Manchester derby FA Cup Final
¶ 1
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After 100 years of tears and tantrums
Jollity and joviality
Cut and thrust
End to End
Pulsating palpitations
Hearts in mouths
The FA Cup Final
A century on
From Bolton and West Ham
Billy the White Horse
Disorganised chaos perhaps
On Saturday
The two conflicting
Souls of Manchester
Converge on the Wembley
Embroidery, Every blade
Of grass, a work of loving
Care
Manicured for the day
When moods are somehow suspended
In June when all seemed too
Frantic for words
Manchester City and Manchester United
The Ship Canal Cup Final
Or the Trafford centre
Confrontation of
Ultimate meetings
Finally Manchester finds
More common ground
Than it ever thought possible
Two giants, powerhouses
Influencing the tides of time
Which on Saturday afternoon
Will be three o’clock
Yes you heard it correctly
Three o’clock
Greenwich Mean Time
The soothing certainties
Of tradition
Amongst us again
When Abide With Me
Would be melodiously
Proclaimed on football’s
Highest platforms
And the brass bands would
Find a stirring note
From thousands of well oiled
Larynxes, Men, women
Families and children
With poetic banners
Exclamations from the heart
Flags fluttering like sails
On yachts in placid harbours
We’ve had London FA Cup Finals,
Merseyside Finals, regional variations
On a theme,
The Culture Club against
The Crazy Gang
Now who could ever forget that?
Oh Motty how we miss you
Manchester United, pleasing on the eye
This season, rejuvenated by Ten Haag
Dutch master applying a fine coat of varnish
City, just City,
Stupendous again
That’s the third time
Premier League winners
Miraculous, certainly not
Just programmed to perfection
Polished as the mahogany
Cabinet in Pep’s living room
It’s anybody’s this year
United to edge it narrowly
Or City will blow in a
Magisterial breeze
How we love the FA Cup Final
Half a century ago
Bob Stokoe ran like the wind
To greet time and place
With the warmest glow
Smiles wreathed across
A face of jubilant creases
Thrilled to be among
The ecstatic throng
Sunderland win the FA Cup
Leeds, shocked, affronted
Such effrontery
Don Revie, the silent one
Horrified by the stillness
Of a giant killing defeat
How dare Sunderland
Make Wembley their spiritual home
Just for that day
And not forgetting of course
70 years ago to the year
Since the Stans Mortensen
And Matthews spread
A huge blanket of tomfoolery
And cunning over a breathless
Wembley Stadium
Matthews, like a force of nature
Irresistible as the day itself
Pivoting, twisting, turning,
Shuffling, dragging, delicious
Footwork, dazzling dexterity
On a Saturday afternoon
Bolton just bamboozled
4-3 to Blackpool
It was meant to be
We knew it would
And then ten years later
Sir Matt Busby
Resplendent gentleman
Led out 1963 United
When our Ken Aston, lovely Ken
From Ilford in easy going
Essex blew the ref’s whistle
Against Leicester City
But it’s City against United
Manchester descends on London
On that fascinating reunion
Of great minds thinking alike
Ten Haag walking out with Pep
Let the battle royale
Commence
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