Following HGH Magic’s excellent ode I thought maybe we should all have a go at poetry, so here’s my effort.
If it is well received, or even tolerated, I might just write part 2, and 3, 4, 5 etc!!!!!!!!!!
T’was in the year of 66, when the Germans came to London town
A young lad back in Ireland, in front of t’neighbour’s TV settled down
He’d kicked a ball around at school, but the roll was only 28
So he’d neither seen nor played in a proper game up till that date.
Well we all know now what happened on that July 30th day
And even though we all loved Ireland, we cheered for England all the way
My life was changed for ever by that first sight of the beautiful game
I can truly say I fell in love with a passion that will never wane.
As I drifted off to sleep that night with thoughts of Moore & Hurst
And Jack and Bobby’s mother, sure her heart with pride must burst
To keep the passion burning I knew I must find for me a team
That I could follow every day, so’s to know again such a dream.
There was no live footie on the telly every day back then
Just highlights of one game late Saturday, another Sunday, 3 pm
Apart from that you read the papers & the football magazines
T’was just about enough to feed & fuel my adolescent dreams.
But after almost one whole year came a treat one May day afternoon
As the 67 FA cup final once again filled up my neighbour’s room
And in the run up to that Cockney one, Spurs against Chelsea
I’d already full decided Chelsea F C were the team for me.
Oh, I’d thought of Man Utd, Wolves, Everton & Leeds
And the red side of the Mersey & all their mighty deeds
But the center spread colour photo in ‘Football Monthly’ magazine
Decided me that Chelsea’s blue kit was the best I’d ever seen.
The Cat & 2 times Harris, McCreadie, Hinton, Hollins, Cooke
Baldwin, Hateley, Boyle & Tambling, the world tuned in to look
So full sure was I that we would win, the 2-1 loss it hit me hard
And I cursed Greaves & Venables for being turncoat tubs of lard
In the league we’d ended up in 9th, & in 68 raised our rank to 6th,
Next campaign in 69, we improved & climbed up one more into 5th
1970 brought a 3rd place finish but the icing on the cake
Was our first domestic honour since 55 with old Ted Drake
For in the replayed FA Cup Old Trafford final, against Revie’s mighty Leeds
62,000 lucky people saw Webb & Osgood’s glorious deeds
And never forget our Chopper, who through Sexton’s cunning plan
Put Eddie Gray in his pocket & neutered United’s Wembley 5 star man.
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