Miscellany on Man Utd FA Youth Cup history from 1953 to 2022

SADLER’S HAT-TRICK

“You think I’d be the star after scoring three, wouldn’t you?” once said David Sadler, United legend and centre-forward in the 1964 FA Youth Cup-winning side. The Kent boy had joined from Maidstone the year before, aged 17, just like George  Best. “Well I wasn’t the star. All three were tapped in from three yards after George had beaten  defenders here, there and everywhere and passed the ball to me.” Still, Sadler’s achievement is significant. He’s the only United player to score a hat-trick in an FA Cup final, youth or senior. He and Best shared digs together at Mrs Fullaway’s and took a taxi together to Davyhulme Golf Club for the first-team’s pre-match meal – as they did when George made his First Division debut in August 1963, a game in which he sparkled, but Sadler scored the only goal. David’s centre-forward days were limited, and he moved back into central defence as he made 335 United appearances, winning two titles and the European Cup.

BIGGEST VICTORIES

Jimmy Murphy’s young side set an FA Youth Cup record in mere months, and it’s stood the test of time. Drawn away to Nantwich Town in November 1952, Matt Busby offered the Dabbers £50 to switch the game to The Cliff, where it could be played under newly installed floodlights. Nantwich gladly accepted, taking a set of yellow, fluorescent shirts on loan too. They helped little. United scored three in six minutes, 10 by half-time, and in the end, the 2,600 crowd had seen each of Duncan Edwards, David Pegg and John Doherty score five. Busby and United signed Nantwich goalkeeper Ben Thorley immediately after the game, believing he’d done well to keep the 23-0 scoreline down. Eleven years on, George Best hit three in a 14-1 win over Barrow en route to a first tournament win of the ’60s. As for notable scorelines in the final, United racked up nine goals in two legs in the competition’s inaugural year, seven in 1955 and eight in 1957, the margin between the  two sides being six goals on all three occasions.

FROM YOUTH CUP FINAL TO FA CUP FINAL

Alejandro Garnacho became the latest player to score in both an FA Youth Cup final and FA Cup final, having netted two against Nottingham Forest at Old Trafford in 2022 before scoring our first goal against Manchester City at Wembley two years later. The first to achieve this feat was Norman Whiteside, hitting past Watford in our 1982 Youth Cup defeat before scoring Cup final goals against Brighton (1983) and Everton (1985). Mark Hughes also scored in the ’82 final, before goals in the 1990 and 1994 FA Cup Finals. Paul Scholes (1993, then 1996 and 1999) and Jesse Lingard (2011, and then 2016) then followed before Garnacho.

This article first appeared in the May 2022 issue of Inside United, our official monthly magazine, and was updated in December 2025.