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Up For The Cup With Vince At Man U

Crispin Thomas

Monday, January 8th, 2007

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 hey Vince the game is blurry
but sometimes I’m back there with you
and I’m 14 again and up for the Cup at Man U

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 you and I best school mates from the word go
different house teams
but both so into football and music

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 so many games we’d go together home and away
but life moves on I moved overseas and we lost touch
until one night a picture of me at a workshop
appeared in a programme you spotted it
and there you were again still a fan still at every game
and still the passion for it all !

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 how strange then some forty years on
when we met and stood again
in a pub just off the Fulham Road
picking up the pieces but in the moment
and it was you who reminded me
how I’d re-fashioned a Walls ice cream banner
into a Cup one for the Blues
what did It say? I can’t remember can you?

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 but I remember cold packed trains up and back
weak British Rail tea and that classic fruit cake
and such anticipation all the way there
Old Trafford what would it be like?
the white wooden garden fence surround
the history the Busby Babes the Munich Air Crash
and how I’d cheered them on back through these awful days
so much a part of my childhood and yours too Vince

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 and then arriving first time in Manchester!
standing there leaping jumping
with mad and raucous Chelsea fans of the day
back then when we were crap
outside that station with rattles and silver paper cups
you covered in rosettes and scarves
me in badges and all of us to a man waving and singing
” maybe It’s because I’m a Londoner”
“1-4, -2-4 who the hell are we for..”
“set ’em alight set ’em alight..
who’s the team to set ’em alight?”
give us a C …give us an H…..give us an E (in Manchester?)
and equally rubbish 60’s songs of the day
but we did them all over and over en masse
for the cameras

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 and the match? Best Law and Charlton ran us ragged
but we held firm well almost and lost but didn’t mind
always ‘carefree’ even in those days
but the best bit was getting back to Manchester station
still waving still singing still shouting
and finding ourselves right at the front of the shot
and slap bang all over the front page
the Evening Football Argus or Pink Un or whatever
out of the cup but home to bliss fame and glory
what a day and one day I’ll find that picture

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 thanks Vince

© CT07

Notes

all true ..inspired in part by those witty and equally nostalgic throw back wordsmiths Andy Lockett, John Oliver ,Kevin Raymond, Clik The Mouse and Stuart Butler..

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/up-for-the-cup-with-vince-at-man-u/