Portrait of a legend: The making of Man United hero Nobby Stiles

You had to be something special to make it to the top when every 1950s Mancunian schoolboy nurtured dreams of joining the Busby Babes You had to be hard, too. His “gift of natural aggression” was realised early in Collyhurst, where “spectacles were for cissies” and, so too, was the lesson that although love could be tough, it also offered nourishment for those prepared to graft. It was a challenge he met full on. In return, those early efforts gave young Stiles “the edge” that came to define his approach, graduating through those battles on Newton Heath Loco and the red rec at Monsal, honing that ability to ride the bounce of the ball, to avoid stray elbows, or the ability, like his hero ‘snake hips’ Colman, to weave through imagined pursuants amid the upturned gravestones near the family home, a two-up, two-down on Rochdale Road. And then, of course, it was instructive as an approach to life. If Manchester birthed him, Stiles assembled himself.

Life sporting the green-and-gold of St Patrick’s primary school revolved around football. Head-teacher Laurie Cassidy was the school’s first United graduate, playing a handful of games in Busby’s first teams. Stiles, Wilf McGuinness and Brian Kidd, seven years Stiles’ junior, all followed suit. While older brother, Charlie was a talented player, Nobby’s desire – initially as a right-half with a keen eye for goal – was the stronger, matched by that ferocious appetite to learn. Whatever was required of him as a team man was what he would do; watching, waiting, timing his interceptions, something drilled into him by his father, a keen footballer himself. Stiles senior pointed out to young Nobby how clean the great Johnny Carey, skipper of United’s 1948 FA Cup winners, shorts always were after every game. “You had to know the real point of playing,” Stiles recalled. “You had to understand where you fitted into the team and what your best contribution could be – be first to the ball and get your tackles in – that dictates the play.”