Ballad of a Claret and Blue Boy

 

 

 

The last few lines of the poem were used to end this compilation video of fans' FA Cup memories:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5unQq_VA0w

 

 

 

 

The ball is round, the pitch is green
The beautiful game, a love supreme

All my roads led here, a potent genetic mix
Witton Road, Aston, Birmingham B6

 

The family told me a secret, whispered clear and true
The blood that runs through our veins  isn't red but claret & blue.

Uncle Pat, Auntie Grace, good old Grandad Jack
Auntie Ethel, Uncle Les and Harold who never came back

 

He wrote to great gran - mud spattered letters from the Somme
Sent his love, wanted to know how the Villa had got on

"Did Hampton score? Was Leach in form? Did Bache & Ramsay play ?"
His medals, threaded with claret & blue, remain on the sideboard to this day

 

This is our inheritance. At 9 years old I came of age
Joined the acolytes at Villa Park, a ritual stage

On my life's way - packed like a wee sardine with the Holte End family
watched Docherty's boys draw with Millwall and relegation to division 3

 

Disheartened - yes! Fickle - No! We lived to rise and sing
The 70s - denim, perms and flares - John ‘Giddy’ Gidman on the wing

Lochhead, Aitken, Chico, Little - Ron ‘Granite’ Saunders was in charge
That bloke could have earned a decent wage playing hard men & crashing cars

 

In The Sweeny! But Ron's destiny was here, with us, a roller coaster ride
I stood behind the Wembley goal in 1975

when Graydon struck the rebound into the back of the Norwich net
The best was still  to come - "Do you want to bet

 

against us ?" Barton steadied our ship, undid the German euro plan
Led us to our greatest triumph in the port of Rotterdam.

The heroes of 82 cast a glittering shadow of light

that will stay forever in our hearts, day and night

 

Never bettered, the proudest sporting moment in our great city of industry

Through years of toil and hardship and austerity

Our club remains: a cathedral, a theatre, a meeting place for likeminded souls

To worship, sing, bark, celebrate in joy - McGrath, Petrov, Mellberg, the goals

 

Of Benteke. Now, the era of Sherwood has arrived

For the first time in my life I wear a gilet with pride.

Nan, god bless her, will be singing Abide With Me

In my mind at least, on May 30^th, curled up on the settee

 

Cheering on the team, imploring them to attack, attack, attack!

Thinking of Ethel, Pat, Grace, and Harold who never came back.

So let’s raise a cheer to the ghosts of Villans past as we walk the Wembley Way

Pongo Waring, Billy Walker, ‘Mush’ Callaghan – ferocious in his day

 

We are proud, we are family, we are Holte Enders in the sky

We are the children of McGregor, we are Villa till we die.