Post-Match Poem: Huddersfield v Forest

‘What’s in a name?’ Shakespeare once wrote
and Huddersfield Town clearly took note
re-branding their stadium every few years
and thus reducing me nearly to tears.

My sat-nav searched for ‘The McAlpine’,
as the ground had been known in former times,
not knowing one small but crucial detail:
it’s now named after a famous ale…

Had it not been for some helpful locals
I might not have managed to lend my vocals
to the Forest support at the John Smith’s
– and this was a game not to be missed!

With our new-look team starting to gel
we gave their defenders merry hell
and by the time Cox put Forest ahead
the game might long since have been put to bed.

But in football every chance that goes begging
increases the odds of the other team pegging
you back late on to snatch a lucky draw
as proved when Harding brought Hunt to the floor.

Back in the car with a slight sense of deflation,
and home – a more familiar destination –
inputted into my trusty TomTom,
I thought, ‘How the hell was that one-one!’