Rovers were among the 23 people who perished in the plane crash on 6 February 1958.

The fatalities included Liam ‘Billy’ Whelan and when Whelan’s funeral took place in six days later, Dublin came to a standstill.



The Irish Press described how “the Home Farm colours of blue and white were on the coffin in the form of a wreath from his old club. There was a wreath too from Tommy Hamilton, now with Shamrock Rovers who was once a team-mate of the dead player on Manchester United, and one from the Home Farm schoolboys teams. 

“Former teammates from Home Farm bore the coffin from the church on their shoulders. When the hearse moved away it was banked with flowers. Gardai had to clear a way through the crowds and direct traffic along the route. The throng was so dense approaching Glasnevin that the cortege was almost brought to a standstill.” 

You can listen to Declan Marron, Dave Donnelly and Macdara discuss the tie through the links below.

    About Macdara Ferris

    Macdara Ferris is a contributor since 2007 to Hoops Scene (Shamrock Rovers' match day programme) and is the co-author of two books on Shamrock Rovers - 'Tallaght Time: Shamrock Rovers 2009 to 2012' (with Karl … View Full Profile