Byline: Alan McKinlay
IF imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery, then Sky's Soccer Saturday show should really be blushing.
But it's ITV who should be red-faced - with embarrassment - after making The Goal Rush, their Saturday afternoon results round-up, the most blatant rip-off on television.
For years, Grandstand's chattering teleprinter was the only high-tech link between live football scores and the viewing public desperate to know how their team had got on.
The alternative was World of Sport on ITV, where the scores were updated on magnetic boards by highly-skilled technicians.
Unfortunately, the rather haphazard nature of that show was occasionally reflected in the fact that you could sometimes see the stubby, nicotine-stained fingers of those 'technicians' dropping ash from their fags as they changed the magnetic numbers on the scoreboards.
After the demise of Word of Sport, ITV let Saturday become a sport-free zone for a while until the advent of their Results programme.
The underrated Elton Welsby calmly juggled reports and breaking news on a show that prided itself in having all the scores up on screen and read before Grandstand.
But the biggest change came with Soccer Saturday.
The Sky show, piloted by the unflappable Jeff Stelling, somehow made a great programme out of five blokes sitting around watching TV. A sort of football version of the Royle Family.
While they chat, joke and tell you what is going on in their games, latest scores (for teleprinter, read videprinter) and facts move across your screen.
The banter between the guests, and Stelling's ringmaster control of the proceedings is what, together with the results themselves of course, makes it all work.
ITV got a touch of the Victor Kiams. They liked it so much, they bought the idea. Or rather, they bought INTO the idea, because they certainly didn't pay for it.
It's not that they do it badly. Angus Scott is a likeable presenter, who has the required unflustered air about him.
Clive Allen, reflecting his playing career, has changed clubs and opted for ITV over Sky, and Robbie Earle is one of that channel's better analysts.
Where ITV don't match Sky - apart from in originality of thought - is in the chat or argument between the guests, of which there is virtually none.
On Sky, Stelling sometimes has to ring the bell for the end of the round, or get his breath back from laughing.
ITV could surely have done at least something to make their show different.
Even the positioning of presenter and guests is the same.
CAPTION(S):
SWITCH: Allen with Stelling's team before changing sides
