Big Match Revisited 1PM ITV4 Friday

[Kowalski]

Action from a 1983 game between Fulham and Grimsby Town. Plus, George Best's debut for Bournemouth, and Norwich City v West Ham United

[My Name Is Ian]

Big Match Revisited 1PM ITV4 Friday

I've been downloading these every week and saving them to DVD. I've got a sneaking feeling that the Brighton vs Sheffield Wednesday FA Cup Semi Final in the next couple of weeks or so (they're showing the corresponding week from the 1982/83 season each week through until May).

[My Name Is Ian]

Big Match Revisited 1PM ITV4 Friday

Coincidentally, ITV and the BBC were both contractually obliged to show a certain number of matches from the second, third and fourth divisions each seasons, which is probably the reason for their visit to Craven Cottage that weekend. 1982/83 was the season that Fulham should have got promoted and lost their nerve in the run-in (including the match at Derby where it was abandoned early with them losing 1-0 because the crowd kept invading the pitch and one of the Fulham players was kicked by a supporter whilst running up the line with the ball - the Football League allowed the result to stand), so it was a relatively important match.

[dotmund]

Big Match Revisited 1PM ITV4 Friday

I caught this yesterday afternoon, and was delighted to note the programme ended with Jim Rosenthal giving us a Pools rundown. Dividend forecast was poor, though. Bad luck.

[Big Daves Gussett]

Big Match Revisited 1PM ITV4 Friday

This is repeated on Sunday mornings isn't it?

I caught one a few weeks ago which showed Man Utd play out a 1-1 draw with Liverpool on a Saturday afternoon (how primitive!). Martin Tyler was describing the action and, unlike commentators today, only once took a diversion into 'My Two Cents' teritory ("Kevin Moran has received twelve stitches to the cut on his shin, but it has to be said he brought the injury on himself by not wearing shinpads"). Elsewhere, Watford beat Aston Villa 2-1, during which Mark Walters scored with his knee from the edge of the penalty are - Steve Sherwood's face was as crimson as his goalkeeper jersey. There was also brief action from a Leicester City game in the second division featuring a 13 year old Gary Lineker.

The quality of football didn't seem to be too great, but maybe that was more down to the presentation than the actual matches themselves. Unlike today, when there are cameras at every match, The Big Match had to take their chances and pick a handfull of games to show extended highlights of. If MOTD faced the same restrictions these days it might dampen the general level of hubris about the quality of football in the top flight. Having said that, Mike Duxbury gave the ball away an awful lot.

[ooh aah]

Big Match Revisited 1PM ITV4 Friday

I saw one recently that showed Southampton batter Man City at the Dell (they were 4-0 up at half time). Man City had a black goalkeeper (I think his name was Alex Williams), which I thought was quite interesting, given that this was a time when black players were rarely trusted to play anywhere other than upfront or on the wing. Would he be the first black keeper to play in the top flight?

[Aldo Simoncini]

Big Match Revisited 1PM ITV4 Friday

I wasn't born until 1984, but what I love about these is the way photographs are used to describe what happened in the non-televised games.

Does anyone remember UK Gold showing repeats of Match of the Day, in a similar vein?

[Big Daves Gussett]

Big Match Revisited 1PM ITV4 Friday

Actually, Man City got a battering in the one I saw too. An absolute humping in the snow at Highfield Road. Coventry were wearing a strip that was white on the front and sky blue on the back. That was of course the season City went down after a last-day defeat by David Pleat's Luton.

AS, I don't remember UK Gold showing old MOTDs, but ITV went through a stage of showing old episodes of The Big Match in the early hours of the morning, until they realised they could make more money by enticing insomniacs to phone them to take part in quizes.

[My Name Is Ian]

Big Match Revisited 1PM ITV4 Friday

Old matches from Match Of The Day are shown on ESPN Classic, but I don't think that they show the full programme. To quickly embellish a few other points made above:

The match between Watford & Aston Villa was an extraordinary match, which could quite easily have finished 6-6. The week before, they'd shown an FA Cup Fifth Round match between them at Villa Park which was notable because (and I know that I've said this before) Watford had black masking tape across the front of their shirts because they took the wrong kits with them and sponsors names weren't allowed. In a similar vein, the Coventry City kit that BDG refers to was their second home kit - the one that they wore most weeks was based on the Talbot Cars badge and wasn't allowed to be worn in front of TV cameras.

Manchester City will have got a battering in a lot of these matches, because they were in a freefall that saw them collapse from mid-table, through sacking John Bond and replacing him with John Benson, and on to that last day of the season defeat against Luton Town, which featured Alex Williams spilling the ball to Raddy Antic for the only goal and David Pleat in that suit and those trousers.

Wimbledon supporters may be interested to know that it is likely that one of the featured matches on the last day of the season (they're showing each corresponding weeks from 1983) is likely to be a match between Bury & Wimbledon, which Wimbledon won to get promoted from Division Four (I think).

[David Agnew]

Big Match Revisited 1PM ITV4 Friday

I've only just found out that this is on, and the last few weeks are still on UKNova. Cool.

[Guest]

Big Match Revisited 1PM ITV4 Friday

Damn, I wish I'd known about this sooner.

Next week it's on Thursday at 11.30am: "Action from a 1983 game between Brighton & Hove Albion and Tottenham Hotspur. Plus, highlights of West Ham United v Watford and Ipswich Town v Aston Villa." It's repeated on Thursday at 4.20pm, and on Friday at 11am.

[My Name Is Ian]

Big Match Revisited 1PM ITV4 Friday

PD: I've got all of them so far - PM me if you want a copy.

[Guest]

Big Match Revisited 1PM ITV4 Friday

How many have there been?

[My Name Is Ian]

Big Match Revisited 1PM ITV4 Friday

Eight, including this week's, which is repeated on Sunday morning.