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The Ballad of October 15th 2004

Peter Goulding

Saturday, October 16th, 2004

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 The walk to the ground was electric,
The atmosphere crackled like ice.
That reversal at Bohs
Was a smack in the nose,
And revenge, sweet revenge, would be nice.
(Though a draw, many said, would suffice.)

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 Bohs wore their silly blue jerseys,
With Shels in traditional red,
And the fans found their voice
For the team of their choice,
As these famous clubs came head to head.
(In the title decider, most said.)

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 Bohs were much quicker to settle,
With Ryan given oceans of space,
And their two hairless strikers
Tried hard to out-psyche us,
But were swiftly put into their place.
(As is often, with Jamie, the case.)

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 And we weathered the Bohemian onslaught,
And slowly we started to gel,
And our passing got slicker
And smarter and quicker,
And we knocked the ball round very well.
(Though our nerves had been quite shot to hell.)

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 Then Pretty Boy skipped several tackles,
And Stuey came thundering in,
And everyone winced,
Absolutely convinced
That he’d broken the Lovely One’s shin.
(Though ‘twas hard not to give a sly grin.)

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 Down to ten men we were struggling,
With more than an hour left to play.
Sure Bohs pushed us back
And went on the attack,
And we watched with concern and dismay.
(Quite sure that they’d soon make us pay.)

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 But they muffed their numerical advantage,
As Shels snuffed the imminent threat,
But as half time approached
Our defences were broached
And Grant stuck the ball in the net.
(In a moment we’d like to forget.)

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 Half time was a gloomy occasion,
Great anguish and sorrow and wailing,
A man and goal down,
We’d good reason to frown,
For our pride and good fortune were failing
(And our grip on the title was paling.)

9 Leave a comment on verse 9 0 But Nutsy, the master tactician,
Decided to play a back three.
It looked somewhat risky,
For Bohs seemed quite frisky,
And might well have gone on a spree.
(Or so it appeared to me.)

10 Leave a comment on verse 10 0 But the ten men showed courage and bottle,
And fought like true champs for the cause.
And we carved several chances,
With through balls and glances,
But we couldn’t convert them to scores.
(Perhaps one of Glen Fitz’s flaws?)

11 Leave a comment on verse 11 0 But then we’d a free, twenty yards out,
And the Shels fans did holler and clap.
And Jamie did roll
To reveal a large hole,
And Jay stuck the ball in the gap.
(With poor Mattie Gregg in a flap)

12 Leave a comment on verse 12 0 Pandemonium up in the New Stand,
The roar nearly shattered the lights.
His goal twenty three
Had us dancing with glee.
It was one of those magical nights.
(After suffering the biggest of frights.)

13 Leave a comment on verse 13 0 Our character came out to save us,
And we won, by a single goal each.
Those heroes out there
Plucked it out of the air,
In great deeds, too immortal for speech.
(And we hope that we’re now out of reach.)

14 Leave a comment on verse 14 0 And Bohs will be so disappointed.
Their late title charge has been wrecked.
But Shels’ strength under fire,
Digging deep to inspire,
Is what we have come to expect.
(And that’s why we’re champions-elect.)

© Peter Goulding 15th October 2004

Notes

Shels 1 Bohs 1. 6 games to go, still 8 points ahead

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/the-ballad-of-october-15th-2004/