(It’s a funny old game)
Meat Pies, Scarves and Bovril
Standing in the crowd
Football in the seventies
Women not allowed
Travelling with our team
In our special pack
Find the opposition
Go on the attack
Football in the eighties
Lots of tears about
Stadiums come crashing down
Blame it on the louts
It’s now, about the bums on seats
Making football safer
Banning songs and sponsored shirts
The future’s looking bleaker
Football in the nineties
Now it’s Premier
Teams are reaching for the Sky
Chasing rarefied air
Clubs are full of players
Hola, Monsieur, Mon frere
Money buys you everything
The fans don’t really care
Football in two thousand
It’s all about the league
Not those little local ones
Europe. Yes, indeed
Women playing football
For professional clubs
If you take the time to watch them
They are really very good
Football now in twenty-ten
It’s all about the owners
If you are an oligarch
Please come and take us over
Managers they come and go
Often at great speed
Spending owners millions
In their efforts to succeed
We’re up to twenty twenty
Football has come far
It’s up to speed, but slower
Since we all have VAR
We have so many pundits
Ex pros’ waiting for the call
Let us please enjoy the game
We don’t need you know it all’s
Football is a passion
It’s now on the TV all the time
I liked it best when it was pies
And swaying in long lines
Football was for Saturdays
Radio results at five,
Then going out on Sunday
And playing OUR game live
PJ.
© 2023
“Meat Pies, Scarves and Bovril” is a nostalgic journey through the evolution of football culture in Britain. The poem masterfully captures the transformation from the working-class roots of the 1970s – with its meat pies, scarves, and warming cups of Bovril – through to the modern era of VAR and commercial interests. Each stanza paints a vivid picture of how the beautiful game has changed, from the dark days of stadium disasters in the 1980s to the emergence of the Premier League, European football, and the growing influence of wealthy owners. The poem’s bittersweet ending reflects a yearning for simpler times, when football meant Saturday afternoons, radio result checks at five, and Sunday kickabouts.
Peter J. Watson, a Yorkshire poet with a keen eye for life’s peculiarities, has crafted a remarkable collection in “Daftness and Other Afflictions.” Writing initially as therapy, his work evolved into something uniquely relatable, capturing the ordinary person’s perspective with wit, wisdom, and occasional cynicism. His resident poet’s review noted how his work “leaves you wanting more” and is “relatable to the ordinary person” – an assessment Watson came to embrace as the very essence of his writing style. If you enjoy poetry that speaks to everyday experiences with both humor and heart, you’ll find yourself at home in these pages.
