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Fulham versus Swindon Town

Stuart Butler

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 So off we go to the capital city,
Sons and daughters of steam,
Sons and daughters of the plough,
Along the permanent way;
First, a pilgrimage to St. Mary’s, Putney,
Scene of the 1647 Putney Debates,
“I think that the poorest he that is in England
hath a life to live, as the greatest he”,
Then along our greatest river,
That starts as the poorest trickle
Just 15 miles from our home in radical wool-pack Stroud.
An enjoyable game, a lovely setting,
But competition, not equality;
If only the Levellers and Diggers had been successful…
And the metropolitan Thames could remember its humble beginnings.

© Stuart Butler

Notes

What a beautiful ground Craven Cottage is and where else can you have a chat about Johnny Haynes with an ecclesiastically and historically minded stranger in a church…but, oh, what a curmudgeonly review of the match in the Observer the next day.
Editor:
Glad you made it to the game Stu. Unlucky Swindon, they even saved a penalty. Whenever I get fed up with the shopping-centre-cloned stadiums that stand boringly across our land, I think of and go back to
Ther Cottage, to walking awhile through Bishops Park….beside the
dirty river. Paddling pool where I splashed long ago now empty. Ghosts of Hill, Haynes, Langley and Robson linger.Wooden painted staircases, art deco press lamps and and those naturally smoothed old listed wooden seats in the “main stand” , what bottoms have polished those?…..oh and the old tree in the corner, hundreds of years old, that they had to build the roof around and of course the Cottage..

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/fulham-versus-swindon-town/