Football Poets

I saw people hug, their strength to share.
The sense of grief, hung heavy in the air.
I saw beautiful flowers in the Spring sun.
I saw the damage ‘Hillsborough’ had done.

I saw people reaching out to […]

On to 97 Avenue, I made my way.
Thinking of something new to say.
As over 34 years, I’ve said it all.
Same emotions with every roll call.
Only so many prayers that I know.
Only one place where they can […]

on any street at any time
and right across the world
you’ll see them glaring from the shirts
of grown ups boys and girls
these gambling match day sponsors
who boldly underline
that betting is for e […]

The relegation battle
A yearbook of pain
Thoughts about the past
Warm spring and the end of the season
The oversea Premier League television audience
The 80s
The 90s
Golden Kendall’s boys
Bob […]

Oh for the teeth clenching
Agonising, hiding behind
Transistor radios that are
A traditional metaphor
For the last day of the
Premier League season
Finger nails bitten
In chronic anxiety
But today, the […]

Deeper and deeper
West Ham plunge into
The abyss, spiralling
Out of control
Help goes the cry
For this was the ultimate
Warning, lose today
And it could be curtains
Loose draperies,
The end of the […]

You didn’t think it would ever happen
Yet here we are
Just over a decade later
Relegation in claret and blue clothes
West Ham, now cloaked in bleakness,
Darkness in dingy melancholy
Brooding desperately on […]

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 […]