INNER GOAL Crispin Thomas ~ the poetry of football..a journey in rhyme ~
Published 2007 on Football Poets Books (Paperback)
From rattles, rosettes, women’s football and the trenches to fantasy salaries, racism and mobile phones for goalposts. Inner Goal spans 50 years in a perceptive nod to the People’s Game in verse. 75 poems and 65 haikus with illustrations from football’s maverick performance poet.
“One of the pioneer of football poetry…who ate all the pioneers?
Attila The Stockbroker.
This book sold out on Amazon @ £7.99 I still have some copies left for £5 + P&P. You can pay by Pay Pal . Email me : crispinctm@gmail.com
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The qwerty-something Forest Green Rovers/Chelsea fan is part of Stroud’s stanza squad, the only known collective of football poets in the world. “We’re Swapping Shirts with Shakespeare, that’s how we see it. There is poetry in everything, Football is a fantastic outlet. It’s a release. And writing about it is a release too.” Crispin Thomas ~ ‘Blokes with Balls’ Jeremy Clay
Poems by Crispin Thomas
- Rave On Sven RIP
- Back For The Start
- Walking Through Woods To A Game
- Caught Up In A Dream (It’s Over)
- Not Quite Full -My Euro 24 Wall Chart (Part 2)
- If This Is Our Time
- Messi’s Baptised Boy
- Straight To Penalties
- When England Take On Switzerland
- To Be An England Fan (After Slovakia)
- England Nil ~ England (Slovenia) Nil
- Scots Dream Over
- The Frankfurt Shuffle (How Low Can We Go)
- England & Netherlands Win E24#3
- Switzeland Spain & Italy Triumph E24 #2
- Germans Set The Bar E24 #1
- My Euro 24 Wall Chart
- David Beckham – Ambassador of Greed
- Remembering Bob ~ Bob Hunt /FGR Match Commentator RIP
- The Poetry of Euro ’24 & Fooball Poets 2000-2024 (Revisited)
- What Did We Do Before 5 Live 1994-2024
- Just To Be A Fan
- One Christmas In The Trenches 1914 (Revisited)
- Terry Venable – The Rock The Fuse RIP
- Brave Bobby Charlton ~ RIP
- When You Win at Last
- Ruined By A Kiss
- Spain Triumph ~ WWC23
- Time To Bring it Home ~ WWC 23
- England & Australia Next WWC ’23
- England & Australia Last Eight Bound ~ WWC ’23
- Morocco & Columbia Make The Last 16 WWC ’23
- England- Denmark- Netherlands & USA (just!) Advance – WWC ’23
- Australia Nigeria Japan & Spain Through WWC ’23
- I’ll Write On My Own~ WWC ’23
- England France & Jamaica Triumph – WWC ’23
- One More Legend Gone -Trevor Francis RIP
- Lionesses Underwhelm haiku~WWC’23
- Winter Dreams in Sydney ~ WWC ’23
- New Zealand 1-0 Norway WWC Haiku
- Within The Women’s Game
- Getting Closer Now
- Come So Far – Women’s World Cup 2023
- Calling Gambling Time
- I Was There : FGR 1-0 Sheffield Wednesday
- You Don’t Know What You’re Doing (BBC)
- Motty
- John Motson ~ The Man The Coat The Mike
- When It’s Time To Go
- Forza Vialli ~ Gianluca Vialli RIP
- The Man Who Designed The Beautiful Game (Pelé )
- One Club Man ~ George Cohen RIP
- Stopping By The Ground On A Snowy Morning
- The Ball~ 2002 to Now
- Let’s Boycott Qatar
- Qatar ~ Not In My Name
- On Running Down The Clock
- No-one Loves It When You’re In The Danger Zone.
- Qatar ~ Will We Watch Or Not?
- The Classifieds Must Stay
- Lionesses Roar As One
- Goodbye Mike’ It’s All About You’ Dean
- This Is How It Feels To Win The League
- What It Means To Be A Refugee
- The Half Time News From Ukraine
- When Floodlights Shine
- Children At A Game
- Football Love Actually ’22
- Fogged if You Do Fogged if You Don’t
- I’d Never Heard Of Forest Green
- Lily Parr & The Dick Kerr Ladies Revisited
- FA Banned the Women’s Game 1921
- Something Happ’ning On The Hill
- Ketch Up Time Again
- How Long Until Diversity ?
- Flowers lie for Ron
- ‘Sir’ Roger Hunt
- Of All The Stars (Jimmy Greaves RIP)
- When An Old Ground Goes
- Trav’lling Fans
- Rollercoaster Mesmerising
- On Being Back Again
- Waiting For The Start Of The Season
- Sometimes You Know When it Isn’t Your Day
- Heartache In The End ~ Day 22 Final Euro 2020 haiku
- When England Take On Italy (Again )
- Where We Were That Day (Then & Now)
- Time To All Believe ~ Day 21 SF Euro 2020 haiku
- Italy Spot On ~ Day 20 SF Euro 2020 haiku
- It’s Always Really Easy Watching England
- England’s Fab Four Goal Fest ~QF Day 19 Euro 2020 haiku
- Denmark’s Spirit Class & Style ~QF Day 19 Euro 2020 haiku
- Italy stand strong ~ Day 18 Euro 2020 haiku
- Simón saves for Spain ~ Day 18 Euro 2020 haiku
- It’s Coming Rome! ~ Day 17 Euro 2020 haiku
- Ukraine Leave It Late ~ Day 17 Euro 2020 haiku
- Warning : England Still Contain Hope
- Swiss Roll Magnifique! Day 16 Euro 2020 haiku
- Five Star Spain Again .Day 16 Euro 2020 haiku
- Belgium Proceed ~ Day 15 Euro 2020 haiku
- Load more
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
2nd October 2024
joe morris
2nd October 2024
Mike Bartram
30th September 2024
joe morris
26th September 2024
joe morris
19th September 2024
Clik The Mouse
18th September 2024
Clik The Mouse
18th September 2024
joe morris
16th September 2024
John Gilbert Ellis
12th September 2024
Beth Rogers
12th September 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
See in context
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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