Football Poets

Oh, England, England
How your country needs you
To just win, nothing else
Nothing more
Picturesque, rural
Spread out like a picnic
Hamper over the fields
And timeless meadows
Across the matchless
Lake […]

We stand at the water’s edge….
shall we succumb
to Salacia’s salty stare
and drown in our sorrow?
Or will tomorrow’s
final
be the time to draw upon
our modern armada – a flotilla of faithful fans
egging […]

So here we are back
In Berlin
On Sunday evening
Not a sign of a divisive wall
That stopped dialogue
For so many years
Political childishness
Between West and East Germany
Meanwhile in the bodegas
Of […]

England in final
it’s coming home isn’t it
Southgate jubilant ?
Against Netherlands
they did play a lot better
deserved victory.
They have rode their luck
and huffed and puffed in matches
but never gave […]

I recall two similar events involving
16 years old Wayne Rooney in an Everton shirt

16 years old Lamine Yamal in the Spanish shirt

You know
The same
Everton v Arsenal 16 years old Rooney
Spain v […]

nights like this are special
times like these are rare
savour ev’ry moment
when you know you’re there
you can call it fortune
who cares what they say
when that moment happens
failure falls awa […]

“Perhaps we are all wrong,
and Southgate
is a substitution genius.”

The Facebook banter
after the England game
moves into the realm
of long-ago memory
as we talk of previous
footballing magic […]

Well, I never
Oh yes, finally again
Against the odds
The impossible dream
Glorious Blighty
Standing on the shoulders
Of 1966 when
Sir Geoff Hurst
Spun a hat-trick
Of World Cup jubilation
But now it’s […]

Ollie, Ollie, Ollie
Oi, Oi, Oi!
Ollie
Oi!
Ollie
Oi!
Ollie, Ollie, Ollie…
Ploy, ploy, ploy!

Ollie, Ollie, Ollie
Oi, Oi, Oi!
Ollie
Oi!
Ollie
Oi!
Ollie, Ollie, Ollie…
JOY! JOY! JOY!

I could not sleep
I could not work
all this pent-up nervousness
just drove me berserk!

And so I tried listening to Bob Dylan….
“the nerves, they are a-changing”
yes indeed they are…. escalating […]

Messi’s baptised boy*
sees La Roja through in style
with a mighty strike

So here we are
On the eve of
The Big Match
Twitching curtains
Shuffling of feet
Behind the scenes
Nervous coughs and sneezes
Audiences sighing
Tomorrow England and Holland
Euro 2024 semi final
Phones […]

The Belfast Boy, a player complete.
Had the football world at both feet.
Art like gift, born to dazzle, to win.
Never again to see the likes of him.

In United Red, in native Irish Green.
The greatest […]

watching England’s tricky
wherever you stand
given we’re consistently
ever-moaning fans

drowned in mediocrity
drained until we cry
put through ev’ry wringer
then hung out to dry

worn out with emo […]

Honestly, England
How much more can we take?
Patriotic nerves in tatters
Taken to the brink
No finger nails left
Clinging on for dear life
Wobbling and swaying
On the precipice
Don’t look down from
The […]

Pre-match…
our hopes were muted
any overt optimism disputed….
and just like the election
there’s too much circumspection

mid-match…
well, our overall play has improved
if only slightly
but dare we say […]

So here we stand by
The gates of political history
Keys clanking and jingling
On Thursdays, every five years
Portcullis and drawbridge
Ready to open,
Quite possibly to new Labour
But to misquote Baddiel and […]

The day the leaflets came, election sludge
we slip into like a soft play ball park,
they promised us all a new start.

The current incumbent wouldn’t smile,
just said ‘It’s strange how all these missi […]

Oh woe, what torture,
What agony and purgatory
Why do we keep doing it
To ourselves?
Seconds away from the
Departure gate of
Euro2024 and suddenly
Jude did indeed
Take a sad song
And improve it
Most […]