Swindon Expects

[Power to people]

Fuck yeah. And a moat. With pikeys in it.

Corrected for you, please get it right in future 

[ReadingRed]

He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is 29th May”'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his replica shirt,
And say 'This shirt I wore on playoff day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But we'll remember, with advantages,
What feats we did that day.

Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Danny the King, Lucas and McGovern,
Jean-Francois and Paynter, Ward and Austin-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And 29th May shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we thirty thousand, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that follows the Town with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And footballers in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That played for us upon playoff  day.

[donkey]

Seeing as my last effort got ignored, I figured maybe you were bigger fans of Martin Luther King than Winston Churchill...so I give you my version of 'I have a dream'.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the Swindonian dream.

I have a dream that one day this club will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We are going up, say we are going up."

I have a dream that one day on the green hills of Wiltshire, the sons of Swindon fans and the sons of former supporters of other clubs will be able to sit down together at the bar brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the county of Oxfordshire, a county sweltering with the heat of non-league failure, sweltering with the heat of Swindonian success, will be transformed into an oasis of red and white.

I have a dream that Town players will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their shirt but by the contribution they made to victory over Millwall.
 
I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in London, with its M25, with its underground -- one day right there in London little Swindon boys and Swindon girls will be able to join hands with each other as victorious sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every pass shall be exalted, and every shot be made low, the rough tackles will be made clean, and the crosses will be made straight; and the glory of Fitton shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go to the Wembley with.

With this faith, we have hewn out of the mountain of Diamandis induced despair a stone of Fitton shaped hope. With this faith, we have transformed the jangling discords of our club into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we have worked together, to play together, to struggle together, to win together, to stand up for Swidnon together, knowing that we will be promoted this day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of Fitton's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

Danny Wilson’s Red and White Army.

Come on you reds

In 1969 on League Cup Final Day

And…If I had the wings of a sparrow!

And if Swindon is to be a great club, this must become true.

And so let victory ring from the prodigious hilltop of Gorse.

Let victory ring from ‘Nam and Bassett.

Let victory ring from Ciren and Cricklade, Highworth and Calne.

Let victory ring from Marlborough and Malmsbury.

Let victory ring from Blunsdon and Wroughton.

But not only that:

Let victory ring from Bangkok to South Oxfordshire.

Let victory ring from Leicester to New Zealand.

Let victory ring from every fjord and mountain in Norway.

From the Magic Roundabout, let victory ring.

And when this happens, when we allow victory to, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of Fitton's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Swindon spiritual:

                Up at last! Up at last!

                Thank God Almighty, we are up at last!

[reeves4england]

Yes Donkey. You bet. You bet!

[sonicyouth]

This club is your club, this club is my club,
From the Oasis to Great Western Railway,
From the Magic Roun'bout to the County Ground,
This club was made for you and me.

As I went walking that Wembley Way,
I saw above me that endless skyway,
I saw below me that lush green valley,
This club was made for you and me.

I roamed and I rambled and I followed my football club,
To the glorious surroundings of Wembley Stadium.
While all around me voices were singing,
This club was made for you and me.

When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the red flags waving and the pints were flowing,
A voice was chanting, as the fog was lifting,
This club was made for you and me.

This club is your club, this club is my club,
From the Oasis to the Great Western Railway,
From the Magic Roun'bout to the County Ground,
This club was made for you and me.

There was a team called Millwall that tried to stop us,
Cup was engraved, it said Millwall FC,
But in the end it just said Swindon;
This club was made for you and me.

When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the red flags waving and the pints were flowing,
A voice was chanting, as the fog was lifting,
This club was made for you and me.

This club is your club, this club is my club,
From the Oasis to the Great Western Railway,
From the Magic Roun'bout to the County Ground,
This club was made for you and me.


(with apologies to the Guthrie family)

[Barry Scott]

We've made it once again
to our second home Wembley Stadium
where Don scored to beat the Arsenal
leaving Wilson on the floor
do you remember Ossie's dream
that fell apart at the seams
until Hoddle and Co restored the dream
now we must never falter

They said we wouldn't make it again
but we stood stronger till the end
especially St. Marys that night
when Charlie set the place alight
then there was Elland Road
and we were in another world
Wilson and Co have set the scene
now we must go and conquer

We walked into the Valley
and David Lucas fell to his knees
then Gordon Greer left the field
but Danny Ward did his thing
to achieve his dream
to achieve his dream

In this together
and we are the Swindon Town
and were playing for each other
to achieve the dream
to achieve the dream

[reeves4england]

