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Kipling & Football

If you can raise your head when all around are dropping theirs
Because you lost nil-two,
If you ignore the times they sold a striker to fund the cost
Of building a new loo.

If you can shout and not give up that shouting,
Or when the pies are cold still eat those pies,
Or being ridiculed don't give way to pouting,
Or in the FA Cup don't pray for byes.

If you can take your every hard earned shilling
And pay to watch another dismal loss,
But still you always need your weekly filling
For one day you may see a decent cross.

If you can join the board but keep your virtue,
Or in the crowd don't think out loud too much,
If neither hope nor dark despair desert you,
If play offs are a straw to which you clutch.

If you describe another nil-nil fixture,
As ninty minutes worth of non stop fun,
Yours is a world with tunnel vision in it,
But what is more you'll be a fan my son.

Apologies to Rudyard Kipling.
by Joe Stock - Townhill, Swansea.

Here's the original 'IF' by Kipling...a timely reminder during such challenging times

If by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!