WORCESTERSHIRE has little connection with the rarefied atmosphere of top-flight Premier League football. The county has no clubs and few, if any, leading players call it home.

So to be able to claim arguably the greatest English footballer that ever lived – Duncan Edwards – as one of your own is an opportunity not to be missed.

Edwards, of course, is dead. He died in hospital of his injuries after the plane carrying the Manchester United players home from Munich crashed on February 6, 1958.

Also the place where he was born on October 1, 1936, a little house in the appropriately named Malvern Crescent in the Woodside district of Dudley, is in Worcestershire no longer – it became part of the metropolitan county of West Midlands in the reorganisation of 1974.

These two inconveniences aside, the ladknownas Big Dunc and The Tank –he was 5ft 11ins tall and almost as wide – is a local legend.

And it’s one reason why Worcestershire football fans will enjoy Sons of United, a book about the Manchester United youth team, which includes 320 match reports with original newspaper cuttings and 115 player biographies from 1938 to the present day.

In fact, the book does have two county connections. The other being that one of the authors, Steve Hobin, although a Manc through and through who was born in the Gorton area of Manchester and who has seen Man U play in 15 different countries, now lives in Droitwich, where he runs his own financial advice company.

The weighty tome, which you certainly wouldn’t want to drop on your foot, has been designed by his son Matthew, formerly of Droitwich High School and now an A-level design teacher.

“It has taken me 18 years to produce, because I wanted to make sure I did it properly,” said Steve. “I wanted to take time to cover every angle.”

And in 570 pages, he certainly has. The book’s Roll of Honour covers everyone from David Beckham and Mark Bosnich to Danny Welbeck and Norman Whiteside.

But above them all, the ghost of Duncan Edwards looms like a huge and all-powerful presence from the past. Going back over the years, Worcestershire played a greater part inhis football development than history generally recalls. Because it is highly likelyhe madehis first representative appearance at Worcester City FC’s St George’s Lane ground on December 29, 1949, playing for Worcestershire Boys against Northamptonshire Boys.

The game certainly took place in Worcester and according to club records, the City had no match that day, so the venue would be entirely appropriate.

Such washis footballing advancement that at the age of 12 he was playing inschoolboys teams withlads two and three years older thanhimself andhis first appearance for an England Boys side was whenhe was only 13.

Edwards always played in midfield – wing half it was called back then – and very early on showed a physical strength and authority on the field which set him above his peers.

He captained theWorcestershire Boys side and went on to make two more appearances at St George’sLane, both in 1961, a year when he also captained the side in a game at Malvern, probably at Langland Stadium, the home of Malvern Town.

By then he was a regular member of the England Boys team, having appeared against Ireland, Wales and Scotland. His courage on the pitch was described as “lion hearted” – a phrase you don’t hear much these days – and even at that age Edwards could pass a football as accurately over 50 yards as he could over a short distance.

“With ‘Captain of England Boys’ on his CV, the prized prodigy could have had his pick from any one of a number of professional clubs that coveted his signature,” said Steve.

“It says much for the set-up at Old Trafford and the impression Matt Busby made on him, that he chose to join United rather than any of the three Midland giants Wolves, West Brom and Aston Villa on his doorstep.”

On April 4, 1953, Edwards became a fully fledged First Division footballer when he played against Cardiff at Old Trafford. His elevation from schoolboy football to the top divisionof the English gamehad takenonly 11months.

On April 2, 1955, at 18 years and 183 days, he became the youngest England player to be capped in a full international since the First World War – a record he held for more than 40 years until Michael Owen turned out in 1998.

In all, he played 18 times for England, scoring five goals. Sadly it all came to an end on a German runway one snowy February night in 1958 when the life of Duncan Edwards, described as “the dazzling diamond in Matt Busby’s cluster of footballing jewels”, was snuffed out.

Two anecdotes from his early life show how times have changed. The day chosen for his first trials with the English Schools FA clashed with his scheduled appearance at a morris dancing and sword dancing festival, two other skills he performed for his school.

Fortunately, the football won.

Then, as an up-and-coming player on Man U’s books, he was stopped by the police for riding his bicycle without lights. For which he was fined five shillings by the magistrates and two weeks wages by his club.

That’s why today’s players all drive Range Rovers. Saves forking out for a couple of AA batteries for bike illumination.

Å Sons of United by Steve Hobin and Tony Park is available in a digital version or £40 in hardback.

Details from sonsofunited.com.