Football Poets

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 […]

tears behind the goal

twice ahead and pround as punch

Havant been dreaming

back in the fifties
Kenilworth Road was considered
something of a fortress
‘a tricky one’ as pundits love to say
a humble brick-front
of belt and braces and working class facade
but inside men of iron steadfast […]

in Huddersfield and Coventry

In Havant still they dream

but welcome to the Big Four Cup

same as it’s always been

sixty year back on a January day
classic old theme tune burst into play
classified results – news from the grounds
tuning in at five in any old town

pipe smoke and old blokes counting those draws
sitting with […]

22 players and officials
thousand upon thousand of silent spectators
family and loved ones
across the land stand and applaud
sixty seconds clapping in the face of sorrow
the new moving tribute for a life gone […]

twas ten o clock on Christmas night
the nearby houses filled with light
but Jim was down and not so bright
the day had flown so fast
the kids surprises neath the tree
the shrieking sounds of laughs and glee
were […]

whatever happened to hitching?
and can you remember when kids
would hitch home for Christmas
to waiting parents on frosty December mornings?

a different world then
hap-less and map-less
sussing out the best […]

ten thousand poems it’s so hard to believe
way back in 2000 how many we’d receive
over twenty thousand submissions down the way
keeping us editing night and day

you set the subjects you take the time
pouring out […]

what’s in a name…pray listen if you will
the friendly little club who play upon the hill
checked Wikipedia look what I found
natural connections reflecting our town
‘deciduous forest’ ‘nature’s vegetation”
‘a […]

Bobby’s Moore desire to win
Nobby Stiles’ toothy grin
back then In our neigbourhood
Just a fluke or were we good?
statues stand to mark the spot
for the team that time forgot

Spice Boy players big flash […]

to say how we failed

in seventeen syllables

is very diffic

five in a row
euphoria reigns
then bang down to plastic
in one of those games

too many foreigners?
let’s not blame race
great expectations
all over the place

who do we turn to
to name or to shame
McLaren to […]

girls go out with pride

so much England style on show

against the holders

without Mourinho
the blue revolution can end
before it has hardly begun

without Mourinho
as with the 1910s 20s 30s 40 50s 60s 70s 80s and 90s
normal unpredictable underachieving football at Chelsea
will resume […]

three lionesses

knock Argentina for six

bring on the quarters

joy throughout the camp

pandas in the dug-out

Kelly’s heroes shine

Hope on the touchline
no Emily Heskey here
ev’ry girl wins praise

against the holders
with Chinese waves and rain
deadlock and glory

so close so near
our girls against Japan
a point in China