At small and amateur league clubs throughout the North you’ll see

A game in which new codes of courtesy have been applied

Where stickered posters all implore, “Respect the Referee”.

 

But donkey’s years of habit aren’t erased so easily

Despite attempts to gentrify the game they’ve lately tried

At small-town clubs throughout the North the evidence you’ll see.

 

Intermittent silences but then cacophony

“Card that dirty bastard, Ref”.  “Ref, get ‘em all on-side”.

For eighty minutes they suspend “Respect the Referee”.

 

“Who’s the bastard in the black?” a youngster sings with glee

His dad shouts out “The dozy bastard has to be bozz-eyed”.

At every club throughout the North this spectacle you’ll see.

 

“Hast tha’ took back’anders, Ref?  We know who’s paid thy fee”

“Why ‘a’n’t ‘e ‘ad an early bath?” as thirty stones collide.

A poster wafts across the pitch, “Respect the Referee”.

 

At full-time in the bar over beers and pie and tea

Two linesmen and the Ref stand chatting to one side

As season after season in the Northern clubs you see

This “special” way supporters here “Respect the Referee”.