By Alan Duffy

Away from all the transfer speculation of pre-World Cup padding, here’s a rather decent poem by Man City fan and performance poet JB Barrington. It’s good stuff and should appeal to the blue half of Manchester, if not the Red!!

Proud to be Blue…

Pride in battle

Pride in you

Pride in our City

Proud to be blue

Joe Mercer served a full english

’69 FA Cup winning side

with Colin Bell, Franny Lee, Mike Summerbee

and Neil Young in the red and black stripes

From Laws uncelebrated back heeler

and Tuearts overhead kick

to Agüero’s 94th minute wonder

as the neighbours heads turned quick

From big Mals cigar

and wide brimmed Panama

to the scarf round the neck of Mancini

From the ‘ins’ and the ‘outs’

the beliefs and the doubts

to the quiet and the calm of Pellegrini

The smiles the frowns

the ups and downs

the tears of relegation

The years of pain

in a northern rain

paid back with celebration

Pride in battle

Pride in you

Pride in our City

Proud to be blue

Hear the Kippax cheer

still loud and clear

in the South Stand of today

From our simian stroll

right down Maine Road

to Alan Turing way

The cheers and the sneers

of 35 years

from 10 yards Yaya turned it round

Walking up Wembley Way

on that 14th of May

as that famous black banner came down

Always the bridesmaid

never the bride

always in the shadow of a spotlight

But from the days of old

we’re now a marvel to behold

get your shades on our future’s so bright

Pride in battle

Pride in you

Pride in our City

Proud to be blue

Our Mams and Dads

Grans and Grandads

our Grandkids our Sons and Daughters

Stood side by side

with a Citizen pride

no matter what the seasons brought us

From the time we slipped

when that Pleat skipped

to when Neville fed the Goat

From the jealous eyes

and those that despise

and every single ‘bitter’ quote

Now wi’ success earned

the mid-table’s turned

for the Manchester blue army

They’ll shout and bawl

an’ they’ll always call

the cup final our twice annual derby

Now it all looks right

the future’s bright

in the brightest of sky blue skies

The proudest of all Mancunians

have seen the Blue Moon rise

Pride in battle

Pride in you

Pride in our City

Proud to be blue.

I suggest you take a look at his other stuff here and on FB here –

https://www.facebook.com/TheWordsEscapeMe

© JB Barrington (words escape me) 2014