Football Poets

Hammers need another Euro comeback

¶ 1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 For a moment you thought
Back to the jubilation of 1976
When Sir Trev and Keith Robson
Were lavished with triumphant
Garlands, victory against Frankfurt
From the vintage claret and blue
When all seemed lost in Germany
So the wines could yet assume
An altogether sweeter piquancy
Grapes finely trodden.
Allow the bottles to mature
In the East End cellars ready
To be poured down the discerning throats
Of West Ham’s fervent traditionalists
Who were there on the night of 1976
When the Euro Cup Winners Cup
Was still a child of nature
In your teenage pomp
Tonight though must have felt like
German retribution
A lingering reminder of
Their genetic discipline
Sticklers for perfection
Fastidious in matters
Of attention to detail
You’ve always known
That German football
Can still remind you
Of their World Cup winning
Factory of fluency, correctness
In their blood
Once again it might have been
For West Ham but sadly the
Hammers were sadly lacking
The cutting edge, the bludgeon
And rapier, behind after 51 seconds
Never really the team
Who overcame the French legions
Of Lyon.
The story of their lives really
Claret and blue idealism but
Then the harsh realism of defeat
In the first leg
Promising omens since
In 1976, the East Enders
Were narrowly trailing
From first leg escapades
In Germany
So maybe your visions
Of paradise may yet flourish
In brightly colourful eucalyptus
And the happy hibiscus of the
the vividly memorable night
46 years ago, when Keith
Robson struck a lethal and
Stunning rocket at Upton Park
And Anderlecht awaited with
Belgium lace and taffeta
Far too good for the East End
Troubadours, West Ham
Lose quite heartbreakingly
In the final. Oh the floods of tears
The fountain of lachrymose weeping
From tired, claret and blue eye lashes
Splashing down on the Green Street
Thoroughfares
In the Cup Winners Cup edition
Of the year that preceded
Britain’s sultry, astonishing
Heatwave that seemed to last
For ever
First though, Knauff shock the London
Stadium customers, surely too
Early for panic but then, as if
By the wave of the magic wand
The home side scramble home
Equaliser from the human dynamo
Who has been Antonio, always
Available for comment and goal scoring
But then the second half arrived
And then the season’s fading
Chapters seem to fizzle out
Into a less than dramatic denouement
The pages of this fairy tale now
Tattered and drained of energy
Oh West Ham it could have been your
Season to remember, smudges of ink
In the margins, but not entirely marginalised
Since Germany could yet be West Ham’s
Dunkirk.
The Berlin wall fell
And maybe Frankfurt will
Yet feel the full force of
The West Ham sting in the tail
Kamada looks as though the
Germans have carved a niche
In Seville final but you can never
Be sure when there are fluctuating
Bubbles in the first week of May
May yet be effervescent again
But your heart tells you that
That East End story tellers
Will not be able to their grandchildren
Of favourable fortunes in 2022
Still, a Euro trophy could be snatched
From the jaws of defeat
But your gut feeling says no
Not this year
And yet we’ve been this way
Before.
Keep the faith, West Ham

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