Stubbsy peeved as Sam shows up Beeb's FA Cup showpiece

Philip Reid TV ViewThe sense of nostalgia can be all consuming, especially in football. After all, generation after generation of ball spotters (until the current one, perhaps) were groomed on the belief that cup football was what it was really all about.

It was about passion, real passion, and nobody loved it more than when the little guy delivered a knockout punch on a Goliath of the game.

Times change, though, and this was adequately demonstrated on Saturday where the sense that the English FA Cup has slipped down the ladder in the great scheme of things was proven beyond all doubt.

It came in the half-time discussion on BBC during the Old Firm game between Celtic and Rangers when presenter Ray Stubbs diverted us away from the affair in Glasgow to bring a news round-up of FA Cup matches with early kick-offs and told us that Bolton Wanderers manager Sam Allardyce had made nine changes for the tie with Tranmere.

"It shows us what he thinks of the FA Cup," said a non-too-impressed Stubbs.

You could understand his chagrin. After all, the FA Cup is the big soccer showpiece for the Beeb as things stand, with Sky Sports dominating the world of soccer with their exclusive coverage of the Premiership and sharing the rights to the other big one, the Champions League, with the other terrestrial channels apart from the BBC.

So, if a team like Bolton can treat the competition as a second rate one, it's hard to prove otherwise.

Indeed, it was a touch ironic that the third round of the FA Cup should coincide with the live screening - on BBC and RTÉ - of the Celtic-Rangers match league match. Now, if any game is about passion, and can get the hairs on the back of your neck to stand to attention, this is the one.

As Ray Houghton, a pundit in the RTÉ studio observed, "my biggest regret in my football career was never being able to play in an Old Firm derby . . . it's a special atmosphere. It's about passion for both sets of fans and players . . . you've got to have the right commitment, the right attitude and you've got to stand up for yourself."

The man on his right knew what he was talking about, in the "been there, done that" department. Trevor Steven, once of Rangers, concurred, "it's about blood and guts and not shirking the challenge."

On the BBC, Mark Lawrenson never told us if, like his old Irish international colleague Houghton, it was one of his biggest regrets never to have played in an Old Firm match, but he could still tell us that these games were more than a bit special.

"There's always something happening, you can't take your eyes off them for a second," he said.

And, in the subsequent half-time discussion, when he wasn't mulling over Bolton's disrespect for the FA Cup, Stubbs took great pleasure in showing us some of the tackles ("there's some studs showing there," he'd say) that went flying in during the first half.

Not that the two tough-as-teak former centre-halves sharing the studio seemed perturbed.

"If you try to toe-poke the ball, you're going to get hurt," said Gary Pallister matter-of-factly while giving the presenter a look that more than suggested, "do you not know that this is a man's game?".

Anyway, as the pre-match predictions had, well, predicted - "Celtic are scoring goals for fun, Rangers can't buy a goal," observed Billy McNeill to George Hamilton over on RTÉ, while Houghton claimed Celtic would have the "upper hand" for two reasons, "one they're playing at home and, two, they're playing the better football" - Celtic duly coasted home, opened up an 11-point lead over Rangers in the Scottish Premier League and had BBC commentator Steve Wilson suggesting to his co-commentator Pat Nevin that "there's almost an end of season feel about this . . . and it is only January the third."

Indeed, the fact that Celtic manager Martin O'Neill had been awarded an OBE in the British New Year's honours list proved too tempting for studio host Stubbs in wrapping up the early-day soccer broadcast, who suggested that OBE could stand for "Over Before Easter." Boom! Boom!

Maybe there was something in the water in Beebland - or maybe it was all the giddy excitement that came from again covering live matches - but Gary Lineker couldn't resist a punchline in concluding the live presenation of the FA Cup match between Newcastle and Southampton later in the evening where Kieron Dyer scored two of Newcastle's three goals in their 3-0 victory.

It was, he told us, "dire for Southampton, and Dyer for Newcastle."

Ouch!