|

Albion In China

Andrew Detheridge

Monday, March 30th, 2009

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Back in the good old days
when Albion’s winning ways
and the ‘Three Degrees’ were the talk of football,
the Albion directors received an unexpected call
to become the first European team
to realize a footballing dream
and travel behind the Iron Curtain
(A great honour to be invited, that was for certain).

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 My memories of said Tour are somewhat bereft
(being only nine years old when they left)
but I recently saw the documentary that was made
of the places they went, the matches they played.
I sat down to watch again, my childhood heroes-
still brilliant on the pitch, but off it, in shocking 70s clothes!
I pictured myself collecting their stickers religiously each school term
and laughed to see again those shaggy Keegan perms!

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 But some things are better left to linger in the afterglow
of memory; often, what you forget is better than what you know.
And so it was as the plot unfolded-
The results on the pitch? well, the performances smouldered.
But, off it, my ‘heroes’ were English tourists abroad-
sat at fine banquets looking totally bored.
Yawning through ballets amd moaning about the rain,
and looking forward to next season’s tour to Spain.
Finally, John Trewick gave his frank assessment of the Great Wall:
‘Well, lads, you’ve seen one wall, you’ve seen them all!’

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/albion-in-china/