BBC Radio Lancashire 6pm -10pm presented by Phil Cunliffe

Blackburn V Brighton - Scott Reid and Kevin Gallagher


Sky Sports News - Vinnie O'Connor

I would like to make some similar sentiments about the job Nigel Adderley did covering the Aston Villa v Bradford City semi-final. I listened to both legs live on talkSPORT and felt he and Alvin Martin did a fantastic job of doing justice to both games by conveying the excitement and the atmosphere of the two occasions.

I must admit that I had my reservations when Adderley was brought into the talkSPORT team; I wasn't that keen on hearing a former middle-ranking 5 Live football commentator getting live games ahead of long-serving voices like Nigel Pearson and Ian Danter upon his introduction and I wasn't massively impressed by his debut on the station (Schalke v Arsenal). However, since then he has really grown on me - I was fairly indifferent to what I heard of his work on 5 Live - thanks in no small part to some dramatic and passionate goal commentaries and the ability to get across the significance of key spells of pressure and possession. Obviously he has been helped by landing what was a classic cup tie and also in being paired with Alvin Martin, who as has been said on this thread many times before is one of the very best co-commentators around and thus it must be a real advantage for any newcomer to the talkSPORT commentary box to be able to bed in to their new employer alongside him. But all credit to Adderley - he did a great job last night and two weeks ago and has already justified Moz Dee's decision to bring him in.

Conor is a great commentator, always a good listen

Agreed and it's been good to hear him on big matches like the LC semis because he's one of the commentators who has suffered with the switch to 1 commentator for a lot of matches.

5 Live - 23.1.13

With Mark Pougatch at The Liberty Stadium

Swansea v Chelsea - John Murray + John Hartson
Arsenal v West Ham - Alistair Bruce-Ball


Also with the MOTD2 news I wonder if it means Colin Murray might do more shows for 5 Live, perhaps returning to his previous slot on Sunday afternoons. I hope it doesn't impact on Mark Chapman's radio work to much.

Wednesday 23rd January - talkSPORT

Mark Saggers presenting Kick Off: Capital One Cup Special from the Liberty Stadium alongside Ray Parlour

Capital One Cup Semi-Final Second Leg
Swansea City v Chelsea - Sam Matterface and Ray Parlour (commentary), with Roger Hughes at pitchside and Carl Ralley producing

Premier League
Arsenal v West Ham United - Ian Abrahams


talkSPORT Live

Premier League
Arsenal v West Ham United - Tom Rennie and Kevin Watson (featured 7.45pm commentary on international radio stations)

Capital One Cup Semi-Final Second Leg
Swansea City v Chelsea - Kevin Hatchard

It's an interesting decision by talkSPORT Live to pick the Premier League game rather the League Cup semi-final as their featured match this evening. Look at the live match schedule on talkSPORT.com (which has been given a facelift over the past week), it appears as if they will only be doing commentary on the five televised FA Cup Fourth Round games on Saturday and Sunday, thus won't be doing Millwall v Aston Villa on Friday or any of the Saturday 3pm games.

Mark Chapman's Tweets seemed to indicate his radio work would remain fairly similar, it certainly shouldn't impact his Saturday and Monday radio work.

Conor is involved with 6Nations coverage so he may disappear from football for a while.

Looking at it, virtually every commentator now has a "second job"

Alan Green - 606
Mike Ingham - Occasional reporting duties
Ian Dennis - England reporting, major stories as Chief reporter, presenter now & again
Darren Fletcher - 606, NFL & other presenting tasks
Conor McNamara - Golf, rugby
John Murray - Golf
Simon Brotherton - TV, cycling on 5Live
ABB - Cricket & Golf

Should TS do PL commentary tonight as an "alternative" to League Cup?

