Give him a Ball and a Yard of Grass


This week's music/ football crossover is from The Sultans of Ping FC.
The Sultans are/ were a band from Cork who were Cork City fans. They were most popular in the early 90's and their single Where's Me Jumper? was a hit on the student circuit at the time. However, unfortunately most people can only name this song although the Sultans released 3 albums.

Apart from their name being football related they also have 3 songs related to football: I'm in Love with a Football Hooligan, Back in a Tracksuit and best of all Give him a ball and a Yard of Grass.

This song is about ex-England, Forest and Liverpool midfielder / striker Nigel Clough. During his time as a footballer I didn't have much time for him at all, mainly because of my dislike for the clubs he played for. However, as boss and sometime player of Burton Albion he has done a great job and the Brewers are looking good for the Conference play-offs this year, so well done to him. He has stayed loyal to Burton over the years despite being continually linked to the Derby or Forest job every time one of them has a bad run of results, so that's every couple of weeks.

In the song the Sultans sing He's a nice young man with a lovely smile, well he's a grumpy old sod nowadays who annoys fans of ex-league clubs now in the Conference under the pseudonym of Newark Colin, when writing on the Net, which earns him more plaudits.

I also remember in a Burton programme he was asked What advice do you give to young players? His response was My dad told me to sign for Liverpool. Never listen to your dad. Sound advice if your dad was Brian Clough, but that's another story.

If you fancy listening to the Sultans of Ping there are plenty of MP3s including Give him a Ball and a Yard of Grass at: http://ping.fishtank.org.uk/

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