THE beautiful game will be celebrated like never before this weekend as three Scottish football poets take part in a unique competition at Saturday's Stowed Out festival.

Selkirk FC's poet in residence Thomas Clark will join his Dumbarton and St Johnstone counterparts, Stephen Watt and Jim Mackintosh, on the Stow stage to compete for The Poetry & Penalties Cup.

The competition is being sponsored by the Nil by Mouth charity as part of its campaign to celebrate the positives of Scottish football.

The three poets will fuse recitals of their prose with a special spot kick shoot out to determine the winner of the trophy in front of an audience of festival-goers.

Clark became Scotland's first footballing poet-in-residence in August 2015 where he spent the season chronicling the ups and downs of life at Lowland League side Selkirk FC.

And he hopes to add to his Yarrow Park club's trophy cabinet on Saturday.

Thomas told us: "‘It’s fantastic to finally get all three of Scotland’s bards together in one place, and there can be no better occasion for that than a bit of friendly competition.

"Every young lad grows up dreaming of lifting the cup, and – let’s face it – the Selkirk FC trophy cabinet isn’t exactly bursting at the seams. "But win, lose or draw, it will be an event to remember, and that’s what football is all about."

Stephen Watt is Dumbarton FC's poet in residence and his work regularly appears in the club's programmes.

St Johnstone fan Jim Mackintosh was appointed as his club's official bard in 2016 and is the editor of Mind The Time, a collection of football poetry with profits benefitting dementia and alzheimer's sufferers across Scotland.

The Stowed Out festival runs across Friday and Saturday and aims to showcase a diverse line up of music, spoken word and art that is sometimes challenging but always entertaining.

Nil by Mouth campaign director Dave Scott, who is a Gala Fairydean Rovers fan, is delighted to be backing the stanza shoot-out. He said: "We are delighted to be involved in what we believe is a global first poetry and penalties competition.

"The three poets are all smashing guys and we have been following their work closely over recent years.

"Our charity seeks to use football as a vehicle to bring people together and to remember the things we have in common and this is such a unique way of celebrating the joy the sport can bring to millions of people each weekend."

The Poetry & Penalties match will take place at 6.30pm on Saturday.