United Fan Culture Archive in United Review feature 1 Shrewsbury matchday coach

A fantastic insight to the excitement around United at the time, it made us yearn to know more. So United Review recently caught up with the man who submitted the photo to the archive, Geoffrey Croft – a lifelong United fan who helped to set up the matchday coach you can see in the photo, from his hometown of Shrewsbury. 

“Unfortunately I’m not on the photo,” laments Croft. “But my son, Steven, is. We think it was taken in the 1978/79 season, on the way to West Bromwich Albion. We stopped at the Bradford Arms on the old A5 [in Wheaton Aston]. That would probably account for the fact that there’s not many on the photo – they’re probably all in the pub! Steven is in the middle at the front, with the Wembley scarf on and a red top. “I used to go to the games by car,” he explains. 

“But we thought it a good idea to form a United supporters’ club. This was about 1976, I think. So I put an advert in the local paper for anybody interested to come along at the pub. There were about 40 people turned up at The Elephant & Castle in Shrewsbury. 

“For about four years after this photo, we went to every game, home and away. Sometimes there would only be three people on the bus, but if we got to a cup final or the big matches, you could make up the money lost [from running the bus]. So it all worked out.”