Football Poets

The tears and bombs have fallen
Across the bleeding fields of
Ukraine, unbearably and agonisingly
For seemingly ages now
But last night the lone voice
Of civility and compassion
Rang around North […]

once in a blue moon

comes a day when you can say

oh yes I was there

So he stood on the shoulders of the heads
Of giants, a colossus supreme
A footballing Titan
Record breaker
The all time England goal scorer
Now 54 goals not out
Harry Kane
The ultimate citizen
If only […]

Is there something
in common between Lineker
Tom Sawyer and Mark Twain

They are all the characters
of the important story

Among the desperete refugees
there are Mark Twain readers

What is the Tweet […]

And so we move to the last four
Of the FA Cup, the semi finalists
Seamlessly right
Continuity assured
Deeply woven into FA Cup history
Firstly Brighton and Manchester United
4O years since poor Gordon […]

Yes folks it’s that time again
The sack race, unfair dismissal
Your only conclusion
Since Patrick Vieira was our
Honourable friend
Admirably gifted
Hugely intelligent
What more could he have
Done at the […]

If you think that hungry schoolkids
Do not get enough to eat,
And you’re a famous footballer,
It’s easy – write a tweet.

If you reckon Generation Z
Enough books do not read,
And you are a comedian, […]

Ah, all is forgiven
In Beeb towers
Gary Lineker, free
Liberated by those
Who refused to understand
Leicester’s favourite son
Released, no longer
Captive in a language
Twisted by those who
Believed words […]

It seems like forever
that we’ve heard that iconic-goose-bump-inducing signature tune…..
followed by incumbent presenter welcoming us all
to edited highlights, mapping a ball
then cameras rol […]

BBC confirm

here within our national game

free speech ain’t allowed ~

Match of the Day subbed
Bargain Hunt The Repair Shop
Euphemisms, natch.

Oh Aunty Beeb
What a kerfuffle and rumpus
Silence falls across
TV’s football landscape
The rocks, boulders and valleys
Now barring the way
For Messrs Lineker, Wright
And Shearer
Football’s militant trade […]

Oh woe West Ham
It feels like sackcloth and ashes
Fond childhood reminiscences
Of eating what looked like
Wood shavings or the pencil
Sharpener remnants for breakfast
Doctor insisted you were lacking […]

In the end we knew
The Hammers couldn’t possibly
Fend for themselves
It all spiralled out of control
At Old Trafford
Always there
At the Theatre of Dreams
Bowing our heads
Before the final curtain
It […]

Now for those of us who cling
Stubbornly to tradition
And the way things used to be
It is the League Cup Final today
Surely the distant cousin
Of the FA Cup
That once adorned the mantlepiece
Of springtime’s […]

My old poem spoke about
Luka Modric and
Saint Luke’s Church
in Liverpool
Modric display in Liverpool
brought the ovations of
Liverpool fans
Oh The Life
and Poetry
Oh The Poetry and Life
You all only […]

In bygone days when flares
Had flair and denims had dash
With fashionable finesse
One man and one man alone
Encapsulated it all,
The Beautiful Game in
Purple prose, perfectly
Excitable at times
But […]

classic shots and lines from games
there are loads I know
the freezing figure of the man
just standing in the snow
blizzard howling round his head
empty pitch and stand
the patron saint of sheepskin […]

call him old fashioned but he had his own style
churned out facts like an old speed dial
started out way back in sixty nine*
Motty was a one off in his own time
call him quirky and say what you like
Motty […]

The weekend begins with a puff of smoke
An explosive air hangs over Spurs
The smell of cordite
Beaten by the mesmerising Milan
During Champions League tete a tete
Now facing their London neighbours
On Sunday […]