Brian Peat was born and raised in Gorse Hill, Stretford, in the shadow of the famous end at Old Trafford. He kept himself to himself and attended games all his life, working amid the heavy industry of the nearby Trafford Park, just like most of his family. He was a trade unionist who ended up lecturing before retiring.

Stretford’s shopping centre, long in decline, has undergone a full refurbishment in recent years and it wanted to make a pop-up museum. So its curators asked local people to send in submissions.

Unbeknownst to Brian, his daughter-in-law wrote in and mentioned his Manchester United flags. He was invited to take them along, where they formed an exhibition called ‘The Stretford End, 1956-2026’.

“My dad favoured United over City,” he explains of his support for the club that began over 70 years ago. “So United were my team. My dad worked on nights in Trafford Park (once the world’s biggest industrial estate on the fringes of Old Trafford), so I only saw him on the odd occasion.

“But I mithered him to take me to a football match and he took me to a reserve game at Old Trafford in 1956. Bobby Charlton was playing. I didn’t know much about football but he did a pirouette with the ball at his feet and passed it to our player.

“My other memory is that my dad insisted I had a drink of hot Bovril at half-time, which I hated and poured away behind the seat.

“Dad said it was too dangerous to take me to first-team games, but he went himself. I was 12 when I started going with my own mates. Stretford End. We’d queue up for two hours before the game.

“I made my first flag for the 1968 European Cup final at Wembley. I didn’t think I was going to make a flag. I went to school in Stretford. Nearby was Kings Motorcycles, which had a blue flag above its premises with ‘Kings’ written on it. I just thought ‘I’d like to take that flag with me to Wembley’.

“I went in and asked them if they had any old flags which I could use, and they said, ‘We’ve given the old ones away and we’ve had the new ones pinched. You’re not having a flag.’

“But it gave me an idea. This was close to the game, so I borrowed a large Union Jack flag from a mate who said he had one. I fabricated the United crest and stitched it to the centre of the flag. I did this overnight as I worked in the day and went to night school in the evening. I went to Wembley the next day, skipping work.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have the flag as it was lost in the mayhem at Wembley after the game, though you can see it in some picture books of the final.

“I’ve only made about 10 flags over the years. I do them when I feel there is something to inspire me. I like the idea of keeping up the tradition of Manchester as a radical city, so it can be relayed in some of the flags.

“When we played Barcelona, I made the ‘No Passaran’ flag for Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand, a term used in the Spanish Civil War (which translates to ‘They shall not pass’ in English). Catalonia was a bastion of the resistance. That flag went to Rome in 2009 and Wembley in 2011.

The ‘No Passaran’ flag (Brian Peat)

“The stewards in Rome refused to let me take the flag into the ground and took it off me. But we retrieved it and put it on display — it was shown on a big screen before the match.

“I made another one for Wembley 2011 relating to the Civil War based on the International Brigades’ flags. It had the ‘Busby Column. 19th brigade’ on it. I turned the centre of the flags into the green and gold, representing the anti-Glazer movement.

“For Moscow 2008, I took the words from Sit Down by James and put, ‘If I hadn’t seen such riches, I could live with being poor’ on a flag.

Brian Peat’s flags have been on display at an unofficial museum in Stretford, Manchester (Brian Peat)

“Another favourite says: ‘Kevin Moran — a cut above the rest’. I took that to Wembley in 1985. The players saw that (Moran became the first man to be sent off in an FA Cup final). Kevin’s granddaughter came to the exhibition and took a photo of the flag, which was nice.

“My favourite one is probably from the 1977 FA Cup final with ‘Today’s Menu, Deviled Liverbird’ on it. I took it to Wembley and held it up.

“United stopped Liverpool from becoming the first club to win the league, FA Cup and European Cup treble, so that’s special to me. That flag didn’t vanish at Wembley.

The ‘Deviled Liverbird’ flag on the way to Wembley in 1977 (Brian Peat)

“The flags take me a couple of days. My daughter-in-law, who sent the letter in, was from a rugby-supporting family. I think they originally thought football fans were hooligans but she’s long learned by coming to games with us that it’s not the case. They’ve become part of the family.

“I was apprehensive about showing my flags in a pop-up museum. I like to get things done but I’m not keen on being the centre of attention. But it was brilliant. People were so kind.

“A United fan originally from Northern Ireland spoke to me. I had a flag on display originally based on the Irish Starry Plough flag, the uprising against the British, but changed the colours to the United ones. I took that to the 2016 FA Cup final, and it was shown on Irish TV.

“My flags have gone from being blunt messaging to subtle statements about the wider aspects that football inhabits.”

Peat, who is in his 70s, still goes to games. “I love the flags at the Stretford End now,” he said. “They represent what United have been, with the heroes of the past and will be going into the future.

“It’s the fans saying: ‘This is what we are, not what you think we are.’”