"Before The Match"

Another day of destiny
Here comes deja vu
Is your glass half full or empty
Depends on your point of view.
Third consecutive play-off final
But the first at home
If you can really call it that
For to Tooting we've had to roam.
With our arch rivals relegated
We'll be two divisions apart
Much as I'm grateful for their helping hand
Them dropping warmed my heart.
There'll be two divisions between us
If we're victors at ten to five
And against the obscene Tamplin wads at Billericay
We did well to keep out title hopes alive.
So much play-off heartache in the past
It can't come soon enough
But Hendon won't be pushovers
It's going to genuinely tough.
Come the final whistle
I'll have tears in my eye
That'd whether we win or lose
I know I'm going to cry.
Perhaps it's Old Skool destiny
We went up when we shared at Sandy Lane
Now we're stuck at their new ground
It could be time again.
Will it be farewell to the Isthmian
National League bound?
Or grown men braking down
At the Tooting & Mitcham ground?
With all the off-field problems
I didn't want to go a level higher
But to say I don't want it in my heart
I'd have to admit to being as liar.
So will we finally do it
Only time will tell
It won't be the end of the world
If we're stuck in 'Bostik League hell'.
Except I'm not a 'big-time-charlie'
I'd never call it that
Anyone who uses that description
Is a disrespectful prat.
I'm desperate to leave the Isthmian
But proud enough to stay
Really don't want to tempt fate
But think it might finally be our day.

Dulwich Poet 7th May 2018

(I wrote this BEFORE the Bostik League Premier Division play-off Final, on the tram to the game, at our temporary home at Tooting & Mitcham United.)