Football Poets

Port Vale and Mansfield- FA Cup giant killers?

In a small corner of Middle England
Suspense and intrigue
Have gripped the residents
Of Port Vale and Mansfield
Once again the FA Cup
The fifth round no longer
Secretive and mysterious
Open like the greatest novel
Of all time
Giant killing is upon us
Mansfield searching
For a fertile Field Mill
Harvesting crops perhaps
In abundance
Maybe the Gooners
Of Arsenal
Are trembling with trepidation
Perhaps not since
Reality will be
At the head of the queue
Arteta’s Premier League artists
Surely too good
For the lower League upstarts
The Stags still roaming
In the gloaming today
Mansfield surely
Finding their level
Proper working class proletariats
It’s the exit door
For the aspirational wannabes
Of Mansfield Town
Ideas above their station
It has to be Arsenal in the quarter finals
At the FA Cup’s top table
They’ve been here umpteen times
Familiar with the script
They know every chapter
In their sleep
Meanwhile, Robbie Williams
Still a national treasure
Years after boy band status
Took that to the highest altitude
Of fame and glory
Robbie will find a convenient gadget
As his Port Vale try valiantly
To recreate 1954 when Wembley
Was literally on their doorstep
No FA Cup Finals for Vale
But how close they came
As the Baggies of West Brom
Shoved them out of the back door
Unceremoniously
A match away from the FA Cup Final
Port Vale- FA Cup holders?
Now that really is a romantic
Journey into the world of
Fairy tales and fulsome fantasy
But Port Vale
It’s the Mackems of Sunderland
Today and who knows
Where their Ordnance Survey map
May take them
Who also once came unstuck
In the cider drinking classes
Of Yeovil, in post war England
Against Sunderland
Many moons ago
When the FA Cup meant so much
To those who cherished
Those early morning wake up calls
When the Cup Final
Began its epic voyage
On Grandstand and World of Sport
And the world was
Besotted with TV
As the sun rose above
The yardarm
And players wore suits
Before the kick off
And Abide With Me
Was the standard chant
Across heaving terraces
Of 100,000 and
The old Wembley had
So many charming
Memories and images
From so long ago
Port Vale and Mansfield
It’s over to you

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