Football Poets

If you can’t write
about what you’ve just seen
or emote or share
then you’ve really not rejoiced
in the fayre

if you cannot put into words
into any sort of passage
of narrative
then how could we possibly explo […]

say what you like about the F.A Cup
tell me that it’s falling to bits
but try telling that to the mums and dads
who get much cheaper tickets for their kids

chatting to parents in the concourse
hearing all the […]

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only saw you once

leaping like the cat you were

in that great Wolves side

Was tonight the peak of your career
Not even old enough to buy a beer
FA Youth Cup at The Den
Never to grace a Pro ground again.
Chance of penalty glory
Missed and froze
That’s how the fickle hand
Of football f […]

~ ~ ~

boots that weighed a ton

studs with nails that cut like knives

before rubber studs

~ ~ ~

Lithe, lissom and powerful
He was a predator in his prime
Stealthy in attack
His finishing was sublime

The Black Panther –
A nickname affectionately bestowed
And from his goal-laden boots
The shots would […]

remembering Eusebio
on some long distant night
those sixties Euro spectacles
when all was black and white

where we would try to recreate
our heroes in the street
the pace the passion and the power
those dancing […]

“Hello darkness, my old friend”
I love that tune
I hum it, as I attend
To the humdrum, picking up dirty laundry
I let the song wash over me
And then, I mull over the lyrics
Letting them tumble, as I fum […]

Is anyone else getting fed up
with those multicultural boots?
they think they’re so cool but we need a new rule
it’s time to get back to our roots

it’s all getting rather anarchic
it’s time the FA took a stand […]

A dreary town
Stuck on the Kent coast
Always an awful place
I dreaded visiting most.
Not because I hated seaside
That was always fun
The shame was
I could only afford
The penny arcades
Which I never won.
No […]

On the train
Going West
But this is different
From the rest.
Not a Sunday morning
In a field
With only a jacket
Or brolly as a shield
The only fan at a game!
Tonight is your exception
At Griffin Park
Glory boy […]

Another Derby Day at New Kingsmead
And my first time at that ground,
I took one step on to the turf
And stopped to look around.
The stands were packed with eager fans
Waiting for the action,
And I hoped that our […]

There was, of course, more than one football match
In the long line of unofficial truces
That stretched all along the front in Flanders;
Indeed, the matches themselves were a sort of climax,
Punctuating the peace […]

The Beautiful Game
Gave freedom-fighters respite
In freedom’s struggle.

Apartheid’s victims,
In Robben Island’s prison
Played the Peoples’ Game.

It was an escape,
But also an expression:
The need for new r […]

there is a faded image
the one that still remains*
football on Robben Island
those long forgotten games

where prisoners followed ev’ry rule
their league and different teams
became a life-line to a sport
they’d […]

From Prison to President
You’re an icon to the world;
We praise your great spirit
Our emotions unfurled

You taught us to love and respect
To ignore the colour of skin;
If vuvuzelas could echo our loss
You take y […]

Rectitude : Riley style –
only manages to rile
Mourinho

Clarke is cloaked
in a clique
of cloistered killjoys

José mightn’t muster
any munificent musings
from the men in luminous melon

but he sure as hell […]

haven’t we been here before
when was it we knew for sure?
expectations used to soar
waiting for England to score

on the screen and in the stand
from the ever-patient fan
to the endless droning band
waiting for […]

The Knots in the Lace

The cupboards have been emptied and the shelves are standing bare,
Except for the faded cardboard box…
And I remember when he placed it there.
With quiet hands I reach for it and slowly b […]

When is offside not offside?
It vexes the experts
Confuses the conformists
Musters the masses
Flusters the fractious
Freaks the geeks
Demands debate
And inflames hate

Paradoxically

It sharpens the mind
Roots out […]