SCOTLAND'S first ever football poet in residence brought the beautiful game indoors last week.

Thomas Clark read a selection of poems and short stories from Selkirk FC versus The World at the town's library.

The Book Week Scotland event allowed the former semi-professional midfielder to divulge his youthful dilemmas of heading for the football ground or the library in his native Hamilton.

And how his love affair with both syntax and soccer led to his anthology being published earlier this year.

Thomas told last Wednesday evening's audience: "Our house in Hamilton was exactly midway between the football ground and the library... and every day I had the same decision to make as I left the house, football or books?"

Selkirk FC versus The World was released in the autumn to critical acclaim.

It is a delightful account of non-league football where the mood shifts, from kick-about humour to poignant reflection, quicker than the Yarrow Park midfield.

As well as an entertaining first half of poems compiled during his residency at the Lowland League club, the second half opens up a bit more with hugely entertaining short stories about post-apocalyptic Old Firm rivalry on the Subbuteo pitch, a superstar striker who is a compulsive liar, and a committee's plot to murder its incompetent chairman.

During the Book Week event at Selkirk Library the author was interviewed by his wife Sara, who is also an accomplished writer.

He discussed his own footballing ability, which saw him play for both Hamilton Accies as well as Hawick Royal Albert, before concentrating on writing.

And he revealed how his future was always destined to be between the covers of a book.

Thomas said: "I could never imagine what it was like to be really good at football.

"I think it's more appealing for a reader when you aren't all that good. It's more interesting for me, at least.

"I must have read every football book Hamilton library ever had and it became clear that the stories surrounding football were ever bit as appealing as the game itself.

"That is perhaps why clubs like Selkirk have such a draw for me. At Old Trafford everything is the same every week... at Yarrow Park nothing is ever the same."

Since its release, orders for Selkirk FC versus The World have come in from across the globe.

The author hopes his success will lead to other scribes concentrating on corners and freekicks.

Thomas said: "It is really enjoyable to do events like this and to bring football out of Yarrow Park and into the community.

"I have been genuinely surprised by the amount of interest there has been in Selkirk FC versus The World and I hope it will lead to many other poetry books about football in the future... there's so much to write about."