Football Poets

still swapping shirts with Willie the Shake
taught us words can make the heart ache
showed us life is just a stage
where we run and strive and guage
this Peoples’ Game that carries on
until the day that we […]

eighteen years of verse
sixteen thousand five hundred
poems on football

I for one will miss

paper tickets for the match

when they scan my eyes

Half as nice
As watching Eden scoring thrice
Who needs paradise?
Seeing Eden net thrice?

Peace.

oh the sordid satire of screaming sinew!
and the blistering bantz of boots belying “buy new”

We see and yet don’t comprehend
how the ability to defend
successfully stymies
all the style and substance
of the natural artists;

They, with extravagant brushstrokes
wish only to depict the valiant and v […]

I recall that Saturday like yesterday
a steaming summer
our first home game in ‘58
excitement
and childlike expectation in the air
August in London and sweltering
“stand clear of the doors!” “wear […]

PayByPhone put me in the West Stand
I spied my PE teacher in town
Chris Kinnear and Dover would
Leave Brisbane Road with a frown

A blitz sends The Whites home empty
McAnuff put the O’s clear
The skipper h […]

The Wolves emerged from the undergrowth
And stood on the lush green field.
The pack was so focussed on what lay ahead,
In their minds it was done, signed and sealed.
Further down through the woodlands, the […]

everything I ever did
couldn’t keep emotions hid
back when I was just a kid
ev’ry time we’d play
captured by a moving ball
from the time when I was small
have I really changed at all ?
waiting for the day […]

an august goal
in the eponymous month
monkey off Kane’s back

I have blood that boils
with every contentious decision
I have blood that freezes
when I need net-busting precision
I have blood that curdles
with every demeaning debacle
I have blood that spills […]

Nat Lofthouse
Bolton Wanderers
Patron saint
Of aerial combat
His tireless lion heart
Pursued lost causes
With the passion of St. Jude
And gave them all a home.

Bakayoko sent to Coventry!
Oh yes, my dream has come true
For I hate to see any waster
Turning out in my beloved Royal Blue

Alas and alack
It turns out to be Walsall’s Amadou
And not our Tiemou s […]

Let the living answer the roll call of the dead:
Walter Tull of Spurs and Northampton Town KIA 1918;
And now the names from Forest Green:
Harry Watts was born in 1891 in Avening.
Harry joined the 6th Signal […]

Peeling spuds, washing glasses
Using knives n forks, serviettes an plates
Instead of…greasy mitts in a chicken box,
Blue shirt proclaiming; “Gian-Franco Zola. God”!
Quaffing Stella by the telly with his mat […]

brand new season same old same old
blank green canvas big clean slate
new beginnings better endings
grab the handrail take the bait

brand new season same old same old
keep on longing live the dream
keep on […]