Tyler seemed a bit muted/surprised by that goal

Wait do you think Mann decides when he picks and choses when he commentates.

Brighton v QPR- John Roder for the world feed
Eastleigh v Boreham Wood- Matt Smith presents for BT with Chris Hargreaves and Darrell Clarke. Steve Bower and Adam Virgo commentate, Natalie Quirk reports.

Not really but he has probably told Sky he can't do so much games in a certain amount of days.

Err... No as a contracted employee of a company his employer who will allocate what games he does and then he does what he is told. Same employer will also do rota/allocations with plenty of things in mind including festive period etc.

I feel for the poor bugger now.

Maybe you go to work and tell your boss you fancy working 16 hours this week and maybe only 8 hours the next in a 2017 business model or something.

All the Christmas football incase anyone missed any, apologies for any duplicate information.

Saturday 24th December
Hamilton v Celtic (Sky Sports 1 / Sky Sports 5) - Ian Crocker and Andy Walker

Monday 26th December
Aldershot v Woking (BT Sport 1 / BT Sport 4K UHD) - Adam Summerton and Adam Virgo
Watford v Crystal Palace (Sky Sports 1 / Sky Q Ultra HD) - Alan Parry and Alan Smith
Watford v Crystal Palace (World Feed) - Peter Drury and Clive Allen
Charleroi v Anderlecht (Premier Sports) - Mark Rodden
Hull City v Man City (Sky Sports 1 / Sky Q Ultra HD) - Bill Leslie and Andy Hinchcliffe
Hull City v Man City (World Feed) - Jon Champion and Matt Holland
Newcastle v Sheff Weds (Sky Sports 1) - Daniel Mann and Don Goodman

Tuesday 27th December
Brighton v QPR (Sky Sports 1) - Gary Weaver and Andy Hinchcliffe
Brighton v QPR (World Feed - John Roder
Derby v Birmingham (Sky Sports 1) - Martin Fisher and Danny Higginbotham
Genk v Gent (Premier Sports) - Will Downing
Liverpool v Stoke City (Sky Sports 1) - Martin Tyler and Niall Quinn
Eastleigh v Boreham Wood (BT Sport 1 / BT Sport 4K UHD) - Steve Bower and Adam Virgo

Belgian Pro League:Sint-Truiden v Standard Liège (Premier Sports)

Commentator: Stephen Alkin

St Johnstone v Rangers- Tom Miller and Hugh Burns for RangersTV (although Hugh is recovering from illness so may have to be replaced by Gordon Smith)

It would surprise me even more than it did when Martin Fisher cropped up as the commentator today if someone other than Minto presented a EFL game on Sky for the remainder of the season! (excluding the studio-based matches that Kelly Cates hosts on Saturday evenings of course)

Now that George Gavin is out of the equation, I'm not sure that there are many or any obvious candidates ready to step in every now and then and mix it up from our point of view.

Whilst I don't think Minto is the best either, I don't see his position as being particularly under threat.

Any suggestions for a replacement, or at least to "share the workload"?

Natalie Sawyer probably might come back in to pick up a bit of slack if required on international breaks etc. However she has dropped off the face of the earth from the FL coverage... Along with main Transfer deadline day slot in past couple of years and she isn't on the prominent slots on SSN anymore.. either mid-morning/early afo or more often the 7-10pm slot these days...

With Gavin gone then the only really good contender to take his games is Kelly Cates. For me she is really underused

Yes he did but to be honest no surprise for me, he really isnt up to his best these days.

On another note just been catching up after returning from the mighty Albion i like many was very surprised to see Martin Fisher being used for the first time by Sky.

So surprising considering Sky have numerous commentators they could of used, even Bill Leslie could of popped up as it's not unheard of commentators doing 2 games in a row or even Ian Crocker or numerous one's they use on football first...Gary Taphouse even?

Sorry TheSubaru but there is no way on earth Daniel Mann would be able to pick his commentaries......on that note i am going to ring my bosses and say i dont fancy working tomorow

Won't have to wait long to see who gets the transfer deadline day gig this time around... hasn't that been Kate Abdo the last couple of times? She's since moved away from SSN to do boxing coverage though has she not?

Funnily enough, I liked what I saw of Abdo as a presenter on her brief stint on the Spanish football coverage... but that looks to be boxing's gain.

If Minto and his La Liga presenting past is anything to go by, David Garrido might be the next person they are training up for EFL assignments.


Haven't seen Kelly outside of a studio environment for a while what with her previous role on Channel 5 as well...

Wow! I go away for Christmas and miss a SPL match collapsing and now this.

