Poems tagged ‘Newcastle’
Newcastle, Newcastle
So the Geordie boys have done it
Finally, at long last
Climbing aboard the winners
Victorious podium
Acclaimed Carabao Cup winners
We feared it would never happen
Ever again
Rejected, snubbed and denounced
Mocked and locked out
After 70 years of striving
And scuffling, agonising
Over and over again
Not a single trophy to
Claim as their own
But now it’s happened
Just desserts
Justice is seen to be done
Revenge for 1974
When Liverpool owned the show
And delivered that
Devastating blow
When Kevin Keegan and John Toshack
In a grand striking collaboration
Laid waste to Joe Harvey’s Newcastle
Were demolished by a red tidal wave
51 years later and the sea shore is kinder
It’s away the lads
And the world becomes black and white
Not so monochrome now
But a Cup in their hands
Not the jug eared one
Of FA Cup denomination
But Hardaker’s old League Cup
Still, in the perception of some
Charming fruit bowl
Adorned with football ribbons
And then Dan Burn leaps like
The proverbial salmon
And heads home
The winner
Oh yes that’ll do
Nothing remotely fishy
Or suspicious about that one
Ignore VAR perfectly legit
A golden amber sunset
Flickers gloriously into view
Shimmering seductively on
The Wembley horizon
Tyneside will celebrate for
The next 70 years
Be sure, it will
The neutral salutes you
Newcastle, after all
Those buried hands and
Tantalising teeth gnashing
Melancholy by the Fog of the Tyne
Gazza’s tears and tomfoolery
Brown ale now the sweetest Chianti
Hilarity and smiles wreathing
The St James Park terraces
Gleaming garlands of glad tidings
Ant and Dec besides themselves
Hugging each other
And everything in sight
Celebrations with strangers
Wembley becomes a Geordie haven
North London morphs into North East
And then Alan Shearer
Who was one of their own
Lights up like a flash bulb
No more sepia tinted memories
Of Wor Jackie Milburn,
Bobby Mitchell and the Robledo brothers
Supermac Malcolm Macdonald
Sulking and skulking away
In 1974 after threatening to
Take Liverpool to the cleaners
Oh no, – not now
Newcastle reincarnated, reborn
Back on the map
Recovery and recuperation complete
No more wandering in the wilderness
It’s Newcastle, Newcastle
Newcastle Newcastle
They’ve done it, you know
Champagne by the crate
It’s a trophy
And how we know it.
What Steve Wants
We need to find a number nine
Before it’s too late, to lead our line.
Someone good in the air, full of flair,
With nifty footwork, like Fred Astaire.
Who’ll press to help our midfield pack
In matches when we’re on the rack.
Able to hold up play, home and away,
And do the business, every Saturday.
Above all to score thirty goals a year
Like Alan Shearer in a different era.
Jolly Geordies jailed
Liverpool 3-1 Newcastle
Liverpool shrug off an early scare
Jetro Willems with the cheek to dare
Jurgen’s boys with the dominant drive
It could have been four or five
Sadio Mane with the biggest laugh
Scoring twice in the first half
Mohamed Salah adds a third to the list
Bobby twice on hand to assist
With Norwich beating the Sky Blues
Still too early to light that fuse
This team still needs time to grow
For now it’s fourteen wins in a row
14 09 19
number7
© emdad rahman
Boxing Day battering for Magpies
Liverpool 4-0 Newcastle
Boxing Day footballs on
Rafa’s come to town
Yet the Toon army leave
With a great big whopping frown
Joselu spurned a good one
Lovren stepped up to the test
With a cracking half volley
He is simply the world’s best
Salah causes havoc in the box
An early second half sting
Penalty despatched cleanly
By the Reds Egyptian king
Trent lays a tap in for Shaqiri
But still no sign of fatigue
A fourth headed home by Fabinho
Liverpool, Liverpool, top of the League
number7
© emdad rahman
Chelsea 6 Newcastle Utd 5
Sept the 10th 1958
To have been at ‘The Bridge’
Must have been great
A Six Five Special they said at the time
Joy and heartache on The Thames and The Tyne
Young Greaves scored Two and twice smacked the bar
The Geordies hit Five with Len White their star
A wet Wednesday night I seem to recall
But a glorious memory of attacking football
And now up here on Tyneside what do we see
In Six premier league games we have scored only Three
Minimal goal attempts in a disastrous run
And gone are the ‘Len Whites’ who scored goals for fun.
