The latest Snap Notts sees our poet and photographer pairing take inspiration from the City Ground on a match day...
With a heart full of hope, a grandfather smiles
To the glory of when Robbo twisted and turned
Jinking to weave intricate lace before launching a cross
As true as a spoke, for the million pound man
To bury the ball, to lift the European Cup
That set a city alight
Now four decades passed and stories still shared
To lads who became dads who carry their own shoulder high
Saturday rituals of pints, pies and programmes
Friendships forged on terraces
Have echoed down the years
Of when Forest blazed a trail
From Liverpool to Athens to Zurich and Cologne
Before Malmo in Munich to claim the cup as their own
It’s Captains who lift cups
But it’s the fans who fill the stands, week after week
Who inspire the players
To graft and dig deep
To battle and beguile and never give up
From every corner of this outlaw shire
And many pay homage from further still
Husbands, wives, fathers, daughters and sons
Beside a family of four generations
Strides belief as broad as a barrel chest
A unity of smiles as bright as the stars above their crest
Every match day they come
In cars and buses, trams and trains
Walking roads that ripple with anticipation
Streaming through streets bound for glory
Tributaries to a red river that flows by the Trent
Making a pilgrimage of thousands to a sacred City Ground
This great history isn’t over
These faces tell the stories of when Forest ruled the land
And like the tree we’ll grow and we’ll soar
This ground where we gather, forever our heartland.
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