Gary Sprake
¶ 1
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Could those of us who coldly judged
match the example of his effort
Sunk in half a foot of sand and mud
flying unseeing at boots, into fists,
the foreheads of gap-toothed tigers
¶ 2
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Unprotected but for boldness, bravery
abandoned athleticism, acute action
to meet the breach of the defenders,
bracing, coiling, arching, twisting,
straining to preserve this last, final line
¶ 3
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Is it justice that a career is measured
in looped, flickering, grainy images
of misjudgement, denied the gratitude
for one hundred other heroic deeds,
crucially absent from the visual record
¶ 4
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His seasonal resilience appreciated
most by those in white who followed
the green of his broad, straight back,
out of the liniment-dank of the tunnel
to the wind-wild battle of football men
¶ 5
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At the end, there is a bow to be taken,
respect from those too far to know
the lonely expanse of the six yard box,
exquisite agony of the net-nestled ball,
the exhilaration of the top corner save
Nice tribute to a great keeper.
Was amazed to hear team-mates say that he hardly ever practices. He was just a natural.