Sons of PC Matthew Blades to Lead Out Manchester United at Old Trafford
The two young sons of PC Matthew Blades will lead Manchester United onto the pitch as mascots for Sunday's Premier League match against Ipswich at Old Trafford, honouring a father who served his community in uniform and on the touchline.
PC Blades, 37, and his colleague PC Tom Clough, 38, were Cleveland Police officers killed on 22 August when their police car was struck head-on by a vehicle travelling the wrong way on the A66 near Middlesbrough. Five people in the other car — a Passat — also died: Michael Robert Cahill, 23, Jacob Matusiak, 23, Makai Saddington, 18, Theo Rae, 17, and Cole Robert Worthy, 17. Seven lives lost on a single stretch of road, in the early hours of a Friday morning. BBC Sport
Manchester United described PC Blades as a "proud Red" and paid tribute to him in the match programme. His widow attended the Ipswich game alongside their children. The club's gesture — placing his boys at the front of the line as the players emerge from the tunnel — gives a football match a job it can sometimes do: hold space for grief that belongs to a whole community. BBC Sport
Football has been holding that space all week. On Saturday, Middlesbrough's Championship fixture against West Brom at Riverside Stadium began with a minute's applause. Photographs of both officers appeared on the big screen. Middlesbrough had asked supporters to pay tribute to PC Blades, who had been a junior coach at the club's foundation, working with young players coming through the grassroots system. BBC Sport
He also coached at Seaton Carew FC, a local club where people gathered for their match against FC Hartlepool to remember him. The families of both officers called them heroes. BBC News BBC Sport
The investigation into the crash continues. Seventeen more people have been arrested, bringing the total to 24. BBC Sport
For the Blades family, Old Trafford on a Sunday afternoon will be a long way from the A66. But the game will carry something beyond three points — a stadium standing for a man who wore two badges, the police crest and the club crest, and who gave his evenings to other people's children on a cold grassroots pitch.
