WHEN Lifelong Manchester United fan Robert Davies stumbled across an old Man U programme last week from the 1963/64 season, the Abergavenny man recognized every single player named in the starting line-up, except two - Gaskell and Moore.

Scratching his head in bemusement, the 41-year-old showed the football programme detailing United’s March 28, 1964 clash with Wolverhampton Wanderers to a fellow Man U fan - his dad.

And although Rob’s father could also identify such household names as George Best, Nobby Stiles, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law, he too was at a loss to identify the Christian names of Gaskell and Moore.

That is until avid Chronicle reader Rob picked up his copy of his favourite paper on Thursday, and as is his habit, turned straight to the back page, where there happened to be a tribute to a former Manchester United player who used to live in Llanellen, named Graham Moore.

Rob said, “Talk about coincidence. I couldn’t believe it. I’ve always been and still am a massive fan of the Red Devils, but I’ve never heard of Graham Moore before, not until I read about him last week in the chronicle.

“He played for Man U a little before my time, and only made 18 appearances for the club, so perhaps that’s why he wasn’t as well know as the like of Best and Law, but to think a footballer who played alongside such legendary Man U icons as well as 1966 World Cup winners like Stiles and Charlton, ended up settling in Llanellen is amazing.”

Moore, originally from Hengoed, also played for Cardiff City, Chelsea, Charlton Athletic, and Wales, where he was to pit his wits against none other than Pele in an international against Brazil in 1962. The talented footballer retired from the game in 1974, and moved to Llanellen in 2013 with his wife Rita to be closer to friends and family.

Rob, who is assistant manager at Homemakers Community Recycling explained that it was only by chance the Man U programme featuring Graham Moore fell into his hands, “We get a lot of interesting things at Homemakers from house clearances that we then sell on our Ebay store to raise money for the charity.

“Initially I had planed to auction the programme but after reading the piece in the Chronicle, I decided to contact Mr Moore’s wife to see if she’d be interested in it.”

Mrs Moore explained she’d be delighted to have the programme featuring her late husband, especially since she has very little memorabilia from his footballing days.

“It’s a lovely gesture, and I’d love to see the programme” explained Mrs Moore, “I remember the days when Graham played for Manchester United. He was good friends with George Best. I remember once he drove George to Cardiff from Manchester, because George was playing in one of his first internationals for Northern Ireland. It was against Wales and it was quite funny because guess who was playing for Wales in the same match - Graham!”

Mrs Moore told the Chronicle, “The players back then used to spend a lot of time socializing together, but George was so young and he used to get very homesick and had no-one to keep him grounded. As such he was always susceptible to the wrong influences you always seem to get at any football club.

“It was different for Graham of course, he couldn’t get involved with any of that because I was always waiting for him,” laughed Mrs Moore, who added, “It’s a shame that Graham is not around to see how much interest there still is in his footballing career and the things he achieved, I’m sure it would have made him very proud.”