Football Poets

a blank page; a clean sheet;
one is the mind-blowing achievement
of nothingness (after countless hours);
the other
a well-constructed
clever, harmonious
juxtaposition of
effort and craft –
a blockade […]

There’s not enough space, here in this hotel room
For me, my staff and the boys
We need to talk tactics
But there’s far too much cramped up noise

We need to rev them up
We need to get them going
My cohorts and my […]

Popularity is dipping
The halo is slipping
What say you Jose
It’s not gone your way
How long will you stay
Or will you make way
For another?
He need not be ‘special’
But he must have the mettle
To take on the t […]

If a picture paints a thousand words
This almost pencilled in a draw
A worthy performance brushed aside
As we did our best to score

Chalk it up to experience
A gutsy defeat will have to do
Almost got a hard […]

I nestle my neck back
in the ruff tough of mank mocquette;
the train slips and slides on the
autumnal smoothie of leaf-lime on the tracks;
I’m surrounded by paranoid passengers
some prepped, some pooped
almost all […]

The condolences, and offering of
Are well and truly heartfelt
For Howard presided over the sort of Toffees
That would truly make your heart melt

The sincerity seeps from every pore
A minutes ovation rolls around […]

Just like butterflying the bird
Our defence was spatchcocked;
As well as our fans giving us the bird
The fourth estate had us match mocked!

10 out of 10
Top marks
Betters the proletariat
Tops Marx

A perfect ten
Like Nadia’s nadir
Or Torville and Dean
A new frontier

So smiles all around
A thumbs up from Roy
But as for expectations?
Let’s keep it […]

flying high upon the hill
where sheep will graze and time stands still
we pinch ourselves and have to stop
pretending we’re not at the top

the silence broken with a roar
the joy from fans each time we score
we h […]

It all seemed far too clinically clean
Newly built spick and span
But I didn’t come for the surroundings
I came to say goodbye to a great man.
Nearly three decades since you left London
But you never lost your […]

All the talk’s of Europe
A great night for the Paddies
But my magic moment tonight
Was watching our young laddies.
The glory of the FA Youth Cup
A competition where you can dream
Of seeing our boys at the Emirates […]

I claim to be a Luddite
New technology I’m loathe to try
But I’m not quite that old dinosaur
Where everything has passed me by.
I’ve got a mobile phone
Not one of them fancy computer things
But I’m ‘modern’ enough […]

Football – blubby well !!!
The tears (of joy) flowed
At Lansdowne Road
Oh ok, it’s now called the Aviva
But it’s only the Jerries, who actually grieve-ah!!

Martin O’Neill summed it up well:
“First half awful
Second half better”
When they carried out his instructions
Right to the letter

“We were very tense
Might even say nervous”
But fair play to the management […]

A Monday at work’s just over
The whole week stretches ahead
Normal people go home for supper
Then thinking of their bed.
Perhaps a bit of telly
Corrie or Eastenders on the box
None of that will be for me
Out for […]

It’s a gorgeous Saturday morning
I’m off down to the coast
FA Cup at Whitehawk
You know the thing I hate most…
No hope or expectation
I’m sure we’re going to lose
At least unlike distant past defeats
I won’t […]

there are Llamas in a field beside the entrance
and they’re posing for the passing crowd who stare
there’s a big red bus that’s serving drinks and nibbles
and a festival-like feeling in the air

you can say that […]

At school in the Sixties
We all called you Albert,
A boy who was destined for fame,
And on bright Monday mornings
Announcing a victory
The Headmaster read out your name.

So Preston schooled you
And Liverpool […]

In nineteen hundred and fifty eight
Queen Victoria was truly great.
With a scorching drive at Hampden Park
The Empress of India made her mark.
Her goalscoring record was second to none
It’s strange to think […]

‘Referee!

You can see what’s going on!

Don’t look the other way!

You know the history of migration and colonialism!

Remember when Prince Rupert sailed to Barbados,

To keep the islands Royalist after his defea […]