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
- 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
- Czechs go Marching On ~ Day 15 Euro 29020 haiku
- Italy March On ~ Day 14 Euro 2020 haiku
- Who Will Rule Out Danes? Day 14 Euro 2020 haiku
- France/Portugal/Germany’s Day 13 ~ Euro 2020 haiku
- Spain & Sweden’s Day 13 ~ Euro 2020 haiku
- You Can’t Beat A Cliché in Rhyme
- Watching England v Paint Drying in The Euros
- England & Croatia’s Day12 ~ Euro 2020 haiku
- Belgium & Denmark’s Day 11 Euro 2020 haiku
- Wales & Italy Through. Day 10 Euro 2020 haiku
- Day 8 Euro 202 haiku
- Day 7 Euro 2020 haiku
- Wales & Italy’s Day 6. Euro 2020 haiku
- Russia’s Day 6 Euro 2020 haiku
- Portugal & France’s Day 5. Euro 2020 haiku
- Day 4 Euro 2020 haiku
- Party Time On Hold~Scotland’s Day 4. Euro 2020
- Day 3 Group C Matches.Euro 2020 haiku
- England Win! Day 3. Euro 2020 haiku
- Day 2. Group B Matches. Euro 2020 haiku
- Day 1 & 2. Group A Matches. 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
kevin halls
18th March 2024
Richard Williams
18th March 2024
joe morris
18th March 2024
Denys E. W. Jones
17th March 2024
joe morris
17th March 2024
Clik The Mouse
14th March 2024
joe morris
14th March 2024
joe morris
10th March 2024
joe morris
6th March 2024
Denys E. W. Jones
3rd March 2024
Crispin’s Corner
In Memoriam
Kick It Out & Christmas Truce
Latest Comments
19th March 2024 at 8:00 am
Hi Crispin. Chris Sutton on the radio has gone for a Chelsea v Coventry final. As we know anything can happen in the Cup, and I reckon we can go to the final.
We’re still in with a chance of the play offs too, so lots to go for.
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19th March 2024 at 7:41 am
Hey Kev
Let the masses drool over their odds on City v Unted Final, but who knows how pressure can hit.
Cov and Chels will be rightly labelled as having no chance..but hey …stranger things have happened..
so Chelsea v Coventry…that’s the Final for us!
Best
C
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29th January 2024 at 10:03 pm
Hi Crispin,
How are you doing mate? Yes, you’re probably right but hey football is all about emotion and passion and I just love writing about the game. I try to keep my poetry to a reasonable length but there’s so much to write about the game and its literature just lends itself naturally to poetry. Sometimes I just get completely carried and I do apologise for the length of my poetry but it’s a great thrill to be associated with Football Poets.
Cheers mate
Joe
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10th January 2024 at 7:52 pm
You’re right of course Joe but…..it’s actually more of a big welcome break for everyone who is not into Premier League ..I’m talking fans of EFL National League and below…..
Btw …is this actually your longest poem ever !?
Best
Crispin
See in context
8th January 2024 at 4:45 pm
Thanks!
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8th January 2024 at 10:42 am
There’s something so evocative and nostalgic for football fans the world over, in ‘revisiting’ old lost grounds.
Occasionally some remnants remain, with perhaps part of a wall or part or a stand or thre shape of a terrace, but often they are only still there in faded images and in our heads..
Great stuff Graham
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4th January 2024 at 10:13 am
A great idea and well executed. Thanks Graham.
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19th November 2023 at 1:45 pm
Thanks Gacina, glad you liked it, and I have just posted a new one about our points deduction…
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7th November 2023 at 6:34 pm
Today B.B.C post on F.B was titled:Premier League reduced to 18 clubs? I really think it may be interesting to see if this would be Everton’s nightmare and this poem is well suited for this concern.If there would be more difficult battle to stay if there were 18 teams.Great poem and somehow true.
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6th November 2023 at 4:43 pm
Ashington FC have launched a £50,000 Crowdfunder appeal to meet the increased costs of winning promotion last season, to pay for urgent stadium improvements, travel costs and equipment
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