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Remembering Brave Johnny Haynes

Crispin Thomas

Thursday, October 20th, 2005

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 isn’t it strange how emotions can change
like a blink in the wink of an eye
when just for a moment your world it stands still
no matter how hard you may try

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 I was back in a place in a whole other space
and the haunts of my footballing past
in the back streets of Fulham we’d play on those streets
and we thought that it always would last –
but there at the ground there was barely a sound
by the gates where the tributes all lay
just reporters and fans with their heads in their hands
and I’m lost and can’t think what to say

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 he was awesome prolific imposing terrific
all the times that I saw Johnny play
when the rafters would ring they would bellow and sing
at the Cottage some long ago day –
there’s a picture in flight you’re in black and in white
ln the colours of country and team
is it really all gone will your memory go on
when I wake will they say it’s a dream?

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 you were there at the top you were so hard to stop
in mud and in snow or in rain
and whatever is said there are goals in my head
that will linger and always remain –
there was Tony Macedo and your old mate Tosh
there’d be Langley and Robson and Hill
there are memories of Cup games and flags on the bank
I can capture it all and I will

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 and the bloke in his coat in that old rowing boat
collecting the ball from the Thames
the closeness the banter the wags in the crowd
they are days that we won’t see again –
for you were the heart of it so much a part of it
Johnny I’m shattered and sad
you were one of the first games that I ever saw
and the thought of it now makes me glad

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 glad to remember some hopeless defender
left strewn by your pace and that shot
you were lethal in flight like a thief in the night
you were marked liked some penalty spot

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 but isn’t it great how your memory is saved
in footage your legend remains
your name echoes loud – and I’m down but I’m proud
Remembering brave Johnny Haynes

© C 05

Notes

For dear Johnny Haynes and near and dear ones..a great man and a great footballer~
This on arriving at Fulham on Oct 19th to run a workshop and discovering, having not heard or read the tragic news, that an all-time legend had left us. A childhood of alternative weekends for me and many who saw you Johnny. One week The Cottage, the next at the Bridge. School -mate and street -mate club affinities shared. Like Liverpool and Everton, City and United. Halcyon days.. Walking in the sunshine and snow along the Fulham Palace Road, days in the old Second Division, streaming through Bishops Park with the away fans (both of them !) the eel and pie shop just off the North End Road, bunking off school (again!) and queueing up for tickets for that classic 5-3 semi-final at Highbury against Man U..Eight kids in my class had a cold that day and sympathetic letters from mums! .David Prosser where are you?. And Fulham home-boys the Allisons singing Are You Sure in the charts(!) . Buying my knights in armour and putting pennies in the window of Patrick’s toyshopon the corner of North End Road to make the toy train go round on the way to a game.The Byrds and The Who playing the Pontiac in Putney..But always you..Just when Fulham looked vulnerable, suddenly there you were on the end of some wild and weighted Chamberlain cross ….breaking the net, well nearly! Nostalgia overload I know, but why do good men have to leave?
Shine on Johnny..

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Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/remembering-brave-johnny-haynes/