Football Poets

I am scrubbing the kitchen floor and only half watching
the Confederations Cup semi with Argentina and Mexico
but I see an Argentinan midfielder running upfield, big
hair bouncing, the Harpo Marx look, and I […]

We won the Champions Cup but we wuz Dead Jammy.
The others had better players: Gooners and Red Devils
and Chelski but we had Gerrard and Carragher and luck,
we fought through the muck, our players had heart, […]

Got sent off again,
ref didn’t admire my reckless
challenge — team loses.

We hurry back from our early morning shop
expecting to see the German women soccer
players demolish Norway, Birgit Prinz charging

up the field at Ewood Park — but instead it’s
young Brazilian and Korean men, and […]

Alright we’ve got a race problem, and we need to tackle it NOW!
However, what about that colour problem between Reds and Blues,
between the Gooners and Red Devils??? Well, you name the club–

Hatred between […]

France v Germany in Warrington, raining cats and dogs!
The blue and red of La Belle France need only to draw
against the white of Germany, already in the semi-final,
to advance ahead of Denmark playing Italy at […]

I’d have done it too,
after the champagne party,
the impossible win, coming back
from three goals down,
on the world’s biggest stage,
I’d have slept with the Cup, too!
Follow your dreams, Stevie, lad!
Never […]

Stanley Matthews, Dixie Dean,
Nat Lofthouse, Tommy Lawton,
Tom Finney, Billy Liddell:
All those geezers
in baggy pants.

Yes, another era.
Honest heroes,
unadorned
titans.

Christopher T. George

Impossible! Liverpool sunk at half time in Istanbul, three goals down!
But entering the dressing room AC Milan players were celebrating,
and the quiet tactician took out his pen, started plotting his […]

He’s a “killer” in red like the foxhunters,
so deadly on the pitch: Djibril Cisse of the Reds!
But now that he’s Lord of the Manor

of Frodsham, Cheshire, and he’s soon
to be married, Lord Cisse has come down
on […]

Turning up at Anfield for a reserves game
with Uncle Bruce in his old Ford Prefect,
we sat in the cold Main Stand and watched

as Alf popped the goals in. Arrowsmith in
attack and hard man Tommy Smith […]

A study in contrasts: the Portuguese firecracker,
the loud bang and fizz in the night, all show,
and the steady Spanish Catherine wheel,
showering sparks in a streaming rain.

So Mourinho bragged and mugged
how […]

All’s fair in love and football
but it’s not right to pick a fight
during a match. . . with a team mate.

Okay! You shouldn’t aim a haymaker
at the jaw of the opposition goalie,
or lay out that scything […]

He may not be here come next season
and I’m not usually Igor to see him on the pitch
but his header in the 85th pulled us to within a point
of the Toffees, he’s the hero of Liverpool, Billy Liddell
or Toshack […]

Nay, say it isn’t so lad… th’ Latics going up to top flight?
Yon Lancs place that George Orwell joked had no pier?
The Road to Wigan Pier? Will it be Wigan without peer?

What fans of top flight clubs will be […]

Yes, the win was MASSIVE!
2-1 over Everton, that other team
from across the park. . . yeh, THEM!

But we’re still four points behind them,
where it matters, in the Premiership stakes.
It’s MASSIVE considering they […]

Of course, he’s a thug!
Can’t stand to look at his mug
or Big Dunc’s either. . . another bruiser!

But Roo IS an England player, . . .

No doubt he’ll do his best
when he’s put to the test.

And Roo’s a […]

Yuke, you learned to play chords
on your dad’s ukelele strumming

to George Formby uke and croon,
“I’m leaning on a lamppost

at the corner of the street in case
a certain little lady comes by.”

The toothy […]

Smell of the chippies on Walton Road,
onions from the pavement hotdog vendors
outside Anfield, mmmm, stink of steaming turds
from the rozzer’s horse, medallions in the street!

We crush into the Kop, smell the […]

You tell the reporter, “I used to play football
in the streets of Huyton and get kicked from pillar
to post by the older boys. You didn’t complain.
You just picked yourself up and got on with it.”

Another […]