Jacko's Sporting Almanac

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Jacko's Sporting Almanac: Series 14: Episode 3

Episode 3

Series 14

BBC Radio Wales - Jacko's Sporting Almanac, Series 14, Episode 3

Dave Gaskell, 16-year-old Man Utd hero, FA Cup winner and Wrexham rugby flanker

Dave Gaskell tells Peter Jackson how he was plucked from the terraces at 16 to make his Manchester United debut, helped win the FA Cup and ended up playing rugby for Wrexham.

You decide at the last minute to go and watch Manchester United play Manchester City in one of the showpiece matches of the football season, the FA Charity Shield.  And then you get a tap on the shoulder, and are told to report immediately to the United dressing room where you will become the first sixteen year-old to play for them, in a pair of borrowed boots. That night Dave Gaskell became the youngest of the Busby Babes. And at his home in Wrexham, he tells Peter Jackson his own Boy’s Own story, because that is exactly what happened. Gaskell then went on to win an FA Cup winner’s medal and was belatedly awarded League Championship medals, but not before falling out with the club - and filling in time by playing rugby for ace English club Orrell. Then football took him to Wrexham where he became a  Racecourse hero and where he’s stayed ever since. And when a serious injury meant goalkeeping was no longer an option he returned to the rugby field -  for Wrexham RFC. It couldn’t happen now – but it happened to Dave Gaskell.

Jacko's Sporting Almanac: Series 14

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