Paul J Penton – Songwriter

Chanting crowds compete singing club anthems across the pitch. The pitch, green, verdant, springy, the players are microdots on the turf, amplified to ten times life size on a giant screen. A shot at goal is met with a swooning, ohhhhh, as it flies over the top of the cross bar, the goalkeeper donned in yellow top and arctic gloves runs on the spot to keep warm and blows a mist of air over this gloves. A shrill tin whistle halts play as a free kick is awarded, the crowd murmurs at the ‘poor’ refereeing, in their opinion.  

A well trained foot thumps the ball, it pings with a  hollow sound of inflated importance, it sails in an arc through the air and from nowhere, a player launches like a rocket into the air timing perfectly the trajectory of the ball, flicking it into the back of the net. The crowd erupts, the fans of the side that have scored jump to their feet and  gesticulate wildly, shout club songs and  scroll banners through the sky. This is really just a replay of gang warfare on the open battlefield, but swords are exchanged now for words, standards for banners the armies of fans face each other off over the green astro turf.

At half time it’s down below the stands for fast quaffing of luke warm beer and standing in line at the urinal with other members of the clan. The beer is watered down somewhat, hoppy without being too bitter, the glass reassuring in hand. How many more bodies can fit into this cavern one wonders. One thinks of the Beatles in that club in Hamburg, all squished in and cosy. The army re-ascends the rails to the concrete embattlements, ready for another round of abuse. This time the ends are reversed and the oppositions goal is at our end. Every time the goal keeper makes a ‘goal kick’ the crowd makes an ascending  ohhhhhhhhh SHIT! sound, trying to put him off his game, but he’s in the zone, tunes out all the background noise, just kicks the ball like he’s been doing since age of two. Living the dream out here on the ground for Queens Park Rangers, up against Manchester United, the red devils. The players swerve and dodge trying to get the tiny white dot to move down the field, wingers sprint making opportunities, defenders lunge cutting off surprise attacks…….