Not a criticism but probably something they considered

EDIT: 5Live are doing commentaries on:

Milwall/Villa
City/Stoke
Macc vs Wigan
Norwich vs Luton (SE)
Utd vs Fulham
Brentford vs Chel
Leeds vs Spurs
Oldham vs Liverpool

Jackland V Chelsea (Capital One Cup Semi Final 2nd leg)

BBC Radio Wales - Simon Davies (hosting from ground) Rob Phillips, Ian Walsh and occasionally Leighton James (All frequencies / Online)
BBC Radio Cymru - Gareth Rhys Owen (hosting from ground) John Hardy and Osian Roberts (commentary)
Swansea Sound - Anthony O'Connell (commentary)


There'll be some major 'filling' going on on both national stations on Saturday, as only Wrexham's FA Trophy game at Southport is plannned to go ahead. It wouldn't suprise me though if Radio Wales also took AM commentary of Saracens V Cardiff Blues also in the LV Cup, as the Blues could qualify for the next round, and it'll be the first game at Saracens' new ground in Barnet.

This was something Shaun, 4-4-2 and I discussed on here last week.

You can't blame talkSPORT for prioritising a cup semi-final ahead of a routine league game, regardless of the rights situation. As a talkSPORT listener I want to hear commentary on the best games the station has rights to when they have the ability to do more than one match at any one time. I don't think they should be expected to provide an alternative to what anyone else is doing, so clearly from that point of view they have made the right call tonight.

In the past it has been the case that 5 Live have prioritised League Cup semi-final ties ahead of Premier League matches they've had exclusivity over and equally this is not something I would criticise them for doing either.

However, I do think there was a stronger argument for talkSPORT to have provide commentary on Chelsea v Southampton in the league last Wednesday night ahead of their choice of Manchester United v West Ham in an FA Cup replay, given that the latter match was both taking place at an earlier stage of the competition and that it was also available on free-to-air television, which in theory should mean there would be less of a radio audience for it. On the later point, I applaud 5 Live for opting for Arsenal v Swansea City given that that match wasn't available on free-to-air television as the Manchester United match was.

Sorry if I missed reference to it some time previously, but does Jacqui Oatley just do reporting now, no commentary on 5LSX? I'm not commenting on her skills or otherwise behind the mike, but BBC were trying to bring her forward on both radio & TV a year or two back. As I've not heard her commentate for a while, presumably the BBC thought it was an experiment that failed, at least in commentating on a match.

Nigel Adderely has tweeted they'll have commentary on Millwall v Villa with Micky Quinn part of the team.

It may be contractual in that talkSPORT are to do the League Cup commentaries they have the right to. i.e. Capital One get their name plastered all over the programming a guaranteed number of times.

Indeed, it was mentioned a number of times in his commentary last night. I was referring to the talkSPORT Live world feed radio service which is taken by a number of international stations, who it appears won't be covering that match, rather than talkSPORT UK which will. I apologise if I didn't make that clear in my previous message.

talkSPORT's Premier League commentary next Wednesday will be Arsenal v Liverpool. The night before, 5 Live have QPR v Manchester City with Aston Villa v Newcastle on 5 Live Sports Extra.

Ah right, sorry I misunderstood your previous post.

This could well be the case, seeing as numerous programmes (including those from earlier rounds of the League Cup when talkSPORT were doing Around the Grounds rather than commentaries) have taken the Capital One Cup Special branding complete with bumpers containing their taglines. *I think* even Monday's Feist Night show took the Capital One bumpers. When talkSPORT broadcast Premier League games Sky have title sponsorship and I think Budweiser are the title sponsors of their FA Cup coverage. Equally, requirements with the Premier League could explain why talkSPORT Live internationally are focusing on tonight's league game ahead of the League Cup (which is more puzzling in my opinion). In any case, I am sure most would agree that talkSPORT are right to go with Swansea v Chelsea this evening given the respective significance of the matches.

must admit I'd have thought 5Live might have chosen to have Newcastle v Villa on 5Live next Tuesday, real relegation scrap that one! on the face of it, 2nd versus bottom is a less attractive fixture, but with the wide availability of 5LSX I guess it didn't really matter what game they played on the main network.

5LSX will cover the Africa Cup of Nations Semi Finals according to Digiguide.

Seth Bennett (ex-BBC Sheffield) and John Bennett (ex-BBC Bristol) are over there reporting on it for the World Service at the moment.

i did wonder if 5LSX would take some of the (presumably world service) coverage. I assume they'll cover the final also...