Tomorrow, all of us will, by our presence at Wembley, and by our celebrations in other parts of our country and the world, confer glory and hope to our newborn football club.
Out of the experience of an extraordinary disaster that lasted too long, must be born a club of which all of Wiltshire will be proud.
Our daily deeds as ordinary Swindonians must produce an actual Swindonian reality that will reinforce our belief in our club, strengthen our confidence in the nobility of the board and sustain all our hopes for a glorious future for Swindon Town FC.
All this we owe both to ourselves and to the people of Wiltshire who are so well represented here today.
To my compatriots, I have no hesitation in saying that each one of us is as intimately attached to the soil of this beautiful club as are the hero Don Rogers and the legend that is Harold Flemming.
Each time one of us touches the soil of the County Ground, we feel a sense of personal renewal. The local mood changes as the seasons change.
We are moved by a sense of joy and exhilaration when the grass turns green and the white lines are painted.
That spiritual and physical oneness we all share with this common homeland explains the depth of the pain we all carried in our hearts as we saw our club torn apart in a terrible conflict, and as we saw it spurned, outlawed and isolated by the peoples of the footballing authorities, precisely because Ken Bates and his cronies follow a pernicious ideology and practice of discrimination and oppression
We, the people of Swindon, feel fulfilled that football has taken us back into its bosom, that we, who were outlaws not so long ago, have today been given the rare privilege to compete with names known across the world on our own soil.
We thank all our distinguished international guests for having come to take possession with the people of our club of what is, after all, a common victory for justice, for peace, for dignity.
We trust that you will continue to stand by us as we tackle the challenges of building our club and community.
Let us deeply appreciate the role that the masses of our people and their political mass democratic, religious, women, youth, business, traditional and other leaders have played to bring about this conclusion. Not least among them is the honourable Andrew Fitton.
We would also like to pay tribute to our players and staff, in all their ranks, for the distinguished role they have played in securing our first signs of hope from money- and power-thirsty forces which still refuse to see the light.
The time for the healing of the wounds has come.
The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us from the upper leagues has come.
The time to build is upon us.
We have, at last, achieved our goal. Let us liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of League One football.
We succeeded to take our steps thus far towards the Championship as underdogs, yet we must commit ourselves to the construction of a complete, lasting legacy.
We have triumphed in the effort to implant hope in the breasts of the thousands of our people. Let us enter into a covenant that we shall build the club in which all Swindonians, both black and white, will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to have pride in their club--a club at peace with itself and the footballing world.

Let us dedicate this day to all the heroes and heroines in this club who sacrificed in many ways and surrendered their lives so that we could have this hope.
Their dreams have become reality. Wembley is their reward.
We are both humbled and elevated by the honour and privilege that you, the saviours of our club, have bestowed on us, as the fans of a united, glorious football club, to lead our club out of the valley of darkness.
We understand it still that there is no easy road to promotion.
We know it well that none of us acting alone can achieve success.
We must therefore act together as a united people, for reconciliation, for club building, for the birth of a new era.
Let there be tickets for all.
Let there be beer for all.
Let there be shirts, scarves, flags and happy clappers for all.
Let each know that the players, the management and the fans have been freed to fulfil themselves.
Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful club will again experience oppression by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the Football League.
Let promotion reign.
The sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement!

God bless Swindon Town FC!

[Bogus Dave]

You've all fucked it now.

Well done

[donkey]

You've all fucked it now.

Well done

No chance.  Reeves, Barry, Sonic...top work...I actually read Reeves' out loud, it sounds fucking ace.

[Barry Scott]

No chance.  Reeves, Barry, Sonic...top work...I actually read Reeves' out loud, it sounds fucking ace.

Mine is the lyrics of the Town song. Just copied it to see if anyone would notice or cuss me!

- Actually my big reveal might've been a bit premature there!

[donkey]

Mine is the lyrics of the Town song. Just copied it to see if anyone would notice or cuss me!

- Actually my big reveal might've been a bit premature there!

I'll leave my big reveal for a streak when we've won!

[reeves4england]

Of course, I wrote that whole speech entirely by myself. It was definitely not edited from a famous speech by a very famous person!

Glad you liked it Donkey. I worked hard at that!

[NW6Red]

Nice work, donkey - inspirational stuff. I'll have no fear now being the only Town fan on a bus full of Millwall.

[NW6Red]

I loved this bit:

even the county of Oxfordshire, a county sweltering with the heat of non-league failure, sweltering with the heat of Swindonian success, will be transformed into an oasis of red and white.

[Bogus Dave]

I fucking told ya.