Good fact there that will come in handy when I look to compile broadcasting data from years gone by.

I'm guessing Tyler & Gray must have been pretty much ever-presents in the commentary box during this period as well?

That is true but I just thought it seemed very out-of-place to have PL leading their TOTH when I watched it (fairly late in the evening). It wasn't even as if the games were that memorable.

I'm not hugely surprised as I watch enough SSN to know they talk PL, PL and more PL but thought it did stick out more than usual last night.

I notice too that they've launched a 'PL Daily' one hour programme each day. To be fair it'll probably be the exact same content as before.


That said didn't Tanner succeed Ali Douglas who got far more criticism and always used to get the 'deer in headlights' criticism?

Don't watch a lot of Scottish football but I get the sense with Tanner that he does the presenting role competently but little more and he looks worse by comparison by the fact that there are so many strong football presenters at the moment (the likes of Lineker, Chapman, Pougatch, Logan, Hipgrave, Walker, Smith, Richardson etc.).


This x100.

Yes, because it was quite a big deal when Ian Payne arrived in 2003 because it meant Keys lost his attendance record. Of course, it never worked out with Payne and when Keys went away in 2011 he was indeed presenting five days a week from Saturday to Wednesday, more prominent than he'd ever been before.

I didn't get Sky until 2004 but I'm sure Bolton never presented Premier League coverage. I think the instance you're thinking of might be in September 2004 when Man U vs Liverpool was on Monday Night Football (a few weeks before I got it) when I think Payne was at the ground but Mark Bolton was back in the studio doing a few bits and pieces with the panel. Of course, in that era of Monday Night Football it was on every week and if there wasn't a match it would just be analysis of the weekend with Payne, Smith and the fans panel.


Again, I didn't have Sky at the time but I think I'm right in suggesting that from 1992-95 it was always Tyler and Gray on Sunday and Darke and Gray on Monday (apart from a few rare occasions where the Monday game was miles bigger). I think it was 1995 when Gray became a pundit on Monday and Trevor Francis became the regular co-commentator. I think.

In the early days of MNF did they present from the ground or studio? And was it just a guest associated to the teams playing? I used to watch it but can't remember. I suppose always think of Gray on MNF in the studio but now you say it he definitely was co comm for first few years (always remember Man City v QPR game for some reason)

Ah yes, Ian Darke. Think you're right about him covering the Monday night games - I remember watching footage not so long ago of Ipswich away to Coventry in 1994 on MNF and he was commentating.

Still, the amount of commentaries Tyler & Gray did together from Sky's inception to Gray's sacking must be pretty damn sizeable.


Probably wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't have flagged it up but the Super Sunday intro was used for the dedicated highlights programme of Man Utd v West Ham later in the evening! Don't know what it usually says for highlights of games, mind you.

Yes, spot on with the Man Utd v Liverpool match! It's a shame it didn't work out with Ian Payne as I really liked him. Granted he was better on radio but I liked his calmer, understated nature on telly which flew in the face of all the whizzy loud graphics and cheerleading that was often on Sky's PL coverage. I also think he's been the best alternative to Jeff Stelling on Soccer Special, far better than Julian Warren.

And I'm pretty sure you're correct with the MNF commentators. 1995 was quite a big change for Sky's MNF coverage with Keys and Gray moving into the studio and Trevor Francis joining new signing Rob Hawthorne on commentary. I think this is his first match and cherish the moment; there's a "thanks Richard" from him!

So Darke was moved more onto boxing than football, Hawthorne lasted one season on MNF before moving to the newly acquired Football League, Alan Parry joined from ITV after the Euros and he and Francis became the regular MNF duo until 2001.

Does anyone have commentary details on these games yesterday?:

Genoa v Juventus
A.S. Roma v Pescara

X-rated horror story.

http://screengrabber.deadspin.com/ar...ory-1789399172

Li4m said it was Alistair Mann on Genoa-Juve, so presumably he was on his lonesome for that one, maybe someone can confirm.

Other outstanding queries:

Folks entered the following world feed commentary details into the hub over the weekend but I am unable to verify them myself, so perhaps someone else can...

Barnsley v Nottingham Forest - Jon Champion?
Rotherham United v Leeds United - Dan O'Hagan?
Aberdeen v Celtic - Rory Hamilton & Kris Boyd?

That's correct.

MNF was at the ground certainly in the early years but I can't confirm when they switched to studio.

Didn't Jonathan Pearce once do an MNF commentary?

Also, anyone other than Subaru know the Hudds/Wigan details? TIA

Scott Minto presented Huddersfield vs Wigan with Peter Beagrie, Mann and Hinchcliffe commentated. Busy weekend for Hinchcliffe, three games in four days.

Pearce did do one, maybe two commentaries in the first season of the Premier League when Ian Darke was unavailable. As mentioned, Monday Night Football was at the grounds until 1995, before it became studio-based. Then it was Keys and Gray until 2003, when it remained studio-based but now with Ian Payne and Alan Smith and a panel of fans. Then when Jeff Stelling took over in 2005 they moved back to the grounds and it became like any other match, until it ended the first time in 2007 of course when Setanta got Monday night rights.

Surprising now to think that Rob Hawthorne got some bloody big games in 1995/96 in his first season, I know he'd done lots of matches for the radio before then but it still seemed quite a bit leap for someone in the first season as a TV commentator. Darren Fletcher is getting a lot of big games for someone who's still only recently moved to TV but Hawthorne was catapulted to the top.


