Football Poets

The modern stadia with their grand designs
Beguile us with their flowing lines
At the Emirates, Reebok and City’s Eastlands
They seem to say “Look Ma, no stands”
Just one o’er- arching elegant wave
No wonder […]

Aston Villa 4 Norwich City 1

The impact made by Hoolahan
lasted as long as a gnats attention span
Another horrible result
Hughton’s defence leaks like a watering can

Under Lambert we were pampered
Scoring goals […]

He’s on the run
a prisoner of our plenary plight
but he must chase back
and hence, his hurried flight

He’s on the run
he must do box to box
and in doing so successfully
he holds the key, to Fort Knox

He’s on th […]

Can we have some decorum please?
Before the door on sportsmanship is slammed shut
I expect tactics and team talks from managers
With a handshake, not a headbutt

The game has to have physical contact
Players have […]

Hull City fans don’t want to be Tigers
The Bluebirds didn’t want to be red
It got me thinking ‘what if’ Norwich City
Were known as Delia’s Donkeys instead

We’re famous for our Canaries
Those gutsy singing yellow […]

Amid the shouting and the noise
Spare a thought for David Moyes.
Last night he had an awful dream
About a day when his precious team
Has lost away in Athens, and he
Must face a journalist or three
And, worse […]

He’s still got the fire!
Still got that ire
The heart, the passion, the desire
To forage, to drive, to strive
For better

He’s never been replaced
Since he was displaced
And now he’s fit to lambaste
Every erran […]

The finest stadium I’ve ever seen
Is the Estadio Benito Villamarín.
It belongs to Betis, in the south of Spain,
Last week I boarded an Easyjet plane
And visited the orange trees in the town of Seville
If I cl […]

It was a good height for the keeper
An easy save to make
The forward shot straight at him
No problem, piece of cake

Keepers never get the credit
For acrobatic body swerves
Agility and concentration
And, facing […]

Tom Immortalised
Navigating Stamford Bridge
Through water – “The splash”

Tom the elusive
Blackburn’s Leyland on the deck
The goal now beckons

Tom the reliable
Bert Trautmann dives to his right […]

splashed into our hearts
loyal legend through and through
Farewell proud Sir Tom

one of football’s greats
etched into our history
still his grace lives on

one club man for life
faithful as the fans he’d […]

Of all the vertical things in my life
Saint James’ Park stands proud.
On the cover of an old programme
A magpie preened, enjoying a birds’ eye view
Of the soaring pylons at the Gallowgate end.
Along one sid […]

Getting ready for the next fixture
Talk selection, tactics, game plan
Cope with injuries and odd suspensions
Pray for attendance of the kit man

Bungay Town have been awarded some money
To level their sloping […]

What whiffs distinguish your ground?
Damp earth or lush green grass
Hot dogs, burgers and chunky fries
Muscle rub from changing rooms as you pass

The stench of relegation
The sweet smell of success
Bovril, soup, […]

Was it Coco the clown who invaded the pitch
In the Wembley Cup Final of nineteen sixty six?
The Evertonian frolicked and leapt,
With a tug on his braces (they scarcely kept
His great trousers up), then he […]

Oh Philip Larkin, we need you at this hour
As Hull’s famous poet, you could silence that shower
Who want to change Hull City’s name
Into Tigers – it’s basically greed that’s to blame
Are they cuddly little […]

The Football Poets, a noble name
In the literary Hall of Fame.
The rhythm of the foot deceives the eye
If a Football Poet comes hurtling by.
Metaphysical or a shade too physical
High Romantic or downright […]

Our final appearances
Lined up against the Pennines
Like distant chimney stacks
Preston nineteen sixty-four, Burnley sixty-two
Blackburn nineteen –sixty, Bolton fifty-eight.

Memories, like stray b […]

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José’s jockeys know

little horses need their milk

in a three horse race

if you were alive child woman or man
you remember the day still like yesterday
like Lennon like Kennedy
or the day we landed on the moon
the day we woke to realise
we’d lost a football team

that moment when […]