I think what makes this a big surprise is that Sky don't usually ever really make use of freelancers, especially not on live games, and yet we now have Fisher doing a live game the day after he'd done Match of the Day. Even if it was a last minute replacement - and he does live locally - as mentioned there must have been at least one regular commentator available.

I'm pleased, anyway, cos I really like Martin Fisher, I always enjoy his commentaries which are a nice blend of energy and authority. I much prefer him to Gary Weaver, and perhaps it's a bit unfair on Weaver but I still only think of him as The Football League Commentator Who Isn't Daniel Mann, I don't think he's all that distinctive. Wouldn't like to lose Fisher from the Beeb, though.

Actually I was reminded of when the Beeb had the live Football League rights and I remember someone being convinced that Fisher was going to do a live game, even though Simon Brotherton was billed everywhere. And it was Brotherton. But he finally gets a live game on UK TV, about four and a half years later.

Incidentally I also see from the Radio Times that Guy Mowbray is doing West Ham vs Man City next Friday.

While it was a (pleasant) surprise to hear Martin Fisher on Sky Sports' Football League coverage today, it's not the first time he's been heard on their channels. Prior to his debut as a Match of the Day commentator in 2004, Martin was a regular reporter on Sky Sports News (including on shows like Soccer Saturday) for about five years from 1999. I'm not sure if he ever got to commentate for them during that period, I suppose he may have done a few highlights edits as I know he did elsewhere as a freelancer for ITV Central and TWI during this period of time.

It's worth mentioning that Fisher is from Nottingham and started his commentary career on BBC Radio Nottingham, so this does smack of Sky Sports calling upon someone who lives locally and has worked for them in the (distant) past after the withdrawal of their originally scheduled commentator.

As for the presentation of Sky Sports' coverage, is Simon Thomas no longer involved and solely concentrating on Premier League and League Cup action? It's a shame if that is the case. I would like to see Natalie Sawyer return as a secondary host, she was very good on their JPT Trophy and lower league coverage in seasons past and should still be involved in my opinion. I personally think Scott Minto is quite good in the presenters' role, but would like to see more of the games shared out between other hosts.

That is indeed the case, Simon has been promoted to the Premier League and no longer does the Football League - not least because he presents all the Saturday lunchtime games, which would rule out the two most regular slots for the Football League on Sky.

Sorry if I've missed it, but who was down for world feed? Is there a gentleman's agreement that if sky commentator can't make it, world feed man/ woman steps in if required?

Probably not, but long shot. Most likely one off stand in.

Might be proven wrong, but I bet Kelly is contracted to sky studios only on a sat, as she probably doesn't want a bigger role which requires outside broadcasts.

Thus it will be Minto most other games. Maybe Pete graves might step in?

Maybe Martin Fisher was due to be the World Feed comm like you say. Maybe that'd mean the World Feed would have had to take Sky's commentary.

David Jones confirmed Carragher for Super Sunday at the end of today's broadcast.

Sorry to go off topic but does anybody know if any station is showing the African Nations in January?

I would think Jim White would been a good choice for out of the blue FL72 coverage. But seeing as Jim is currently doing 2 jobs a day, TalkSPORT and SSN he cant.

How many hours was SSN live on Christmas Day, As i turned it on about 4pm, and Jim was on there then Live, as they had a live link to Bournemouth.

Then come about 10.30 he was still there

Not sure if anyone's heard but Martin Fisher did a match on Sky yesterday.


Tyler's commentary wasn't bad at all - just thought he sounded a bit surprised by that goal call. It's almost as if he hadn't heard Liverpool keepers were a bit weak - should've asked one of his colleagues about them.

Fisher being used was a bit of a surprise.
Not sure there's a huge need to debate/justify why Fisher was used rather than Leslie/Weaver/Mann etc. but what I would add was that he was doing the Leicester game on MOTD so it may well have been easier for him to reach Derby from there than for a few of Sky's normal commentators. That said he could be on it for whatever reason.

Related to the above, one thing that MOTD doesn't always get credit for is the depth of commentators it has. Obviously there's the main 4 but below that there's the likes of Bower, Alistair Mann, Roder, Fisher, Scott, Motty and also some of the 5Live commentators. We may not always be fans of all of them but they are all highly capable commentators.

On Football League coverage, think Minto does the job but agree he's not particularly spectacular. However, can't see him moving off the Championship coverage for a while.
Kelly Cates is fantastic but can't see her doing more on Sky than that Saturday evening slot given her rising profile on 5Live.

Think there may still be a presenter to cover those International break matches that George Gavin used to do but that'd probably be it. As to who that'd be - take a guess. Natalie Sawyer, Hayley McQueen or David Garrido seem the obvious candidates.