Greg Freeman
@gregoryfreeman
Active 2 weeks, 4 days ago
I’ve just received a wonderful late wedding anniversary present from my dear wife – ‘Stanley Bagshaw and the short-sighted football trainer’, written and illustrated by Bob Wilson (no, not THAT Bob Wilson. I don’t think so, anyway). All the Stanley Bagshaw books are in verse. I used to love reading another one of them to my kids a lifetime […] View
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“Perhaps we are all wrong, and Southgate is a substitution genius.” The Facebook banter after the England game moves into the realm of long-ago memory as we talk of previous footballing magic moments. For three veteran Chelsea fans who used to gather in front of the Shed at the old Stamford Bridge, it takes us […]
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Thunderous shooting that transcended his era. Maybe you have to be a certain age. When they announced it during the game the crowd of six hundred barely reacted. No gasps or murmurs. My son shrugged, apologetic. I was thirteen in 1966, watching every game I could on TV, filling in the wall charts. Never thought […]
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Uh-oh. The world’s gone pear-shaped. I have a feeling that I’m close to home, or at least the train. Too old for this malarkey. Was doing so well. Now I’m all over the place, lost count, head swimming. This kind of night happens once in twenty years, if then. You have to celebrate. Toon Army! […]
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One hundred thousand, at least, for a friendly. The Russians were still our friends, weren’t they? November 1945. So many servicemen back from the war hungry to watch football again. A photo shows them on the roof of the old East Stand, crowding around the goalmouth. Moscow Dynamo presented each Chelsea player with a bunch […]
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A lone bugler occasionally blasts out the right note. Maybe also the source of the odd native American war cry. The few hundred at Ashington are passionate in their support. Proud mining town, home of the Charlton brothers and Jackie Milburn. But nothing works. A looping header hits angle of post and crossbar early on […]
About This Site
Welcome to Football Poets -- a club for all football poets, lovers of football and lovers of (alternative) poetry. Discover poets in every league from respected internationals at the top of their game to young hopefuls in the school playground.
Publish your football poems here and then discuss them with your team mates and fans. We're archived by The British Library, so your masterpieces are in the safe hands of a world-class keeper. What a result!
My Account
Latest Poems
joe morris
17th November 2024
Crispin Thomas
17th November 2024
kevin halls
10th November 2024
joe morris
10th November 2024
Clik The Mouse
10th November 2024
Clik The Mouse
6th November 2024
Alex Saynor
6th November 2024
joe morris
29th October 2024
joe morris
17th October 2024
Denys E. W. Jones
16th October 2024
Crispin’s Corner
In Memoriam
Kick It Out & Christmas Truce
Latest Comments
13th September 2024 at 6:14 pm
Welcome to Football Poets Beth
Great evocative poem Beth….
More please !
Haiku always welcome.
Hope we (FGR) get to play you again soon
Best
Crispin
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26th July 2024 at 6:25 pm
Great poem Mike Bartram. Eddie was a legend, affectionately known in Liverpool as, “the first hooligan.” Even the hoolies were well dressed in those days. The amazing thing was he was only 26 when that picture was taken. He’d played for Everton youth team and was well known to the players. He never got arrested. They threw him out and he climbed back in, just in time for Derek Temples winner.
I used the picture of him being tackled to the ground on the front cover of my book, “Once Upon a rhyme in Football.” It’s worth looking on youtube and finding the re-enactment of the Wembley scene. Frank Skinner and Baddiel went around to Eddies home in the 1990’s and acted it out on the green outside. It’s hilarious, especially all the effort they put in to get Eddie sober enough to shoot the scene.
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10th July 2024 at 6:07 pm
Hi Crispin,
I don’t know if you’ve see the picture in social media today…
a picture of a teenage Lionel Messi cradling a baby in Africa as part of a photoshoot…. the family had won a lottery to have their baby pictured with him….
the photographer has just revealed that the baby is actually in fact Lamine Yamal!!!!
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26th May 2024 at 2:30 pm
Hi Denys…
Re Man City:
OK it was 20 years ago but Criag Wilson did write this and a few others on them back in 04/05.
BTW I’m more Forest Green Rover since 2014 (and Chelsea) these days . I drum and am a standing season ticket holder .
Best
Crispin
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29th April 2024 at 2:47 pm
Hi Denys,
Yes Richard Williams you’re a brilliant wordsmith, my friend. When I first saw your football poetry I thought it was the superb Guardian sports and music writer. I once had the honour of sitting next to Richard Williams while at the Independent on the sports desk. He writes about music and sport with immense knowledge and authority. I’ve read a couple of Richard’s books recently. Great writer rather like you Richard Williams the Pompey fan. Congratulations on promotion.
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28th April 2024 at 5:59 pm
Thanks Denys. Yes your replay poem was superb.
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26th April 2024 at 4:46 pm
Nice work, Joe. You were quick off the mark with that! Good one from Richard Williams too I see.
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25th April 2024 at 7:33 pm
Hi Denys,
Thanks mate. I’ll do it now.
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25th April 2024 at 1:56 pm
Thanks Joe,
you might like to write a poem yourself on the same subject…
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23rd April 2024 at 4:03 pm
Hi Denys
With you all the way on the abolition of FA Cup replays. What are they doing to the game?
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