TO older Barrow AFC fans, Eric Harrison was a craggy defender who took no prisoners.

To Manchester United followers he is the man who moulded some of the greatest players ever to wear the famous red shirts.

Sadly ill health has now caught up with the proud Yorkshireman and he has great difficulty recalling the important part he played in so many fans’ and players’ memories.

The 79-year-old was diagnosed as having mixed dementia but his condition was secretly guarded by his family until his grandson Joseph felt enough was enough a few months ago and got in touch with some of the former United players who developed under his tutelage.

Now Eric’s daughter Vicky says: “Hopefully by talking about my dad’s situation, we’re doing some good. We’re doing a bike ride this Sunday, London to Brighton, 54 miles, to try to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society.”

Anyone wanting to contribute to the fund should contact https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/joe-hilditch-london-to-brighton

Don McEvoy was the manager who brought Eric to Holker Street and he played a great part in the club winning promotion to the Third Division (now League One) some 50 years ago. He retained his Barrow links after he moved on and regularly returned to play golf with Brian Arrowsmith while Eric was the main speaker at the club’s Centenary Dinner in 2001.

It was as a coach that he made his mark at the Old Trafford club and was the driving force and encouragement behind what is now looked on as United’s fabled Class of ’92. His Youth squad at United included the likes of David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, the Neville brothers Phil and Gary, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes as well as Mark Hughes, Clayton Blackmore, Keith Gillespie, Robbie Savage and Wes Brown.

Back in their youth team days, they might have feared him but respect grew as his teaching led them to great careers. Now there is pity and dismay but a deep, deep affection for a great football man whose mind has been ravaged by dementia.

“My dad still has all the players’ numbers in his phone,” says Vicky. “Unknown to me, my son Joseph contacted a few of them — Ryan, Paul, Gary — and said: ‘My granddad isn’t so good. Are you all right coming to see him?’ Within a week, they had all come round.

“Joseph didn’t breathe a word of it. I just went round one morning and Ryan Giggs was there. ‘What are you doing here?’ I asked. ‘I’ve come to see your dad,’ he said. “You could see the respect of the players was still there, but they were also visibly shocked because he wasn’t the man they knew.

“My dad only really recognises his immediate family. Beyond that he still has some of the names in his head but he doesn’t really recognise anyone now.

“There was a slight look when they walked in, as if he knew it was someone but really he didn’t know they were there. I think Gary told David Beckham who got in touch and asked if he could come up.

“He drove to Halifax from London and seemed nervous when he came up the drive. I could see he was shocked and upset at first, just like the other lads. He had brought a cake he had baked with his kids — a carrot cake, lovely it was. I’m not even sure my dad realised he was there most of the time but it was so nice of him to come. He was amazing, they all were, and it was just lovely to see what my dad meant to them.”

As a player, Eric was happy to be described as a journeyman wing half. He revelled in the camaraderie of it and on the pitch he was intensely driven - a fearsome warrior whose tackling was, at times, X-rated and whose pre-match rituals involved streams of invective about the opposition.

Says Vicky: “I know there were always two sides to him. The football side and the home side. He would never have dreamed of swearing in front of us.”

One of the saddest things now is that he has lost interest in watching football. Until the dementia, it was his life

Eric used to describe his approach as “90 per cent arm round the shoulder, 10 per cent kick up the backside”, but it is the 10 per cent, that his players remember most vividly.

“It was like joining the army and Eric Harrison was sergeant major,” Giggs wrote in his autobiography. “He was tough, but he was also an excellent coach and tactician. He made the game so easy.”