|

Great Days On The Road.

kevin raymond

Saturday, November 3rd, 2007

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Frost dusted cars are reminders
As iced breath exudes from your face
A tough test for real die hard fans has come round
Ah those winters when away games were ace .

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 Collecting your mates at street corners
Scarves, flask of soup and some scran
A car, minibus or a coach full of blokes
A borrowed or half-inched firms van.

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 Layers of clothes to ward off the cold
Sporting Life, Mirror, The Sun
If lucky, a radio would help pass the time,
And let you know if the game was still on.

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 Last week’s work was of little importance
As miles were piled up on the clock
The motorways rife with supporters
Like us, making pilgramage up.

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 You bumped into people you never once saw
At home matches back in the smoke
Could it be these fans only turned up at games
On the road. Cos our home game they couldn’t afford?

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 A stop at the services, driver swops round
Overpriced tea and stale cakes
“I wonder if we”ll get a covered bit of their ground
I hope so, just in case it rains”.

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 The banter, the rubbish, the dreams that we had
Of promotion or maybe a cup?
Diatribe that was slung like a knife at our side
By them sad hacks who slated our club.

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 Our plans for escaping the traffic
When proceedings had come to an end
Would there be enough time for a swift bag of chips
Before our journey began once again?

9 Leave a comment on verse 9 0 What was the beer like, was a betting shop near?
The favourites nailed on in the first
It had cost us a nice few quid to travel up here
A few winners, we could be re-imbursed.

10 Leave a comment on verse 10 0 As motorway signage went fast flashing by
In our minds we had thoughts on who’d play
Would the three points be ours come a twenty to five?
Ah. Those days when we travelled away!

© Kev 2007

Notes

This poem is just about great days following me team on the road!

Hand on me heart, straight up I have to say that….. I miss ’em’ like mad!

Saturdays were never ever the same when I stopped travelling to away games, with me mates, all over the country.

There was something about them, me mates and the travelling, that was just so special, when you got home indoors you re-lived every bit of the day over and over again.

I never felt you were a real fan unless you had been to some of these places and felt that tremendous buzz, you got when the team ran out on to the pitch at: Roker Park, Ayresome Park, St James Park and you were there having been on the road for hours to get there and were gonna do the same to get home again. Got home from a Sunderland away game at about three-o-clock one midweek morning and still got to work at nine-o-clock!

The bit about the fans you met at the motorway services is true, I think that fans who lived a long way outside of the city only used go to away games that were near them as the time and money spent going to home games every week , even in those days was pretty expensive.

Nothing changed there then?

peace

kev

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/great-days-on-the-road/