Football Poets

We cried “Bring on the Hatters!”
We thought “Already won.”
But Luton Town would not lie down,
Defeated us two-one.
So out of the Cup we crash.
Our Silverware hopes are in tatters.
Note to selves should […]

At Selhurst Park they sent Dom off,
Though it was ne’er a foul.
They’re threat’ning yet more points to dock,
They kick us when we’re down.

But we are made of steely stuff,
We’ve got hairs on our […]

Mr Wordsworth walks to Bolton
He wandered lonely as a cloud
At evening in the encroaching dark
When all at once he saw a crowd
A floodlit game at Burnden Park!
“Dine at the Packhorse” along the roof
The dri […]

one Christmas in the trenches
they stood in mud and sand
their loved ones and their football
a distant far off land –
the snow lay thick as thick could be
a bitter chill did spread
behind the sand bags and t […]

This little-boy-masquerading-as-senior-citizen
still dreams –
but it seems
reality is ever more clear-cut;

for every piercing pain
or aching joint
brings an inevitablility of non-attainment
to this football-nut!

Yuletide is fast approaching,
And all the talk’s of gifts.
Old Santa’s gearing himself up
To work his yearly shift.

The kids are writing letters,
To make clear every wish.
And adults too are at it, […]

I buried myself in my sport
There’s no doubt I gave it my all
For whenever a match was mentioned
Without fail, I always heeded the call

Put a ball at my feet
And I was off like a whippet
Always to the s […]

on heady days stood in the Shed
for six sweet years you were
imperious and smiling
as we tore out our hair
when I was young on Saturdays
I’d be there win our lose
and you stood firm composed and s […]

You’ve taken ten points off us,
But we are not dismayed.
There’s plenty more still up for grabs,
Loads matches to be played.

Of ten points you have stripped us,
But we’re not mice, we’re men.
So […]

I love Wednesday night’s walking football:
The gathering dusk of late October:
Floodlights lighting the way to goal,
While a moon rises high in the sky,
Illuminating childhood memories
Of yesteryear’s Aut […]

The Table don’t look healthy,
We’ve really messed things up.
But we’re not worried in the least,
There’s three teams worse than us …

I popped into the barber’s,
To get my long hair clipped.
The o […]

SPION KOP
“In 1903 we stood on Spion Kop
Clattering our hob-nail boots against the wall”
My grand-dad recollected this for me
When he was eighty, in Nineteen Sixty Three
Remembering a centre-half called Joe […]

the strength and power in his boot
from near or far when he would shoot
the many times I saw him play
at countless games back in the day
the archetypal number nine
who stays a legend for all time

the […]

anyone who’s been here
anyone at all
anyone who loves their club
loves them rise or fall
if you’re superstitious
if you have a dream
you endure the ups and downs
following your team
when you’re on a los […]

I woke up this mornin’.
Turned on my TV.
Bad nooz was comin’
From the Premier League.
They read out the rankings,
OMG, what a fright.
Cos right down there at the bottom were…
My beloved Blue and […]