Simon Thomas with Jamie Redknapp and Thierry Henry in the Sky Studios.

Reminds me of when we first got Sky 10 years or so ago when Richard Keys would present the Boxing Day games from the studio.

Of course for the past 3 seasons they've only had one festive game so they were as well being at the ground (with Dwight Yorke).

Aldershot v Woking, BT Sport 1

Matt Smith presenting with Mick Payne and Adam Virgo

Commentators: Adam Summerton and Adam Virgo

Comms: Alan Parry & Alan Smith

Come on! If everyone else was having a day off... Surely that would include the sponsor... Just imagine it... "Dwight Yorke's Football Special!"

A better game than I thought, partly helped by Mr Gomes Good stuff from the two Alan's. They work very well together. I'd guess Leslie at Hull, Hawthorne at Anfield and Tyler at Southampton.

TV Times:
14:30-17:30 - BBC Red Button, BBC Sport Website & BBC Sport App
16:30-17:20 - BBC Two in England
16:30-17:00 - BBC Two in Northern Ireland
16:45-17:20 - BBC Two in Wales

Presenter - Jason Mohammad from the BBC Sport Studios
Pundits - Kevin Kilbane and Trevor Sinclair
EFL Watch - Mark Clemmit from the BBC Sport Centre

Premier League
Watford v Crystal Palace (12:30) - Mark Scott (FT Report)
Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion - Tony Husband
Burnley v Middlesbrough - Damian Johnson
Chelsea v Bournemouth - Jonathan Legard
Leicester v Everton - Ivan Gaskell
Manchester United v Sunderland - Peter Slater
Swansea v West Ham - Chris Wise
Hull City v Manchester City (17:15) - Juliette Ferrington (Team-News)

Sky Bet EFL Championship
Aston Villa v Burton Albion - Lynsey Hooper
Barnsley v Blackburn - Richard Askam
Huddersfield v Nottingham Forest - Derm Tanner
Ipswich v Fulham - Jack Nicholls
Preston v Leeds - Seth Bennett
Reading v Norwich - Robyn Cowen
Rotherham v Wigan - Naz Premji
Wolves v Bristol City - Marc Webber

Sky Bet EFL League One
Bradford v Scunthorpe - Andy Giddings

Sky Bet EFL League Two
Plymouth v Wycombe - Hamish Marshall

Unsure of presentation, as only just joined this match seconds before kick-off.
Commentators - Bill Leslie and Andy Hinchcliffe

Simon Thomas is still with Thierry & Jamie

Sorry to have to say it but are these 2 suffering from Christmas day hang over? they really do both seem as uninterested as ever, mind you i suppose no surprise really from Henry just so dull.

They were fine on the lunchtime game and this game is dreadful, I thought their HT analysis was fairly honest

Pinky & Perky at SJP, otherwise known as Minto & Beagrie

Mann & Goodman on comms

And just to check this one off, it was Patrick Davison doing the reporting. (not Patrick Davidson like Simon Thomas referred to him as)


Reporter = Jonathan Oakes

Well, indeed, people on Twitter will indeed slag off everything and, as you say, the general coverage of football on all channels is of the highest quality. Even on something like the Conference on BT, where the audience would surely struggle sometimes to get into four figures, there is a wit and a professionalism about it that you wouldn't see in other genres.


Yes, I say this while barely watching it but it does feel like for Sky they're only bothered about the Old Firm and the coverage is just used as something to fill gaps, with minimal effort put into doing anything different. I would suggest the same is true of BT's Conference coverage compared to Sky's coverage of the lower leagues, the BT coverage seems far more engaging and innovative than Sky's coverage which is pretty bog standard.

Anybody else got no sound watching MOTD on HD?

Sound works on other channels and in SD for me - so still able to watch and hear there.
Though that said maybe for the analysis HD might come in useful

Same here.

Aye no sound on freeview hd or on sky hd

Switch to the "Narrative" audio feed.

Normal audio can be found there.

Sound is available in SD - or by doing audio description as sat-ire said (thanks mate - wouldn't have guessed otherwise).

No mention on air yet - though of course HD viewers wouldn't hear it yet in any case.
Hope Gazza doesn't have to boycott BBC next

Twitter as expected having plenty of fun.

Hard to believe it's been nearly 12 years, been following and posting (albeit not so much now) the thread since part one, with the where's Martin Tyler gone and why was Ian Darke suddenly back on the scene getting the big games!

I hope it was a very Merry Christmas!

Sky channel 952 BBC Wales HD has got sound.

As do Scotland and NI.

You're welcome, although they've knocked out the Narrative feed now too (trying to fix it)!?

All other nations have sound in HD - NI, Wales, Scotland....

Would've thought they'd have put a notice up on the HD channel in England.

Indeed - HD in my region seems to have lost sound even with 'Audio Description' on (as sat-ire mentioned - thanks again).
The picture also seemed to pixalate a little bit towards the end of the MU highlights - at least on my TV

Now over to BBC Wales HD.

I imagine the programme director will probably need a few sherries after the show

Correct details input, as AH did the Hull v Manchester City game for Sky Sports.

Boxing Day - Channel 5

Football on 5

George Riley and Lynsey Hipgrave presented alongside Alan Curbishley and Adam Virgo

Reading v Norwich City - Paul Walker
Newcastle United v Sheffield Wednesday - Daniel Mann and Don Goodman (as Sky Sports)

Championship round-ups - Dan Mason, Dan O'Hagan, Sue Thearle and Nick Halling
League One and Two round-ups - Jack Woodward, Dan Mason, Sue Thearle, Nick Halling, Will Cope and Dan O'Hagan

I was impressed that we did get a proper commentary edit of the televised 7.45pm kick-off from Newcastle, which was naturally left until the fourth and final segment of The Championship portion of the programme. They didn't show (weren't able to turn around in time?) any post-match interviews from St James' Park, although they did precede the edit with a full team line-ups graphic (they never usually do this, instead choosing to scroll the teams across the bottom of the screen at the start of each featured edit) and had plenty of punditry afterwards. However, this didn't mean we avoided hearing one of the pundits talking over the action from one of the games - Adam Virgo did so on Huddersfield Town v Nottingham Forest as they made the most of nine earlier kick-offs they had.