Football Poets

i have this crazy feeling
it just could be our year
or could be yours who knows for sure
still dreamin’ never fear

for something tells me – fate or dream
good fortune on us smiles
and over those whose football […]

And who can hide this loyalty
though be it team or game
or camouflage this nervousness
pray do not feel ashamed

for you who still feel tingles
each Saturday at three
where’ere you are …right there or […]

I still can feel the passion
these muscles ache and tense
and who would dream
this love would last
long after innocence

to spend a childhood chasing
to travel everywhere
from East and West
and North to […]

and so at last my all-time team and line-up I unfold
upon the field and paper the greatest ever told
whose keeper sat and sometimes stood more steadfast than a mast
between the posts young BUDDHA smiled as ev’ry b […]

the name of Arthur Wharton may be distant as the stars
but once he shone a long long time ago
and you would never guess this at the mention of his name
the bravery audacity the struggle and the pain
the very […]

it’s not just football friends oh no
that suffers in this style
they’ve banned the sport we loved to play
is racism to blame I say
how can our schools just take away
our conkers?

and banish now like leaves from […]

how deep into the heartland
of Europe still they strike
those Vikings brave who rode the tide
with many gods upon their side
who fought against the Alfreds
the Zolas and their like

some solace to reflect […]

Fulham and flares in Croatia

swallows moths and mountains in the floodlights

who said Europe wasn’t important?

What is it with goal-less derbies?

end to end – frantic and breathless

o for an Osgood or a Haynes

peace one day – just one day of peace
right across the world from the west to the east
easy to say – but it’s harder to do
one day of peace between me and you
one day of peace where they scrabble to survive
one d […]

there has to be a space – there has to be a place
for ev’ry single member of the whole human race
but it starts in the playground – it starts as just a lark
it end up on the journey home-it ends up in the p […]

IF you become a football poet…. for Sven
(with apologies to Shinguard Strapling)

if you can score with words not feet
unmoved by form success defeat
if you can give each game your all
and never ever kick a […]

dear mister very big football club bloke
when i opened your letter i thought it a joke
and i with the deepest regret must decline
to dwell at your club like some partner in rhyme
but thank you again for the […]

still pointless but strong

from Forest Green to Bolton

May is a long way away

now they say if you recall the sixties
you probably weren’t even there
but i can still see it as clear as the day
all those flowers and dreams in your hair –
from the first of the CND marches
to football games m […]

I remember that summer of 58
August in London and sweltering

stand clear of the doors…
all change for Fulham Broadway…
official programme – sixpence a go!
wear your colours!
roasted peanuts – tanner a […]

it was one summer’s day when the news it came by
you could search high and low and not find a dry eye
and it wasn’t the news that you prayed it would be
but the same awful moment for you and for me –
while awa […]

you are like football the grace and thrill
you are excitement a beach in Brazil
you are a stadium theatre of light
you are a temple brilliant as night

and you are like football
the way you endure
like flowers in […]

tis summer when at last the sun
doth lend a moment to these shores
and lo what’s this which like some snail
doth lie here by this cottage door

alone discarded -season done.
as dark as night and plastic too
o […]

we’re staying open In the long close season
staying open to the earth and sky
staying fluffy when the going gets roughy
staying in touch while the days go by

we’re out grabbing the four days of summer
grabbing […]