36 Goals ~ Hughie Gallagher
(in memory of Hughie Gallacher, Newcastle United’s record goalscorer in 1926-7, who committed suicide in 1957)
Thirty six goals,
more than one way to skin a halfback.
Thirty six snapshots
of a legend
framed in Tyneside pubs.
That’s how we remember you Hughie,
for the good things in life.
Thirty six steps to fame
and a sprinking of treasured ashes
in a football boot.
You put us on the map for a season.
A thirty six gun salute
is the least we can do
for a man
with poetry in his feet,
a bottle of Brown in his pocket,
and a championship medal
round his neck.
You kicked us
into ecstasy,
into the Blue Star yonder.
You were a magic dribbler
and stocky with it.
So, keep your feet still Hughie hinny.
They’ll never drive
those bonny dreams away.
KEITH ARMSTRONG
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
Denys E. W. Jones
31st May 2025
joe morris
31st May 2025
Clik The Mouse
30th May 2025
Clik The Mouse
28th May 2025
Emdad Rahman
28th May 2025
Mike Bartram
27th May 2025
joe morris
26th May 2025
steve mingle
23rd May 2025
Mike Bartram
22nd May 2025
joe morris
22nd May 2025
Crispin’s Corner
In Memoriam
Kick It Out & Christmas Truce
Latest Comments
24th May 2025 at 7:19 am
Hi Steve
I’ve come across you before on the live poetry circuit…something I’ve also been involved in since the late 90s at slams, gigs and festivals. Did you ever get to Glasto?
I was also at Swindon when José subbed and berated Kevin in a League Cup game for Chelsea….
Salah as you point out went the same way…
Be interesting to see Kev’s next move?
Best
Crispin
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24th April 2025 at 1:05 pm
Hey Denys..love this
“You may be a miner working down a pit.
You may be a rock star playing sold out gigs.
You may be a fireman putting out a blaze.
You may be an inmate chalking off the days. ”
Not just Dylan but maybe an unintentional nod to and shades of Ian Dury’s enigmatic ‘What A Waste’ rhythmic scanning..eg:
I could be the driver in an articulated lorry
I could be a poet I wouldn’t need to worry
I could be a teacher in a classroom full of scholars
I could be the sergeant in a squadron full of wallahs
What a waste
What a waste
Was lucky enough to meet and interview him twice.
Best wishes from Forest Green to Genoa C
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8th March 2025 at 2:34 pm
Thanks Crispin
I’ve been to FGR a couple of times in the past – great food! Barnet look like they have the NL sewn up for this season, but I wish you well for promotion next season.
Regards, Beth
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11th January 2025 at 8:13 am
TO ADD THIS TO THIS POEM’S COMMENT:WELCOME BACK DAVID MOYES!!!
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27th November 2024 at 5:55 am
‘You’re Supposed To Be At Home’ is an excellent and moving poem Denys.
You start off thinking it’s just about another oft-sung chant, one we personally heard a lot last season throughout our second relegation in a row here at Forest Green(FGR) ! I always love poems where you think they are saying one thing and then they suddenly pull you deeper to somewhere or something else else.
I’m currently helping in a local school for FGR in a voluntary capacity using football to help young students with reading. At an upcoming session we will tackle racism, just like we did in workshops at football schools and grounds when we first started this site 24 years ago. I’m gonna try and weave your poem into a session.
We’ve added it to the Anti- Racism/Kick It Out section under Crispin’s Corner.
Best C
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26th November 2024 at 1:59 pm
Great poem and great to see you back Wyn.
Don’t leave it so long next time my friend!
More please.
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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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