OK. I'm guessing he was there for the Sunday afternoon edition of Off The Ball, but having checked the Newstalk Listen Back player, from 7-10pm they just ran their usual Sunday programming line-up with no reports on the game in Chisinau during their news bulletins.

I'll post the details of BBC Radio Wales' coverage of the two Wales games at some point, seeing as Ian C hasn't been posting for quite a while now (I hope everything is well with him and that he'll be back on here very soon).


Thanks for providing your thoughts on the Scottish Challenge Cup Mark (I very nearly missed them given there being a few posts in quick succession and a split from one page to the next, always a risk on here!).

Glad to hear that fans of the Scottish lower division clubs have reacted to the inclusion of youth teams to that competition in a similar way to those of us in England and Wales to the same thing happening in the Trophy. I did notice that Celtic Under-20s had got through to the third round and there was some worry that they in particular were potentially a stronger prospect of reaching the final than any of the Premier League or Championship youth teams do down here.

That being said, last week's youth team v first team games in the second round of Trophy group games broke 8-7 in favour of the youth teams, and more than half of the Under-23 outfits appear to have a reasonable chance of reaching the knockout stage of the competition with a game to go. While I see in the Challenge Cup Celtic were the only Under-20s side to get to the third stage, where they exited, with The New Saints being the only non-Scottish first team remaining in the competition at the quarter-final stage. So perhaps I should be more fearful of the prospect of a youth team getting to Wembley sooner than to Hampden - my hope was that all 16 youth teams would exit the Trophy, the EFL would rule out their return to the competition next season over Christmas time, and the B-team boycott could then end with the knockout stage of the Trophy at least resembling a normal competition.

Was their any boycott of the Scottish Challenge Cup games involving the Under-20s sides?

Slovenia v ENGLAND (8pm) - John Murray, Ian Dennis and Danny Mills

There was nothing official as far as I know, but it's hard to tell if people stayed away on an 'ad-hoc' basis because it's such a poorly-attended competition in the first place.

When you look at some of the attendances where the lower league team was at home, they're roughly half that of a normal league attendance. When you discount away fans (there would be very few travelling fans of U-20 teams), I'd say they were about 30-40% down.

I know this is off topic, Bolton have recorded their lowest ever crowds (at current ground) in the 2 home games in the EFL Trophy so far, the league crowds have held relatively steady compared to last season (despite relegation & ongoing concerns on the club finance & patchy form, fewer away fans etc).

If an U-20 team(s) got to the final, then it would probably be more embarassing to the EFL & with a low crowd, on Sky, the PR would hopefully force them to look at the tournament, the U20 teams doing poorly would probably mean by March/April, the issues would receieve less coverage. (I hope that makes sense). I don't agree with the current format/entrants but we'll see (and as I can't attend games, it impacts me very little!)

Back on topic...

As previously posted, Alan Green is no longer working on England and no surprise to see Ian Dennis take over. Be interesting to see in tournaments if Dennis will be a commentator and England reporter or if roles will change.

Good to see 5Live do commentary on other British nations where possible, a shame that NI & Scotland play at the same time as England (obviously Scotland often will due to being in the same group).

5Live have Man City/Everton on Sat 3pm.

I still can't work out quite how they got both the 5:30 on Sat and 1:30 on Sun KO this weekend but there you go.

They'll also enjoy exclusivity on Liverpool vs Man Utd on Monday, over the last 5 years or so, this has often fallen into a TS time slot (primarily 1:30 on Sunday), I know not every league fixture between these two teams but many seem to have, but 5Live will be pleased to get one of these games.

Charles Sale has responded to tweets by Collymore, the tweets stated that Sale was a "liar" and Collymore basically ridiculed his article.

Anyway here is the response by Charles Sale;

" Irritant football pundit Stan Collymore has been active on Twitter boasting about berating your Sports Agenda columnist in front of 15 colleagues ‘for transparency’ reasons in the Wembley press room about Saturday’s item on his acrimonious departure from talkSPORT.
This is the same Collymore who blocks his critics — including myself and a number of talkSPORT staff — from reading his tweets"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...Allardyce.html

This soap opera will go on and on i feel

So they are using the same team for England games minus Alan Green.

Begs the question if they are able to cover England with the current team why did they need an extra man ( Alan Green) last season? Surely with Ian Dennis doing commentary on England games that means John Murray will have to do extra work in terms of doing interviews etc?

Although they do have Sports Extra, which is sitting idle tonight.

Surely it's low cost to simulcast either the BBC Radio Scotland or BBC Radio Ulster commentary (I'd advocate the latter, given the opposition) as they have done in the past.

Firstly, good to hear Mark and Col's thoughts about the changes to the Scottish Challenge Cup and EFL Trophy.


