On the day I met Shaun Goater, I realised I had met

a living legend of Blue persuasion,

one who ranked with Colin Bell, Peter Barnes,

Uve Rossler, Asa Hartford and Bert Trautmann

as the hand I wanted to shake for being themselves

when placing the blue shirt above all in the name of the Kippax

and the beauty in despair of being an exiled Citizen.

From the first game away at Birmingham City,

a bus journey from Selly Park, from where soon

a picture of Joe Corrigan would look down