Football Poets

still swapping shirts with Willie the Shake
taught us words can make the heart ache
showed us life is just a stage
where we run and strive and guage
this Peoples’ Game that carries on
until the day that we […]

eighteen years of verse
sixteen thousand five hundred
poems on football

I for one will miss

paper tickets for the match

when they scan my eyes

oh the sordid satire of screaming sinew!
and the blistering bantz of boots belying “buy new”

We see and yet don’t comprehend
how the ability to defend
successfully stymies
all the style and substance
of the natural artists;

They, with extravagant brushstrokes
wish only to depict the valiant and v […]

I recall that Saturday like yesterday
a steaming summer
our first home game in ‘58
excitement
and childlike expectation in the air
August in London and sweltering
“stand clear of the doors!” “wear […]

The Wolves emerged from the undergrowth
And stood on the lush green field.
The pack was so focussed on what lay ahead,
In their minds it was done, signed and sealed.
Further down through the woodlands, the […]

everything I ever did
couldn’t keep emotions hid
back when I was just a kid
ev’ry time we’d play
captured by a moving ball
from the time when I was small
have I really changed at all ?
waiting for the day […]

an august goal
in the eponymous month
monkey off Kane’s back

I have blood that boils
with every contentious decision
I have blood that freezes
when I need net-busting precision
I have blood that curdles
with every demeaning debacle
I have blood that spills […]

Bakayoko sent to Coventry!
Oh yes, my dream has come true
For I hate to see any waster
Turning out in my beloved Royal Blue

Alas and alack
It turns out to be Walsall’s Amadou
And not our Tiemou s […]

Let the living answer the roll call of the dead:
Walter Tull of Spurs and Northampton Town KIA 1918;
And now the names from Forest Green:
Harry Watts was born in 1891 in Avening.
Harry joined the 6th Signal […]

They said we were ungrateful,
When we sacked Allardyce.
Well, truth be told, we can’t deny,
It wasn’t very nice.

But football is a business,
For sentiment no place.
So poor Big Sam, he had to […]

brand new season same old same old
blank green canvas big clean slate
new beginnings better endings
grab the handrail take the bait

brand new season same old same old
keep on longing live the dream
keep on […]

A is for Albion. The boys done us proud. Laud ‘em out loud.
B is for Brexit. No mention, amongst the tension, until of course, Brazil exit early. Spot the surly.
C is for Charades (see VAR). Replaces the i […]

We’ve criss-crossed the country
taken Steppes small and large
travelled alone or in convoys
by plane, train or barge

first intentions were
that we weren’t to get lost
but as we familiarised on the jou […]

Parc de Triomphe
Mbappe inspires the Gauls
Allez Les Blues

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Runners up, yet
Croatia proud as can be
Gave it their all

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Got what we wanted
Six goal fitting […]

Third or fourth
Does it really matter?
Should it matter?
For there is no head-upon-a-platter
For failure

Then what of the prize money?
I’m not being funny
But there is only 2 million FIFA shekels
In t […]