4-4-2 directly replied to your query about this issue on page 16 of this thread. The reason why talkSPORT have commentary rights to the 12.30pm kick-off on Saturday while Radio 5 Live have commentary rights to the two games in talkSPORT's regular timeslots is because the three matches in question have been switched to new kick-off times from the ones they were originally scheduled in, owing at least in part to the scheduling of Champions League games. Chelsea v Leicester City on Saturday lunchtime was initially pencilled in as a Sunday 1.30pm kick-off, while the two matches you mention must have initially been planned to take place in different timeslots to the ones they now occupy.


I wholeheartedly agree with you on this one - simulcasting BBC Nations radio commentary on Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland internationals on Radio 5 Live Sports Extra when more than one home nation is playing at the same time is something that the BBC should be doing regularly. As you say, they've done this a few times before but they should be doing it as a matter of course whenever there is a clash and 5LSE is available as it is tonight.

For those looking for a UK-wide radio commentary on Slovakia v Scotland, talkSPORT 2 will be broadcasting this game while talkSPORT does commentary on Slovenia v England.

BBC Radio Wales

Thursday 6th October

Ian Hunt presented Radio Wales Sport from the Ernst-Happel-Stadion alongside Kevin Ratcliffe and John Hartson, followed by Call Rob Phillips from the Ernst-Happel-Stadion

FIFA World Cup 2018 European Qualifying Group D
Austria v Wales - Rob Phillips and Kevin Ratcliffe (7.45pm commentary)

Sunday 9th October

Ian Hunt presented Radio Wales Sport from Cardiff City Stadium alongside Kevin Ratcliffe, Danny Gabbidon and John Hartson, followed by Call Rob Phillips from the Cardiff City Stadium

FIFA World Cup 2018 European Qualifying Group D
Wales v Georgia - Rob Phillips, Kevin Ratcliffe and Danny Gabbidon (5pm commentary)

Tuesday 11th October - talkSPORT

Mark Saggers presenting Kick Off: International Special

FIFA World Cup 2018 European Qualifying Group F
Slovakia v Scotland - Graham Beecroft
Slovenia v England - Jim Proudfoot and Stuart Pearce (7.45pm commentary)

FIFA World Cup 2018 European Qualifying Group C
Germany v Northern Ireland - Graham Courtney

UEFA European Under-21 Championship Qualifying Group 9
England Under-21s v Bosnia-Herzegovina Under-21s - Nigel Pearson


talkSPORT 2

Ian Danter presenting International Football Live

FIFA World Cup 2018 European Qualifying Group F
Slovakia v Scotland - Alex Crook and Chris Iwelumo (7.45pm commentary)

talkSPORT 2 are simulcasting the first 20 minutes of talkSPORT's build-up.

BBC Radio Scotland Sportsound, 11/10/16

Presented by Richard Gordon, with Tom English and Peter Houston.

World Cup Qualifying - Group F
Slovakia v Scotland (7.45pm) - Liam McLeod and Steven Thompson (commentary)

I can't remember where or when but I once read that some (or all) of the national radio stations in the Celtic countries didnd't want to be on SE, as I have no source, I wouldn't want this to be taken too seriously (If at all!)

According to Charles Sale, Slovakia V England on TalkSport was produced from London..

Bit surprising that, you would think all England games would get commentary from the ground? Sale stated they "kept quiet" about their off-tube commentary, is he right or did talkSPORT mention it during commentary?

They don't state it either way.

I'm not sure if it's news as such anyway. Alright the regular listener isn't aware of the nuances of what goes on but to us on this thread it's not new - and not new to Charles Sale.

they were off tube which shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone reading this thread. apart from international tournements, I'd be interested to know when was the last time they were on-site for an England away international match. not nocking them, just pointing it out. Ian Dennis mentioned a couple of times last night that 5Live were the only radio station providing commentary from inside the stadium.

I wonder if Sale mentions that Sky/BT keep quiet about all the off-tube commentaries they do? no, thought not. Don't get me wrong, I reckon for England games they should be there, but TS do seem to get more hassle with this than other broadcasters.

I think to be fair other stations (BBC, BT Sport, Sky Sport) send commentators and, if appropriate, reporters, to the foreign locations when British sides are playing abroad. BBC Radio generally say when their commentary teams and reporters are situated in the studio. TalkSPORT does not seem to operate like that.

I agree take the Euros in France, all games that 5live did off-tube were listed as "studio based commentary" by Phil Wye, should talkSPORT not do the same?

I reckon the average talkSPORT listener who tuned into their coverage of the England game last night would be very surprised and disappointed to know the commentary team were not at the ground.

I think you have both hit the nail on the head. Them off-tubing an England match isn't a new news story that nobody has tackled before, nor is off-tubing as a concept something that Charles Sale regularly highlights when other broadcasters do it. But then this was talkSPORT, and this is his third hit piece about that station and/or one of their former personalities this week. It's been clear over the past few months that Sale has a vendetta not just with certain current or former talkSPORT presenters (Stan Collymore, Brian Moore) but the station in general, hence the ream of negative stories. Of course, when he writes such stories about BBC broadcasters, people call out Sale's biases for what they are - and I think this week's stories prove that it's not just the BBC he has an agenda against.

