What a result for Scotland. We go one up against mighty Spain thanks to an own goal, and then have a couple of great chances saved by the Spanish keeper/skudded into his legs by the onrushing Scots forward. I’m thinking I’ll have to eat lots of humble pie (more!) after my gloom earlier today. And then Spain come back with a penalty, and start turning the screw. Pressure, pressure.
And then all the lights go out around the stadium.
An act of God? An act of the tartan army? The act of a rogue Englishman, keen to ensure the resultant draw keeps Bertie Vogts in a job? We can but speculate, and I’m sure the studio team, desperately filling for time on Five, will get onto the topic shortly.
As Nick Miners notes in the comments below, John Barnes is a presenter so wooden “he should have green hair”. The s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d post-mach chat is truly crigeworthy telly. We come back from an adbreak, and Barnes looks terrified: “the lights have gone out, so we can’t bring you any
The scenes in the studio are almost as chaotic as on the pitch in Spain. Pat Nevin, one of the pundits, has forgotten to silence his mobile in the excitement, and once a text message comes in – “beeeep!” – fumbles around, taking an amazingly long time to turn the thing off, with all they keypresses and noises clearly audible over Kenny Dalglish’s mumble. Hang on – maybe he’s replying? Texting back? Listening to voicemail? Hard to tell.
Always uncomfortable with the subject of the night – Scottish fitba – now they’ve started waffling on at length about the England squad, which will have tellies all around Scotland clicking off rapid style. And now and again they cut to an interviews with management and players, and the cues to the reporter from the director are clearly audible – “are those levels OK for you?” just before they start, “thank him if you can” at the end. It’s a shambles.
A bit like ITV, only worse, Five really shouldn’t be allowed to show the beautiful game. I mean – an act of parliament, or something, anyone?
