The Big Match on Mars

Life on Mars was one of my favourite TV shows, and the episode in which Gene Hunt, Sam Tyler, and Annie Cartwright go undercover running a pub to find the killer of a Manchester United supporter just days before the big derby match against City is one of the best.

John Simms (left) and Philip Glenister as Sam Tyler and Gene Hunt in Life On Mars

The killer is caught at a pre-arranged skirmish between United and City fans, typical of the 1970s, when many top-flight football matches were marred by violence and hooliganism, inside grounds, on trains, and on High Streets, up and down the country.

The reality of the 1970s football experience, realistically evoked by Life on Mars, is equally present in another TV series, one which can be seen on the ITV Hub, namely The Big Match Revisited, re-runs of The Big Match, ITV’s football highlights show, which aired from 1968 to 1992.

To watch an episode of The Big Match Revisited is to step back to another era, one which today’s football fan would recognise, and would no doubt find sometimes quaint, sometimes edgy, sometimes amusing. Although presented by Elton Welsby from 1983 to 1992, it is Brian Moore who is most associated with the show, as presenter and, for London matches at least, commentator. The regional structure of ITV companies meant that to watch a game from Stamford Bridge or Highbury was to hear Moore’s dulcet tones; from Ipswich Town or Norwich City it was Gerry Harrison you would hear; Hugh Johns covered the Midlands, while Granada TV’s coverage of North West clubs such as Liverpool or Manchester United featured Gerald Sinstadt behind the mic.

The relationship between the commentators and the clubs was such that it always seemed to me that there was a degree of partisanship in their coverage, and in an era when the atmosphere in many football grounds was hostile towards the away supporter, this even seemed to be apparent in commentaries.

I remember some of the games shown on The Big Match Revisited from the original broadcasts, and watching them again now, it does not feel like half a century has passed, but they do show how much football, on and off the pitch, has changed in that time.

In The Big Match featuring Spurs v Newcastle United from December 1974, the first noticeable thing is the crowd. Small knots of young boys in scarves, middle-aged men wearing ties, and an attendance of just over 23,000 in a ground capable of holding nearly twice that. And on any given Saturday it was possible to turn up at virtually any First Division ground, pay cash at the turnstile and find a good spot on the terraces, because of course all-seater stadiums only became compulsory in the 1990s, and all-ticket games were rare.

On crowded terraces there was much pushing and shoving, jockeying for best position. It was not uncommon to move several yards in one direction or another during a game, standing occasionally on tiptoes to catch a glimpse of the action, and frequently stumbling forward into the back of someone. A goal would often result in a headlong, and involuntary, rush down the terrace, after which everyone would creep back to somewhere approximate to where they had started from; it ebbed and flowed like a badly organised tide.

The pitch at White Hart Lane for the game in question actually looked not bad, and while it might have become a little tedious to constantly compare pitches from the 1970s with today's, a later episode of The Big Match, from January 1975, showed West Ham United playing Queens Park Rangers on an Upton Park pitch that resembled the proverbial ploughed field.

In 1974’s goalmouths stood goalkeepers who wore gloves only on the wettest of days, and in the Spurs v Newcastle game, Tony Bell made his one and only appearance for The Magpies, calamitously throwing the ball into his own net for Tottenham’s opening goal, undoing all the good work he had done in saving Cyril Knowles’s initial shot.

Newcastle United goalkeeper Tony Bell fumbles Cyril Knowles's shot over the line

Shirts were unadorned by sponsors’ logos or players’ names, and commentators such as Brian Moore still said, for the benefit of TV viewers watching in black and white, that one team or another was wearing the darker shorts.

The quality of recording equipment and of the floodlights at many grounds made for interesting viewing once the sun had set. One edition of The Big Match features Newcastle United v Manchester City, and the second half from St James’s Park looks as though the ground is illuminated by candles, so poor is the picture.

As far as commentators go, I have always held Barry Davies in the highest esteem; Brian Moore I tolerated rather than enjoyed. In his first few outings behind the mic he had a tendency to confuse volume with clarity, but he gradually calmed down, although I found him often prone to error; some decisions by referees seemed to mystify him, and he would sometimes confidently announce that a corner had been given when it was clear to all that it was a goal kick. What The Big Match - noticeably, and refreshingly - lacks, is expert analysis dissecting every incident, and particularly refereeing decisions, at interminable length. 

1970's commentators would announce, very formally, that the match referee was, say Mr Albert Smith from Stowmarket, and thereafter he would remain, Mr Smith, or just ‘the referee.’ Now, referees are almost as much personalities as the players, but in the 1970s they were less celebrated, although the match programme might tell you that Mr Smith was a married man with two children, and a sales rep by profession.

The pace of the game, the tackles that today would inevitably result in a card of one colour or another but then were considered quite ordinary, goalkeepers picking up back-passes, and wildly different interpretations of the Laws of The Game compared with today – especially the offside law – are all indicators of how much football has changed in fifty years, sometimes for the better, sometimes not.

The threat of hooliganism and violence provided an almost constant undercurrent to 1970s football. During the Sheffield Wednesday v Manchester United game shown on The Big Match in 1974, with Wednesday going 3-1 up, Yorkshire Television commentator Keith Macklin mentions that “some of the Manchester United fans are thinking of taking action” to try to get the game abandoned; some invade the pitch, but fail to halt proceedings other than temporarily. Mounted police intervene, and the game ends with policeman lined up in front of the terraces to prevent more spectators encroaching onto the pitch. The game ends 4-4.

Manchester United fans on the pitch at Hillsborough in a vain attempt to get the game abandoned.

Even following non-League Romford FC as I did during the 1970s, there was the occasional unsavoury incident, and the ramshackle and sometimes dangerous grounds I watched football on then would not be allowed today. As a neutral, my occasional visits to Football League grounds were fortunately generally incident free, although it was often possible to detect a certain undertone of menace, between railway station and ground if nowhere else, although the febrile atmosphere inside some grounds could often intimidate. In that respect, a visit to The Den to see Millwall play Bristol Rovers is permanently etched in my mind.

The Den at Millwall

Was football better in the 1970s compared with today? Maybe, maybe not, but it was certainly different. Take in an episode of The Big Match Revisited and see what I mean.