The sad thing is, talkSPORT are getting criticism for providing a service to their listeners in a less than perfect way. Had they just done an Around the Grounds show last night, and not provided an commentary on England - or a commentary on Scotland, being the only UK-wide station to do this - Sale would have had to find another negative angle about the station to write about in his column, and the previous seven comments on this thread wouldn't have been written. talkSPORT don't have the kind of budget the BBC, Sky Sports, BT Sport etc have to justify regularly sending commentary teams to matches played in continental Europe, so in these circumstances would Sale be happy if they just didn't bother to cover matches from outside of British shores? Personally I'd be more upset if the station didn't carry updates from a dedicated reporter - regardless of them being on-site or off-tube - on an international involving a home nation, which I know is sometimes the case with games involving the Celtic nations on Radio 5 Live (did they have a reporter covering Germany v Northern Ireland last night?). I don't hear many criticisms of that, yet to me not covering something at all is much worse than doing something in an imperfect way.

talkSPORT rarely get praise when they decide to provide a service that I hope most would view as being a positive development - picking up rights to the Bangladesh v England ODI series at short notice when the BBC were unable to fulfil their commitments to rights (according to TMS producer Adam Mountford) they already held, becoming the first broadcaster to provide a platform for the FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round draw, being the only UK-wide radio station to provide commentary on games involving Scotland and Republic of Ireland this week, putting commentary on the Super League Grand Final on their main analogue station despite England playing at the same time - yet when they do something in an imperfect way, like covering a game off-tube, the likes of Sale are quick to come out of the woodwork to sneer and snipe. What's next to come from Sale I wonder? Perhaps he can criticise talkSPORT 2 for doing their commentaries on the Bangladesh v England series, rights they picked up one day before the first ODI, from London? You can have that for free if you are reading this, Charles.

@Difference you are missing a key point here,

It would be fair to say the majority of people listening to the England match on talkSPORT would have thought they were commentating from the ground.

Why not state during the commentary that the game was studio based?

It would preempt any snide comments and keep criticism to a minimum and at least their listeners would be aware that they are off-tubing the game, as i have stated before 5live regularly inform listeners if a game is being covered in a studio, as the euros just gone by have shown.

Actually, I don't think I am missing a key point, at least not something that I regard as a key point anyway. I have always maintained that it is not imperative to me whether or not a broadcaster announces they are working off-tube. I don't expect it from TV and radio broadcasters when they work in this way and I simply don't mind whether they flag it up or not. I'm just happy to receive coverage of matches that not being able to off-tube them would deny. To be blunt, I'm sick to death of the circular arguments we get on this forum about this topic, which whenever it comes up you see the same posters (myself included) effectively writing carbon copies of their previous posts from the last time the subject came up. I'd be happy to never write another word on this particular topic ever again!

To me, the key point here is highlighting Charles Sale's increasingly obvious agenda when it comes to talkSPORT seeing as a number of his articles have been posted on here this week (which I have decided to ignore until now). It is pretty clear he has an issue with the station, which I believe is why he has decided to report this story at this time. Whenever Sale writes a negative story about the BBC, you can guarantee that there will be posters on Digital Spy calling the veracity of his reporting or his reasons for doing so into question. With that in mind, I don't see why we shouldn't judge all of his reporting with the same kind of critical eye.

I don't profess to be a talkSPORT fan (I am not a particularly laddish person and prefer the BBC approach). I like talkSPORT 2 because it covers sports events not necessarily covered elsewhere. At least Stan Collymore is no longer at talkSPORT but, no matter what he does, Alan Brazil is still there.
I don't like the 'pretence' that a commentator is present at an event when (s)he is not but it is not a show stopper. We accept that tv commentators are not present at, say, football matches involving two non-British clubs or countries and I do not know whether all the commentators are on-site for overseas Premier League coverage. It may be that the average talkSPORT listener doesn't care whether a commentator is on-site but that commentator depends on a studio monitor and cannot possibly portray the atmosphere of being in the ground and see things happening off-screen.

I like much of what talkSPORT (and particularly talkSPORT 2) does, and I am not a particularly laddish person either. I don't like the implication that people who like talkSPORT are laddish, I don't think much of what they do these days can be fairly considered to be laddish and I certainly wouldn't class the station in general as being a laddish, certainly not in terms of live sports coverage.

As for Stan Collymore, apparently he's going to be "on" (presenting?) Radio 5 Live's 606 on Saturday 22nd October: https://twitter.com/StanCollymore/st...80628026912768

Alistair Bruce-Ball was at Germany/NI