Yeah, it was a bit of a shame, because before that he was really good on the radio - just before he left Five Live in 2003 he fronted two Open All Mics shows which were briliant fun. I remember when he left on his last show he said "If you like your football, I'll see you soon". But it seemed a bit odd at the time he was going to the telly because his only TV work before that had been doing the sport on the BBC News, where he seemed a bit ill at ease, and like Hawthorne he was immediately thrust into some very high profile games.

That said, one of the reasons why Payne moved off the Premier League was presumably because in 2005 Jeff Stelling was about to defect to ITV - Stelling says in his book he'd already written his resignation letter and was about to hand it in - and they offered him Premier League matches to convince him to stay. If that meant Payne had to stop doing them, so be it. Payne did the Cups in 2005/06 - though that did mean he presented the FA Cup and League Cup Finals, which was quite a big job - but then from 2006/07 he was only on Sky Sports News.

That said, Sky were very loyal to him, he stayed there until, what, 2009 or so? So it wasn't like he was straight out of the door. But everyone's forgotten he was at Sky now.

Jonathan Pearce did two MNF commentaries on the last two Mondays of November 1993: Chelsea 0-0 Man City and Southampton 0-2 West Ham. Ian Crocker also did a couple of live Sky games during 1992-93: Crystal Palace 1-1 Chelsea in March '93, and Wimbledon 4-0 Crystal Palace on Good Friday that year (when his co-commentator was Don Howe).

Tyler did just about every Sky 4pm Super Sunday game until January 2005, when Ian Darke started doing a few... and this thread was born. Incredible to think that the thread has been going for nearly 12 years now.

Forest game was definitely Champion.

Thanks Steve for the Hudds/Wigan info

A lot of my knowledge of early 90's Sky coverage comes from Premier League Years and I remember Ian Crocker featuring on one of the early ones, it's odd that JP & him wouldn't get their big TV jobs until a long time after their initial appearances.

5Live produced two big commentators in Hawthorne & Drury around the same time, both hampered by the Green/Ingham pairing hoovering up the big matches.

I never warmed to Ian Payne on TV TBH but I never really liked Sir Jeff on MNF either, I really only liked the Keys/Gray & now the current show, there's a site which I won't name that shows the studio elements of MNF (so everything except the match ) & I've watched a few, David Jones has done well.

I'm in the UK for the Merseyside derby MNF, I hope that is GNev & Jamie.

Thank you for this. Pearce did a couple of things for Sky in the early years on the Premier League, in the 1992 episode of The Sky Sports Years there was a clip of him presenting Goals on Sunday.

There used to be on YouTube a couple of clips of Sky's presentation of international matches, specifically the other games in England's group involving Norway and Holland, in that first season, under the banner of Monday Night Football Extra. On a Wednesday.

The Daily Mail are outraged that the el clasico will not be shown live on UK TV, they have stated that fans will have to do with highlights.

What planet do DM reporters live on?Most people i imagine will find a way to watch the game live.

Hearts v Rangers- Tom Miller and Gordon Smith for RangersTV

EFL Cup - Liverpool Vs Leeds - Sky Sports 1 et al.

Simon Thomas is with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Jamie Carragher at Anfield.

Commentary by Rob Hawthorne and Alan Smith.

Have to feel sorry for Darke, his next 2 games for BT are in the Champion's League and both have nothing at all riding on them, Man City v Celtic followed by Tottenham the following night.

I can understand Fletcher being their number 1 with BT wanting to go down that road but for Darke to not get some decent meaningful games does seem really harsh.

Even the likes of Peter Drury, Sam Matterface and even Rob Hawthorne whilst not number 1 all still got decent games, really think he has been badly treated.

I've been monitoring the activity on the data hub tonight and let's just say I'm less than impressed. A lot of the information entered is just plain wrong.

I'm going to have to start getting tough on this. You may think that you can get away with what you want because you are anonymous but if you keep it up you'll be in for a shock when you try and log on in future.

This was bound to happen eventually, but two people added info for the Liverpool-Leeds game at the same time - meaning two separate sets of broadcasting teams were added. This served to illustrate that at least two different people are prepared to guess things in advance, as they were both wrong. Hard luck to you for not seeing Hasselbaink's guest appearance coming.

The point is to add factual information, not predictions. If you want to predict a lineup, can't you do it in your head and see if you turn out to be right? Absolutely pointless.

I'm also considering disabling the ability to add data until after kick-off because entering something in advance AND marking it as complete is both nonsensical and a sure-fire way to wind me up.

For the most part the contributions are very good and I appreciate the efforts of the regulars who help to keep it in good shape by correcting others mistakes but we shouldn't have to waste our time doing so.

To be fair the other English games in the CL aren't that important either - Leicester are already confirmed top of their group and Arsenal are very likely to come second in their group. So I'm not sure there's much to be getting annoyed about with that selection.

It's probably no coincidence that incorrect information has been getting posted on here too.

Sorry if this is the wrong thread, but as a Huddersfield fan, I'm curious as to whether anyone knows the ratings for our game last night.

I'd also be interested to know the ratings for tonight's EFL Cup game, or EF All Cup as I like to call it.

A 15-minute build-up by Sky reflects the lack of prestige this tournament has and not even Leeds were interested in putting out their full-strength team. I don't know what can be done about this competition...