| Forum Thread | On signing on for Saints at 11:42 6 Jun 2023
A poem I wrote on signing on for Saints in 1966. Enjoy Like most schoolboys I was sport mad and imagined one day to play for my team a fantasy, an unrealistic hope, a false dream but I was good and not just keen So I wtote to my club and asked for a trial and surprisingly I was asked to come next Tuesday eve There were 40 of us desperate to impress the watching scouts, the manager, in me to believe We returned to the Dell The home of the "Saints" and four names were called of the 40 that played that night. I was one of them to my disbelieve and utter delight I got a letter signed by the Manager, Ted Bates that I had become an Amateur with no pay but told to make myself available to play. Training Tuesdays and Thursdays, the Southampton way In those days there were no academy suits no sponsored kits. no manicured pitches instead the concrete and tarmnac carpark and gym where we sweated and stretched every muscle and limb Grace and elegance was not the art of the pro well for most it was teancity and will to withstand the mental and physical speed of thought against your opponent's skill Confronted one evening in training in the car park when tackled by a hardened pro called Huxford who flattened me to the ground, face first dazed and bloodied he stood over me unmoved He was looking for a response, a reaction would I run away or confront him Had I got what it took to become a pro there would be no apology, no retraction It was not just me but everone that night floored, bloodied, bruised and sore discovered what it was to become a pro If that was sport then for me a no Only one amateur signed pro forms that year a lad, ironically from Portsmouth, our fiercest foe Diminuitive but quick, fearless, but no tricks went on the score the winner in the cup Final of '76 |
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