Football Poets

until we go to games again
I’m trawling way down mem’ry lane
the times my fingers near turned blue
the dramas being there with you
and Covid’s got me looking back
at what it is we miss we lack
the times […]

Do you remember old tales about football in the Fifties
How your skill might spare you from going down the mines?
How Jackie and Bobby would be out near the colliery
Surrounded by Milburns and the rest of […]

Scored after five minutes.
Defending since then.
Star striker got sent off.
We’re down to ten men.
Eighty-eight minutes gone.
Two minutes to go.
But them hundred-twenty seconds,
Man, don’t they go […]

How to lose the fans
From the very very start
Drop all the young guns
And pick those without a heart

How to lose the fans
And tear our club apart
Don’t you dare, don’t you DARE
Force the juvenescent to depart

“It’s so hard being in love, eh?”

I’m used to shocks….
FA Cup exits to minnows
League Cup Final defeats
Stevie G’s slip
World Cup non-qualification (when “the Clown” came to town)
England losing to Finla […]

You can sell Tosun, Iwobi, Sigurdsson,
They’re not fundamental to our plans.
And Pickford can depart,
It wouldn’t break our hearts,
He drops too many clangers,
He just doesn’t look the part.

But […]

the gentleman with class
managing with calm and care
France to Liverpool ~

it could be just a one-off
these days it’s hard to know
behind your mask you dare not ask
you’re grateful just to go
a little hope amid the dark
a glimpse of what we lack
while stood upon familiar ste […]

one Christmas during Covid
we stand but far apart
our loved ones and our football
confined to in our hearts
the snow has still to paint the land
but hope surrounds us now
with wipes in hand behind our […]

It came upon a midnight clear, 
That glorious song of old, 
When angels bent down to the earth, 
And changed machine guns into harps,  
And turned leaden bullets into golden carols 
That drifted across no m […]

Diego does go
Full of flair and flamboyance
Flawed yet feted

golden boy of skill
in one moment with his hand
broke a million hearts

That cheeky toothless grin
That enormous will to win
Was the foundation stone

That famous jaunty jig
That doughty heart so big
Made the German’s groan

But United we stand
All (virtually) hand in h […]

more than just a grin
or that joyous Wembley jig
Nobby fought with heart

He was banging ’em in for his Club,
Then came his Country calling.
Dom pulled on the White Shirt,
And guess what – he kept up the scoring!

Some say it was only a Friendly,
But I say a goal is a g […]

The autumn is a gloomy time,
The leaves fall from the trees.
Hard rains pour down, wild west winds blow,
And other things like these.

But we’re not feeling sad just now,
Our mood is quite […]

back for one day
to the ground on the hill
careful and wary
with Covid here still
temp’rature testing
out here on the street
we stand in a line
in our masks in the heat

we’re grateful to be here
this […]