1979 Hibernian match programme

I was at this game, George Best’s home debut for the Hibees. There was a crowd of over 19,000 which was unusually large for a match between bottom of the league Hibernian and Partick Thistle.  The programme was mostly about how Bestie came to Hibs. (It all went pear- shaped, of course.)  When I moved flat over 10 years ago, the programme went missing, never to be seen again. It bothered me, so I’ve finally bought a replacement on Ebay. I also wrote these verses.
 
The Arrival of George Best at Easter Road, 1979

‘Look, there he is,’ says Sammy
‘Over there by Morton’s Rolls.’
Tanned legs, three o’clock stubble
And wearing our green and white
Bukta strip, chevrons on the sleeves
The first team to wear a sponsor’s name
On the shirt.
 
‘Georgie, Georgie, Georgie Best,’ sing the crowd
And we are a crowd, for a wee change,
We’ve turned out in numbers
To see the Belfast Boy,
The footballing genius,
The flawed fire cracker.
 
‘Georgie Georgie, give us a wave
Give us a wave,
Give us a wave.’
He gave us a wave.

When Hibs pile forward
George just kind of ambles along,
And when we rush back in panic-stricken defence,
He never goes too far back,
In fact, George seems to spend
Quite a lot of time
Perambulating around
The centre circle.
 
He doesn’t run much,
At least not very fast,
But, he takes all the free kicks and corners,
And delivers them all on  plates
To colleagues like the misnamed Ally Brazil
Who do not always anticipate
His speed of thought.
 
He scores his first goal for the Hibees,
But I can’t remember it for the booze
And the fact that half the east terracing
Jump on top of me,
And I loose my dentures
In the ensuing melee.
 
Even with George,
We get relegated anyway,
And some say
That it has all been a stunt, a diversion,
And a cabaret.
But I was happy to be diverted
From the winter of discontent,
And the coming of Thatcher,
To gaze on a footballing fox
Reynard, Gorgeous George
Who burst across our emerald firmament
Like a tipsy ballerina on a curtain call
To shine his light on us,
If only for a moment,
But what a precious moment.