It was a tragic twist of fate that led to local lad Geoff Bent being among eight Manchester United players killed in the Munich air disaster on 6 February, 1958.

Bent would have counted himself lucky to be part of the United contingent to travel to Yugoslavia to play a European Cup tie with Red Star Belgrade, having spent most of his career as a reserve.

But the 25-year-old was drafted into the squad as back-up for captain Roger Byrne who had suffered a strain in the previous league game. In the end, Byrne was fit for the match, so Bent watched from the stand and had had a wasted trip.

Geoffrey Bent was born on 27 September, 1932, in the Salford area of Greater Manchester. He joined United’s youth team after leaving school at 16 and made his first team debut three years later.

He was a classic ‘Busby Babe’ – the nickname given to the generation of home-grown players Matt Busby and Jimmy Murphy brought through the ranks at United during the 1950s – and for any other club he would have been a star.

Unfortunately for Bent, despite his tenacious tackling, cool distribution and youthful pace, he spent his short career as an understudy to established full-backs Roger Byrne and Bill Foulkes, filling in on either side of the defence for a mere 12 league games.

Nevertheless, he was immensely loyal and proud of playing for United. His most treasured possession was a newspaper photograph of him tackling the legendary Tom Finney.

He was survived by his wife Marion and a four-month old daughter, Karen.