Great news, another logical and positive move by Radio 5 Live Sports Extra following their decision to simulcast BBC Local Radio commentaries on Football League and early round FA Cup games. It had been a slight annoyance of mine that in recent tournaments British listeners haven't been able to listen to the World Service's Africa Cup of Nations' commentaries on its platforms available in the UK and online, when these matches were being broadcast live on their international frequencies, so it's good that this has been rectified. Steve, I'm sure the Africa Cup of Nations final will be live on 5LSE. For the sake of continuity, I can't imagine them deciding to simulcast the World Service's coverage of both semi-finals but not carrying the final as well. It will be a 6pm kick-off on Sunday 10th February so surely 5LSE will otherwise be free at that time.

As for the World Service's team out in South Africa for the tournament, thus far they've had John Bennett, Matthew Kenyon and Steve Vickers in Johannesburg for the opening round of matches in Group A, Lee James and Nick Cavell in Port Elizabeth for Group B, Matthew Kenyon and Steve Vickers in Nelspruit for Group C, John Bennett in Rustenburg for Group D, Seth Bennett and Damian Johnson in Durban for the second round of Group A matches. Farayi Mungazi is also working on the World Service's Africa Cup of Nations coverage and I have noticed that their former commentator Piers Edwards (now of talkSPORT Live) is among the journalists writing match reports on games from the tournament for the BBC Sport website.

Thursday 24th January - Talk Radio Europe and Global Radio Networks (Costa Del Sol)

Kenny Jones presenting from La Rosaleda

Copa del Rey Quarter-Final Second Leg
Malaga v Barcelona - Paul Breen-Turner (9pm GMT commentary), with occasional contributions from Kenny Jones

For those wanting a Barcelona-slanted commentary, Radio Barca English are also providing on-site commentary through FCBarcelona.com although I do not know who their solo commentator is as he has never namechecked himself when I have listened.

5live, 25.01.2013.

FA Cup 4th round, Millwall V Aston Villa, Simon Brotherton and Steve Claridge.

Brotherton's second commentary of the week for 5live, it is nice to hear him.

Friday 25th January 2013 - Free Radio 80s (1800 - 2200)

Tom Ross Presenting The Friday Night Football Phone In followed by The Goalzone from The Den

FA CUP
Millwall v Aston Villa - Tom Ross & Pat Heard - Commentary on 1152AM & DAB in Birmingham (19:45)

Friday 25th January - talkSPORT

Danny Kelly presenting Kick Off: FA Cup Special from the studio with Micky Quinn at The Den

FA Cup Fourth Round
Millwall v Aston Villa - Nigel Adderley and Micky Quinn (commentary), with Ian Abrahams at pitchside and Carl Ralley producing


BBC WM

Richard Wilford presenting WM Sport from The Den

FA Cup Fourth Round
Millwall v Aston Villa - Mike Taylor and Richard Wilford (commentary)


BBC London

Nick Godwin presenting The Friday Sports Show from The Den

FA Cup Fourth Round
Millwall v Aston Villa - Nick Godwin and Paul Mortimer (commentary), with Jamie Hill interviewing the fans outside The Den

BBC London's commentary is available online while BBC WM's isn't. Anyone know if BBC London provided commentary on AFC Wimbledon v Port Vale last night?

I know BBC Radio Stoke did - didn't catch who the commentators were, but they made a point of mentioning that they were the only station giving Port Vale commentaries.

Tonight, Radio Manchester didn't opt out of network for coverage of Cheltenham v Rochdale which was disappointing - they stayed on air for a weather programme until 8pm as did Radio Lancashire, but then went to network just as the weather got far worse. Manchester are doing 3 consecutive commentaries tomorrow though: Stoke v Man City, Macclesfield v Wigan and then Man United v Fulham - and Oldham v Liverpool on Sunday.

It was a shame they didn't do Rochdale tonight as it was Keith Hill's first game back at Rochdale - and they made a big fuss of the news the other day as there was a live link-up to a radio car (that I spotted as I drove past it while it was broadcasting live) pointlessly outside a deserted Spotland at 7.20am. Also they opted out of network on Wednesday night to do Notts County v Oldham commentary.