Fair's Fair

The Blue Star shone in Budapest
as West met East on Europe’s streets;
the night the Magpies skinned the Magyars
and the Fairs Cup was ours.

Across the desert of thirty five years,
the Inter Cities trophy glitters,
like a beacon in the wilderness,
all that burnt energy, just this success.

And what a crazy night it was;
the shorts flowed in black and white bars:
away goals, of course, counted double
and, after a few, we were seeing double!

We’d danced through Feyenoord and Zaragoza,
skipped from Setubal to downtown Glasgae;
and we came back singing through it all,
with Clarkie, Craigie and McFaul.

It was the golden day of three-goal Moncur,
of Scottie, Gibb, Sinclair,
of Wyn the Leap and Bryan Pop,
and little Benny Arentoft.

Finally, we had a Cup to show
and the Toon’s faces shone aglow;
no longer drowning in our self-pity,
at last, Fair’s fair, Newcassel’s a European City!

© keith armstrong 2006

(To celebrate the 35th anniversary of Newcastle United’s Inter Cities Fairs Cup win on June 11th 1969).  

Tyneside poet Keith Armstrong, who was in Budapest that great night
was born in Newcastle and is a lifelong  Newcastle United supporter. He has travelled throughout Europe to read his poetry and is widely published and broadcast. He is available for events and functions: telephone 0191 2529531.