Football Poets

Andros Townsend’s flash of sweet brilliance volleys Palace ahead, goal of the season, any season. To add to this wave of unreality I’m holding high an un-tethered sky-blue seat. We go on to win 3-2. The stewa […]

Finally the spell is broken
The witchcraft no longer present
Claret and blue vintage on
Tyneside
West Ham conquer the Newcastle blues
The drought lifts
The goal scoring famine over
Some of us were […]

Back when I lived in Blighty,
And went to football Grounds,
I’d sometimes hear a mocking chant
Around the place resound:

“You’re supposed to be at home.”
Away fans they would sing,
When their team was two […]

PAPERBACK WRITER !
PAPERBACK WRITER!
When I was a teen I loved the club
from my town in this way:

Searching and collecting
The articles from the press

That was in 1985 or 1986

There was no DIGITAL […]

Football dinks about and occasionally
A long pass looks straight but indirectness
Tends to be the name of the game you see
So when Van de Ven slid by sad Rashford
We assumed a pass was then on the […]

You have to admire their pluck
When you’re out of Lady luck
Irish eyes were never smiling
Sinking hearts were sighing
Then crying into greater quantities
Of foaming Guinness
And yet today the Republic were […]

it’s still a long road up ahead
we’ve only just begun
we’re right back where we started
among the fallen ones
the mountains that we’re facing
draw strength to just keep on
as our belief grows strong […]

So Mark Robins has been sacked
ruthlessly shown the door,
leaving fans bemused and asking
‘ why and what the hell for ? ‘
He did so many great things
frequent visitors to Wembley,
penalty shoot out and […]

City arrived on the South Coast
Riding the crest of wave
Arrogance pouring from every
Bead of sweat
Neck muscles heading every ball
Taut as rope
Measured passes
In their heart
And compelling script
But […]

WE must NEVER forget
never, ever, forget
in the same way
that we never forget
our first match
our first goal
our first victory
our favourite dink
our favourite nutmeg
our favourite skill / tackle / […]

She spoke to me, did Kamala:
“It’s OK, to feel sad and disappointed”

I’d forgotten
that we had shared ground:
each a true Blue!

But still
I imagined her woes today
seemed to Trump mine own (or maybe […]

Black cushions of recycled Continental
are semi-volatile compounds
like the Sandhurst centre-back
channelling his week into a tackle.

In Tiempos, feel the rubber crumb
of zinc-enriched non-organic […]

In the vanishing mists of time
One man stood tall
But now remains in not so
Splendid isolation
Because we’re here for you
Sir Geoff Hurst
The man who set
Millions of pulses racing
With hat-trick heroism […]

Here’s a word or two
To all you doubting Thomases
It’s Thomas Tuchel
The new England manager
It’s true, you know
A German at the helm of
The England hot seat
Irony of ironies
Particularly since 1966
When […]

Selling to survive is an art.
Some clubs do it exceptionally well.

They flog their star player for a princely sum,
Then unearth two nuggets that make their Ground hum.
Two young, bright prospects who […]

Smash those plates,
Smash those plates
Once and for all

No Retsina please
No Retsina please

It’s a Greek tragedy
It’s a Greek tragedy

We blame you Homer
We blame you Homer
That Greek chap
That […]