‘ Return to Hinterlands’ the follow up edition to ‘Hinterlands’ is soon to go to print and I am expecting it out in the second half of September. The book focuses on just one season of games 2023/24 and is even more of a labour of love for I travelled far and wide for this […]
Last week, July 24th, I gave a talk to a group at the museum in Manchester and generated some great responses to my poetry and writing in general. See more on these links: https://x.com/NFMCommunities/status/1816398082734453231 https://uk.linkedin.com/company/national-football-museum
I went to a cricket game at the weekend and met some lovely people, and one of them has a connection through work and life with Sheffield. He knew of the club but also the history of the club and the area. There seems to be a community almost of people who ‘know’ both non league football […]
My new book ‘ The Return to Hinterlands’ is now being edited and the book will come out in September/October. I have loved writing it and hope you love reading it. Again, 24 games and poems for those games but this book is about more than football, its about people and places, and can be […]
I went to Notts County the other night, a rare venture to league football. I am not used to going to a match with 11,000 supporters there. The game was pulsating and Stockport won it with dynamic football. Notts were great up front but made big errors at the back. But the game itself was […]
My second hinterlands book will be published this autumn but one may wonder why the title ‘Hinterlands’. The term means ‘an area lying beyond what is visible or known’. Non league football clubs are lying beyond what is visible to much of the mainstream press or media and are not recognised, except in passing. But […]
I am writing the second ‘Hinterlands’ right now and most of the poems have been written, first draft. I have been to some lovely and diverse places from borders of england and some really low league games in obscure places, meant for football and poems. And met some interesting people from Goole and Grimsby to […]
I was out at Enfield FC, what a club, what a spirit and what a european night of old! I saw them play Llanwit Major in the Fenix Trophy, a champions league for non league, if you like. The night was classic. Growing up watching Nottingham Forest in europe, I was not a fan as […]
https://www.latetacklemagazine.com/late-tackle/361775/poems-for-the-first-club/
The game thrives so often on unpleasantness, eternal conflicts of tribal natures on social and anti-social media and the game having too much importance. But here on Saturday at Carlton the exact opposite. All those I spoke to had a cheary word and a more philosophical and gentle approach. And even the goalkeeper of Stockton said […]