The Black Country footballer Duncan Edwards who died in the Munich air crash exactly 50 years ago has been remembered in his home town.
Edwards died in hospital 15 days after seven other Manchester United players were killed when the plane crashed in snowy conditions.
A wreath-laying ceremony at the statue of the Dudley-born player in the town centre took place at lunchtime.
A minute's silence was also held in memory of the footballer.
"He was just absolutely magic"
United's promising young players, known as the Busby Babes, were returning from a European Cup match in Belgrade.
Twenty-three people died as a result of the crash on 6 February 1958, when a BEA Elizabethan airliner crashed while taking off from Munich airport.
One of his cousins, John Edwards, who was three years older than Duncan, described the ceremony in Dudley as "glorious".
'Full of life'
He said: "I felt as if I was close to him when I was at that statue.
"As I stood there one of the flowers fell off the top and I just said 'you didn't have to do that Dunc'. It just automatic and it caused a laugh.
"Picking up a can or anything, a stone, just to kick around, he was absolutely full of life."
Another cousin, Keith, who played football for Nuneaton Borough, saw Duncan in action.
"I've never seen a team like them. The teams of today (have) got nothing on the old Busby Babes," he said.
"Duncan would have eaten them as far as football's concerned."
A thanksgiving service will be held on the 50th anniversary of Edwards' death, 21 February, at the statue in the Market Place from 1100 GMT.
Sir Bobby Charlton, who survived the crash at the age of 20, said Edwards, who was a year older, was his hero.
"I never saw a better player than him," he said.
"In 1966 he might have been holding the (World Cup) up for England, instead of Bobby Moore. He was just absolutely magic."
Charlton attended the ceremony at Manchester United's Old Trafford ground on Wednesday to coincide with the exact time, 1504 GMT, that the tragedy took place.
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