Football has the ability to make you laugh, smile, cry, following a team can get you to feel all those emotions - even in a space of a few minutes.
Yesterday two of us had morning commitments so we could not make the trip to Blackpool to see Ipswich play so to get our football fix we took the short trip up the A14 to see Histon take on Vauxhall Motors whilst our mate Kempy took the train north - the rest of the report should be about the neat ground, the two Vauxhall players booked for fighting each other and then Histon taking the lead before Vauxhall got their act together and ended up winning 2-1 giving myself and my mate Colin an entertaining afternoon but instead the games was just the start of an evening of mixed emotions.
At the end of the game we rushed to the club bar to see how Ipswich were doing- emotion of surprise as we were still winning 2-1 but withing seconds, we saw that Blackpool had drawn level- so 91 minutes and 2-2 but then 93 minutes and we were winning again. A quick text to our mate Kempy in Blackpool and he replied "Won!!!" So we drove away happy - 90 minutes later and our emotions are very different , Kempy had collapsed in Blackpool and died.
Shock is the emotion I felt followed by anger and sadness, football was why we had become friends but we had stayed close friends with football just getting in the way, players and managers often get the title legend, many do not deserve it but when it comes to supporters - Kempy was an ITFC legend.
The away matches were a social occasion and football was just a small part of that day - Kempy was fun, intelligent, knowledgeable and loyal. His views on modern football were obvious when you knew what he liked best - it was spending a cold December up at the training ground, with 20 other fans watching the Academy - no flash cars, big egos - just pure simple football.
Football for me will never be the same again - Michael Kemp RIP
Hi Alasdair, I have been living in Australia for the past 25 years and was saddened to hear the news of 'Kempy' , just so i have the right person, as age gets us all, is it the same michael that lived as a kid on whitehouse and went to westbourne school?, the face looks the same but as i said age does strange things to us.
ReplyDeletei went to school with Kempy, .... and i'm sure it's the same 'Kempy'
thanks
Tom Bond
Hi Tom Budgie here Alan Burgess Hope life is good for you in Australia mate
DeleteSounds like him, about 54 years old
ReplyDeleteyep it's him, very sad news. thanks for the reply. we went to Westbourne school, he was a great school mate.
ReplyDelete