Football Poets

fighting all the odds

while Ebola takes it hold

football still inspires

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

in another world

miles from the Premier

Africa competes

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from Bata to Malobo

drumming to another […]

Woke up one mornin’ to a brand new year

Me heart full of hope and a little bit o’ fear

We playin’ Norwich City in de afternoon

So hurry down to Deepdale cos they startin’ soon

De famous Norwich City are a […]

x
mas
lights
twinkling
yet I have an
inkling, Chrimbo
will be in limbo, until
Santa fills his sack, so it
is engorged instead of slack
and then it’s “up, up and away!”
and Rudolph leads the sleigh, guide […]

Santa fell down the limb/knee
the ref fretted and shook his head
pulled out a yellow card
when some thought it should be red

simulation is certainly catching
right now it’s all the rage
but if only I could boast […]

Fifa gave up on the truth one day;

And ever since it happened, they’ve been talking this way,

So fill my ears with tinsel

Coat my eyes with butter

And talk to me, Herr Blatter

Tell me lies about the World […]

Arsenal 3 Aston Villa 1

Barnsley 4 Blackburn Rovers 2

Birmingham City 2 Blackpool 3

Bolton Wanderers 1 Bradford City 9

Derby County 6 Brentford 7

Brighton and Hove Albion 5 Bristol City 5

Bristol Rovers 3 […]

They came out of the trenches
Not off the benches
And they all raised their hands as a greeting.
The old leather ball
Broke down the wall,
Called a truce
Because of their meeting.
At the end of the game,
‘The G […]

Forest Green was, as historian Tim Barnard comments:

‘A staunchly Non Conformist village,

made up of Baptists and Congregationalists’ –

Although the club was based at a pub,

‘The Jovial Forester … Lower F […]

On Sundays after tea we kicked a ball

Around outside until it got dark in the street,

Maybe listened to the wireless for an hour

(“Take it from here” or “Journey into space”).

But tonight I curled myself […]

Our game has changed but we still go
In search of good times, like lost souls
Ghosts looking for their former home
unrequited love is all we know

Born in Norwich, I’ve supported Norwich
as a kid, teen adult – […]

Immaculate in spotless cricket whites,
Keeping wicket on the village green,
Up past Slad’s crossroad war memorial,
Betwixt Purgatory and Paradise,
To where 7323 Private Edward Hogg’s name
(7th Battalion, Glo […]

When melancholy autumn comes to Wembley
And hot-dog stands are lighted after tea
The poplars by the Stadium are all trembly
Then my mind goes back to nineteen fifty-three,
When Puskas and his cherry-shirted […]

I’m in a pub full of Dulwich fans
And I’m really bored to tears
We’re here to watch the football
And knock back a few beers.
Well all apart from me
Got to stick to the soft drink
I don’t need alcohol for my […]

When War broke out, the British public cried
“We’ll be in Berlin by Christmas”. But
By Christmas hundreds of thousands had died,
As Mons, The Marne, Ypres and Messine cut
Down the youth of Europe, while Fland […]

It’s a bit Herbert Marcuse,

A bit One Dimensional Man:

A unification of opposites,

A harmonisation of contradictions,

Where liberal-democratic capitalism

Gives that tantalising illusion of freedom,

Whilst […]

I am the King of the road
Majestic in my boredom
Sat high above
Not your stream of poppies
Celebrated at the Tower
But red specks
As far as the eye can see.
Crawling along
Ahead of me
On the road down to […]

I don’t write about daffodils or larks ascending
Only football … or trains
With no rhyme at the ending
So here is the fruit of my pains
About trains.

It was a three-quarters empty local, one day
That […]

It wasn’t, in fact, a bolt from the blue,

Instead the 1914 Truce was part of a pattern,

That both preceded that Christmas and continued beyond:

There were ‘cushy’ sectors, involving ‘lais […]

When you’ve been out ‘ere as long as I ‘ave,

You get to know the ropes and have a laugh,

Keep’ yer ‘ead down aint enough for Fritz,

You’ve got to show you can live and let live.

When Fritz has his breakfast, […]

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 the […]