WORDS COMPOSED BY MY SON, JAMIE RAY, FOLLOWING ASTON VILLA'S RECENT EUFA EUROPA LEAGUE SUCCESS...

Well, I'm not quite sure where to start with this one! 

JAMIE AND SISTER WENDY WAVE LUCY & ME OFF TO WEMBLEY, 1996...

JAMIE WAS SOME 'KEEPER AS A KID...

I started following Villa when I was around 10 years old. I'm too young to remember the cup wins in 1994 and 1996 and not quite old enough to have experienced European away campaigns prior to current manager Unai Emery's arrival. 

We'd all heard the stories of 1982, but to be honest they'd started to feel more myth than reality to fans who had never experienced anything like that in our lifetimes. 

Starting out with a season ticket alongside my dad and sister, I started following us away from Villa Park with Jim Watts. From ex-manager David O'Leary's 'honest bunch of lads' to successive 6th place finishes under Martin O'Neill, a rollercoaster ride doesn't even come close. 

LUCY, JAMIE & ME WATCHING VILLA...

I fully appreciate that football is for everyone and you're entitled to follow whichever team and for whatever reason you like... But going into school after another defeat to mockery by fans who will never experience seeing their team live, or understand the community of going through the ups and downs with your family and friends was always tough to take. 

But we still persevered, despite the lack of tangible success and the disappointment of falling short at crucial moments because we love our club regardless. 

From European qualification to relegation with Villa Park half empty due to fans' disillusionment. Cold nights up in Preston, defeat in the playoffs, the very real threat of bankruptcy and then new ownership saving us. 

Soon came the legend that was Dean Smith, revitalising the club alongside fellow Villa fan Jack Grealish and an unorthodox and relatively unknown Scottish lad called John McGinn. Special mention must go to Tyrone Mings... I still say to this day we would never have achieved promotion without his athleticism and leadership because before his arrival our defence was a mess. 

He remains one of the most underappreciated and underrated footballers I have ever seen in a Villa shirt, in some cases even amongst our own fanbase. 

Promotion, then escaping relegation by the skin of our teeth and then UNAI EMERY... He has taken us from relegation fodder to Europe. Finally it culminated seeing us play abroad with Jim in Warsaw. 

Countless European nights experienced since. And the Champions League!!! 

Feeling that life had peaked when Morgan Rogers put us ahead in Paris... 

It hadn't peaked. Europe again. The night at Villa Park against Forest. Champions League qualification again. Istanbul bound... 

Last week was absolute carnage from start to finish. The sense of community, bumping into familiar faces everywhere. Taking over the streets, incredible locals welcoming us to their City... 

Wednesday night. Oh my word... Youri Tielemans' banger, Emi Buendia's beauty and Rogers's goal in front of the Villa fans. Life definitely did peak... 

First major trophy for 30 years and we were lucky enough to be there and experience it. McGinn and Emery leading us to glory. Face-Timing my mom and sisters at the final whistle in tears... 

This squad immortalised, overcoming the doubt and weight of history. I will never ever forget that trip as long as I live. 

A big thank you to everyone who made it so special. Unai Emery, you are a genius and we love you... 

Finally... I'm buzzing for you Jim, brother, you deserved that more than anyone... 💜

Champions again... UTV 💜🩵

A SUDDEN INTAKE OF BREATH... (My new poem after seeing the coffin mask of Egyptian King Amenemope, at a Battersea Power Station exhibition...)

 A Sudden Intake Of Breath…

(Catching a glimpse of Amenemope’s gilded coffin mask…)

The exhibition hall was atmospherically lit, as jewellery artefacts glistened with ancient gold,

Rich colours adorned painted reliefs, whilst statues and busts of sculpted stone glowed

Drawing gazes of wonder at the skilled craftsmanship of wonders on display.

Mummified animals, even small coffins for mummified scarab beetles vied with the presence

Of Ramses, his legacy and his achievements somehow pervading

The exhibition space, until I turned a corner and what I saw caused an intake of breath…

It was a face with a solemn, intriguing expression, with cold

Yet perceptive eyes, the pupils and make-up with inlaid bronze endowed.

And I gasped at the slight smile, rather mystical and fey,

But engaging and somehow arresting in its simplicity and essence.

The delicate coiled cobra upon the headcloth, its colours striking 

Impressed upon Amenemope’s gilded wooden coffin mask, an enchantment eked out of death…

Pete Ray…

24th May 2026…  

Precious objects were found in Amenemope’s tomb chamber in 1940 but his mummy had been moved to the tomb of his parents, Psusennes I and Mutnodjmet.

The coffin is now missing but the gilded mask was startling when I saw it in Battersea Power Station’s ‘Ramses and the Gold of the Pharaohs’ exhibition recently…

HIDING IN THE PARK... (My new poem about the WW1 memorial in Battersea Park, London, UK...)

 Hiding In The Park…

(Battersea’s WW1 memorial, East Surrey Infantry…)

Seeking the memorial in Battersea Park, only one of several policemen could pledge 

Instructions as to its whereabouts, albeit it was rather tucked neatly away

In a grassy area, virtually hidden behind modern amenities, 

Such as padel courts, tennis courts and available parking for visitors

To the Chelsea Flower Show. Even the high-vis jacketed parking attendants could offer no direction…

Once found, the 1924 sculpture in Portland stone, enclosed within a circular green hedge,

Gleamed pallid and ghostly, almost as if new, bar a few words of graffiti, scribbled awry

Upon the base. Three infantrymen stood in full uniform with a serpent coiled for eternity

At their boots, as if vanquished like a foe around their puttees, their remorse

Pondered for some ten thousand dead of the 24th Division, as sullen eyes stared in personal reflection…

Pete Ray…

23rd May 2026…

It is interesting that the designer and sculptor, Eric Kennington RA modelled one of the three figures on the poet and writer Robert Graves, well known for his war memoir, ‘Goodbye To All That’… 

RAMSES AND THE GOLD OF THE PHARAOHS... (SOME OF MY IMAGES FROM THE CURRENT EXHIBITION AT BATTERSEA POWER STATION, LONDON, UK...)