TV Times:
14:30-17:30 - BBC Red Button, BBC Sport Website & BBC Sport App
16:00-17:00 - BBC One in Northern Ireland
16:00-17:30 - BBC One in England and Wales

Presenter - Jason Mohammad from the BBC Sport Studios
Pundits - Garth Crooks and Dion Dublin
EFL Watch - Mark Clemmit from the BBC Sport Centre

English Premier League
Crystal Palace v Chelsea (12:30) - Steve Wilson (FT Report)
Middlesbrough v Swansea - Vicki Sparks
Stoke City v Leicester - Damian Johnson
Sunderland v Watford - Will Perry
West Ham v Hull City - Jacqui Oatley

Sky Bet EFL Championship
Blackburn v Reading - Ross Heaton
Bristol City v Preston - Hamish Marshall
Burton Albion v Newcastle - Derm Tanner
Cardiff v Barnsley - Robyn Cowen
Fulham v Derby - Lynsey Hooper
Leeds v Brentford - Naz Premji
Nottm Forest v Wolves - Ivan Gaskell
Sheff Wed v Rotherham - Seth Bennett
Wigan v Ipswich - Sue Smith

Sky Bet EFL League One
Scunthorpe v Millwall - Peter Slater

Sky Bet EFL League Two
Carlisle v Yeovil - David Donaldson

Ladbrokes Scottish Premiership
Celtic v Dundee - Roddy Forsyth

Steven Gerrard & Glenn Hoddle with Jake for West Brom V Man United, means that Trevor Francis is probably on commentary.

EDIT: Oh wait it seems that BT have dropped the 3 man team this week.... Jake has only announced Owen Hargreaves.

Kelly Cates is with Clinton Morrison and David Prutton in the studio. It's the first time I've seen it and it seems a massive studio!

It is a big studio - also used for FNF.

BT only with the two on commentary - Fletcher and Hargreaves. A bit of a surprise that.

Of course the above means like often when BT do Wedt Brom games, Darren Fletcher is commentating on Darren Fletcher.

You never learn

Presenter: Jake Humphrey presenting from The Hawthorns
Pundits: Steven Gerrard, Glenn Hoddle
Commentary: Darren Fletcher & Owen Hargreaves with Howard Webb on ref watch
Reporter: Des Kelly

Wonder if the drop of the third man is a temporary thing? The EPG info for PL Tonight said Rio Ferdinand was going to appear as a pundit so I wonder if he pulled out of appearing last minute, hence Hoddle moving to pundit and they couldn't get Francis to commentate.

It appears there might have been some last minute changes....

Being fair to Subaru, he didn't say Francis was on commentary. He just suggested Hoddle being on punditry may mean he was (as BT normslly do 3-man teams on PL).

Not perfect but at least he didn't post that Francis was comentating and retracted like he has with other line ups

That said previous occassions like that are probably why Subaru doesn't get the benefit of the doubt.

Quite nice actually to just hear 2 commentators on a BT PL game.

Conclusion...Still haven't learned. Premature.

Verdict: Guilty.

45 minutes in of BT coverage, Darren actually sounds decent IMO. Hargreaves sounds a bit bored & is biased towards Utd.

However, the HT studio segment is dreadful, Gerrard sounds bored, the analysis is basic. Jake looks like he's trying to be all cool & young. Hoddle has also claimed that Utd's goal to be one of the goals of the season!

Mersey Monday - Sky Sports 1

Richard Keys is with Noel Edmonds and Pam St Clement.

Commentary from Jonathan Pearce and Sue Barker.

Dermot O'Leary is pitchside.

Don't give BT ideas

Hargreaves is nowhere near aminated enough to hold my attention for 90 mins, the game hasn't been great but let's sound happy to be at the game at least!

Great to see Dermot O'Leary back involved with live football after the 2014 World Cup appearance with Louis Walsh and co on ITV... A time where we filled in the details of ITV's coverage for Gazza1982 who didn't watch the coverage due to his £5 'principles'.

Wait a minute... BFGArmy rightly points out what the key difference is here with Subaru and you all continue to mock him? Give the guy a break.

You didn't see his original post and are jumping to conclusions.

Did Gazza ever get his fiver? It was a difficult time for all concerned

Gary Lineker did HIGNY last night with Merton, Hislop, Jon Richardson and a handbag which was a substitute for Nicky Morgan MP that didn't turn up.

I loved Stephen Mulhern's magic presenting on Sobby Sunday, Alan Carr and Greg Wallace were fantastic making food puns!

Not mocking. He didn't say Francis was on commentary but he basically gave the studio line up and went into hypothetical 1+1=3 mode is "he probably is" and then instantly is backtracking after jumping the hypothetical gun... Instead of just waiting 20 mins. It's like those fantasy schedule threads.

People that make food puns are all round good eggs.

See Scout! All can have a good festive time!

I'm not a huge fan of speculation either but I'm willing to bet that nobody would have picked up on it if their username wasn't TheSubaru2012. I don't even think anyone would have said anything if he didn't edit his own post and make it clear to everyone that he had done so. He drew undue attention to himself by doing that.

