Football Poets

Rodborough Fields
Mexico v England
The Prince Albert
Estadio Azteca

Hard to imagine these places conjoined
By anything other than a football match,
But the cochineal beetle from Mexico
Provided the dye for […]

My mate says he’s going to boycott the World Cup:
He says he’s not going to watch any of the matches;
I said you have to set your alarm clock then,
Because sleeping through the night isn’t a boyco […]

Tackle Soccer This Way -Duncan Edwards
Was published on New Year’s Day 1958,
A month or so before the Munich Air Crash,
And seven or so weeks before Duncan’s death,
After his agonising struggle against the odd […]

Start your journey at the Platform One Café,
Coffee and croissants and Katie and Rick,
3 tables, 6 chairs, a trunk, 15 railway puzzles
(Always one on the go for travellers with a brief encounter),

Sundry […]

I love Wednesday night’s walking football:
The gathering dusk of late October:
Floodlights lighting the way to goal,
While a moon rises high in the sky,
Illuminating childhood memories
Of yesteryear’s Aut […]

It must have been 1965,
We were having a lunchtime kick-about.
‘It’s Good News Week’ by Hedgehoppers’ Anonymous
Was playing on someone’s transistor
Just behind the goal nearest the school,
Someone was puffi […]

When watching Brazil

It’s just like watching Brazil.

Life’s like that sometimes.

I was determined to boycott the World Cup,
And be like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress:
Avoiding all seductive temptations,
And deceptions from the ‘beautiful game’ –
For the arguments against watch […]

That autumnal expedition to Brimscombe
Seems all a bit too good to be true:
Cycling past that spring alongside Bagpath,
Where an old Rodborough resident
Once slaked his thirst descending to Brimscombe,
Where […]

It was all so just so Just William perfect:
Egg sandwiches, crisps and lemonade
Tucked into your duffel bag,
Together with autograph book, green, red and black biros,
And Ian Allan trainspotter books […]

Now I’m not sure if there’s a debate here
About determinism and free will,
Or whether there’s just some sort of reflection
On 60 years spent going to the match,
That LS Lowry feeling of being lost in a crowd […]

I felt as though I were in a poem:
‘Afternoons’ by Philip Larkin –
I was off to sheltered accommodation
To see my mother-in-law (91),
Wishing a ‘Good afternoon’ to residents
Out for their slow afternoon […]

The day started well enough: a walk to town
In the soft light of soft autumnal sunshine,
Ridge and furrow with kine in the fields;
Drunken Swindon fans trying to walk straight,
Whilst Lord John bantering with […]

When I was a kid, I lived for football.
Kicking a ball against a wall,
Playing in the road, using street names as goal posts,
Playing ‘Five and In’,
Practising and practising and practising,
Until it got too […]

Ye Prologue:
There’s an old radical tradition
Of beating pots and pans in the street,
Making a public din
(Rather than a private dinner),
Ringing bells, banging pans, blowing horns,
With domestic utensils u […]

When the working class was first given the vote,
The Home Secretary said:
‘We must educate our masters’;

The result was the Education Act,
Which resulted in elementary schools,
Throughout the cities, tow […]

It’s possible to shout that in umpteen different languages
And still mean it.
‘Fee, Fie, Fo, Fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman’
And what does that smell like?
It smells of Prehistoric Beaker Folk from […]

Buy George, bye George, by George,
It’s my jubilee too this year,
Fifty years of hopes and fears,
And while you couldn’t call my life
A total exercise in active citizenship,
You couldn’t call it total subje […]

At the end of the day
There are no easy games at this level
And two-nil is a dangerous lead
When It’s a game of two halves
But goals win games
And it’s a good touch for a big man
When parking the bus […]

Remember when the Likely Lads
Wanted to avoid the final score?
Well, this was the exact opposite:
A twenty first century digital version
Where we expect constant updates and news.

But don’t get t […]