An Ode to Bill
Exiled Valiant Barry Edge lives in Perth, Western Australia and is a regular columnist for onevalefan. In this poem Barry encourages William T. Bell to do the right thing by selling his controlling share of Port Vale FC to Valiant 2001.
An Ode to Bill
There were stirrings in the Hamil
And the talk around the towns
Was of the bid to buy Port Vale
For a mere one million pounds
From a Mow Cop man and others
To secure the future of our ‘Club,
Giving us the chance to say adieu
To William and his mob.
He wants to sell, or so he says,
He’s told us many times
That he’ll sell his shares to only those
Whose interests ‘are like mine’,
But wait, a second bidder has appeared,
And Bill now seems a man
Who’ll deal with anyone except, of course,
The choice of onevalefan.
Reveal the name, we’ve asked BB,
And give some details please
To enable us to be informed
And to put our minds at ease,
Stop playing games, your time is up,
It’s time for you to sell
And retire from the Port Vale Football Club,
In that we’ll wish you well.
To hang around will do no good
The list of problems grow
With the ‘Pride of the Potteries’ self esteem
Now at an all time low,
The Lorne Street Stand, a paper thin squad,
And poor drainage of the pitch
Are reasons enough for suffering fans
To want to make the switch.
Your time with the Port Vale Football Club
Has seen its ups and downs,
But now it’s time to say goodbye
With memories still well found,
Go now with grace and leave us be
For there’s much we have to do,
Lest we forget, the promise is…
‘We will remember you’.
Barry Edge
Western Australia
January, 2002
🙂