I just wanted to make clear that he wasn't passing information off as fact, as has been the case in the past and the main gripe that people have. Personally, I think he's past doing that - otherwise I will be joining in on the abuse.

I have to say that Darren Fletcher has really improved as a commentator so far this year, he seems to talk less than he originally did and really has let the action do the speaking most of the time now. Yes he can occasionally go on about stuff but nowhere near as much since I first heard him where he was non-stop talking with Owen & Hoddle alongside him. I still prefer Darke over him but for the first time I really enjoy waiting to hear Fletcher call a game, it might be four years too late for me to say that but I at least I feel ready now to say that he is enjoyable.

It's just a shame Hargreaves isn't the same level on co-commentary. BT have seemed to find a trend of boring co-commentators/pundits this year, Hargreaves falls into this category because he seems to sound like a office bloke wanting to just sit on the sofa all day long drinking a coffee, as are Gerrard & Dunne.

Must have been a late change, could have sworn that Prince Charles was co-commentator, Sue Barker must have been an emergency replacement!

That said, Subaru isnt the only one that has misprinted information on this forum so just lay off him. Some of the comments are a bit over the top.

I'm still not keen on Fletcher. For me he still talks too much, even if he has reeled it in a little over the last four years.

And something else that irritates is the number of stats he reels off, especially towards the start of the game. It's like watching SSN.

Sportscene Results, BBC1 Scotland, 17/12/16

Presented by David Currie with Stuart Cosgrove, Gemma Faye and Craig Paterson.

In order of first report.

Scottish Premiership
Celtic v Dundee - Jonathan Sutherland
Hearts v Partick Thistle - Chris McLaughlin
Ross County v Aberdeen - Martin Dowden
St Johnstone v Motherwell - John Barnes
Kilmarnock v Inverness CT - Brian McLaughlin

Scottish Championship
Raith Rovers v Dundee Utd - Scott Davie
Morton v Hibernian (5.15pm; team news) - Chick Young
St Mirren v Ayr Utd (FT) - Charlie Mann

English Premier League
Crystal Palace v Chelsea (FT) - Steve Wilson
Sunderland v Watford (FT) - Will Perry
West Ham v Hull City (FT) - Jacqui Oatley
Middlesbrough v Swansea City (FT) - Vicki Sparks
Stoke City v Leicester City (FT) - Damian Johnson

Not sure if it has been mentioned but it was Gary Weaver and Danny Hinggibottom for Brighton against Birmingham tonight.

I have to say as well really enjoyed Weaver's commentary tonight and he called Brighton's winner right on the button, clearly called Murray's from the moment the ball reached him, very good call considering all the players in the box at the time.

Hopefully will continue to improve and get more big games as time goes on, not much in it between him and Daniel Mann, Sky have good commentators coming up the ropes

Ah the 2014 World Cup - fond memories of the Gary Bloom and Ian Wright commentary team.


Best to skip to the end folks. Long post incoming.

After all the Fletcher comments on here, it's probably a pleasant surprise to you to find that he doesn't speak at the speed an F1 car drives.
Definitely some of the other commentators BT use are stronger but I find Fletcher perfectly listenable and I've never really understood why the criticism he gets on here is so strong.

Agreed on Jake - I think BT see him as their 'main man' in terms of domestic coverage but he is probably my biggest issue with BT's coverage.
He doesn't come across as likable and tries too often to be pally with pundits rather than pressing pundits to expand on points.

Now Hargreaves on co-commentary. I totally get why people aren't fans of his commentary - his voice on there can be a bit dull and he can be repetitive (count the number of times he uses the word exceptional or terrific in a game).

However, I do think he's a nice change from some of the shoutier co-commentators BT use.
McManaman and Savage are the opposite to Hargreaves - they can go overboard on being pally with the other commentators, can be shouty and cut across Darke/Fletcher and it can make 3-man commentary teams involving them difficult to listen to. And I say that as someone who more often than not actually quite likes McManaman.

Hargreaves on commentary is duller but bar those Arsenal/Bayern games last season (where both he and Darke were terrible ) I can usually tolerate him. Plus some of the quirks about his commentary like the 'exceptionals' are a guilty pleasure.

One positive of Hargreaves doing co-commentary is that it does mean he normally pops up on PL Tonight (as the main co-commentator more often than not appears on that show).

I'm said it before but for me he's BT's best pundit in the studio. He's much more relaxed there than on commentary and is articulate, well-researched and insightful. I normally very much enjoy the studio coverage if he's there.
Rio can be equally as good too but at other times his analysis can be overly lazy.

I do think the BT commentaries have improved slightly from last season. So far this season at least we haven't had anywhere near the number of car-crash commentaries we did last year.
It's a low bar to jump over mind but a step in the right direction.

Goodness more than I intended to write. I need to get a life.

Summary: Fletcher is criticised too strongly on here,yes Jake is bad, Hargreaves's co-commentary is iffy if tolerable but he's strong in the studio.
I need to write shorter posts


That said, as I mentioned, Subaru didn't help himself in the past by posting incorrect information as fact before when it was clearly guesswork.

Still I'll happily defend Subaru in a case like this if I think it's merited.