Football Poets

Down to the last four

¶ 1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 And then there were four
Well, not quite
The FA Cup reaches
Boiling point
Yesterday we remembered
The heroic exploits of
Jimmy Hill
When Coventry City
Drove his first
Fleet of cars
Into Europe
But who could have
Known what would
Happen almost 60 years
Later?
Coventry now a match
Away from another
FA Cup Final
It’s the truth
And this is no dream
Since the hungry Wolves
Were hunted down by
Their Sky Blue neighbours
In a dazzling rainbow
Of local derby difference
Of opinion
The football world
Held its astonished breath
It was only 37 years ago
Since the land of
The noble cathedral
And cars by the conveyor belt
Lady Godiva et al
Ruled with matriarchal heart
A woman of substance
But never really much bothered
By the likes of Willie Carr,
Ernie Hunt, Tommy Hutchison
Tony Hateley, Micky Quinn,
Bill Glazier, a one man fortress
Between the sticks
From many years before
And yet in the brightness
Of Wembley FA Cup Final
Late 1980s yesteryear
Dave Bennett, Keith Houchen
Stopped the globe
On its axis
After over a century since
Their first cries of inception
Coventry win their first trophy
A historic achievement
Overcoming the London cockerels
Of mighty Spurs
Houchen heading for the heights
A magnificent nod to glory
Swooping header, a goal
To treasure
And when the final whistle
Blew, George Curtis and John Sillett
Lifted the Cup for high flying
Highfield Road high society
Coventry FA Cup winners
Once but perhaps twice
Although highly unlikely again
But now Coventry are back
At Wembley
For semi final displays
Of swordsmanship
And then there was the
Remarkable Manchester City
Swotting Newcastle aside
As if they simply weren’t there
The FA Cup does love to flirt and
Tease repeatedly
Romantic charmers
But City have the Cup
On their minds
Again
It could become
A yearly pilgrimage
Or maybe the FA Cup
Has other ideas
The Cup has other plans
Treble winners City
In a class of their own
Head prefects
Academic swots
European champions
FA Cup, Premier League,
It’s a litany of honours
At the highest level
While Coventry can only dwell
On what might have been
If only the 1970s had avoided
The following decades
Time for no fond reminiscences
But Coventry are in a semi final
Of the FA Cup
It would only have been a pipedream
In recent seasons
But City beware of giant killers
Since once you found yourself
Lost on Wigan pier in 2013
Before falling into
The FA Cup Final abyss
City beaten by Wigan
Oh nonsense it’ll never happen
Again but you never know
Stranger things have been
Known to happen
Manchester City
It could only be one team
Although the FA Cup
May have a trick up its sleeve

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