Ron Manager - Saturday afternoon is football

[twctopcat]

Where have all the good commentators gone?! I remember being allowed to stay up late to watch MOTD live on a Saturday night, but drifting off to the sounds of Davies, Sinstadt and co....

[LyricalWax]

oh my god, I agree with this so much that it's not really a comedy sketch to me :)

[ShizuokaDolphin]

Brings a shiver to the spine. Saturday afternoon is football. :)

[fkos86]

Tony Gubba - Legend.

[mediumal57]

In jest, Ron Manager is basically summing up my boyhood...

Saturday Afternoon - was football.

Pity it's been bloody destroyed, by people who, in an attempt to rescue it from the dark forces of hooliganism, have merely placed it into the hands of even darker forces of commercial and personal greed.

[hammyzone]

This sketch evokes everything I love about the game of football.

[kelmeister01]

Don't get me started on the Torys/ConDems!!

[RowleyMile]

@justfillingtime the first commentary is for Gazza's FA Cup semi-final free-kick for Spurs against Arsenal

[marginallymental]

Every once in awhile, Paul Whitehouse uses one of his characters to do a straight piece. And when he does, it's usually poetic, elegiac, and dwells on some enchanted England of the almost-past. I think he uses these moments as clearing-houses for his sadness, or at least, his imitation of a nostalgiac oldie! I love his work so much---he fills me with all sorts of funny feelings in my tummy...sort of like Ted does to Ralph! ;-)

[daverigby23]

Jackets for goalposts, isn't it? hhhmmmm?

[TheWattsie1]

Awesome

[justfillingtime]

At 00:01 I recognised the Barry Davies commentary for my team Derby against Real Madrid! Got to love a bit of Barry. Who else has listened to those early season results on the World Service?

[stephengnelson]

pretty much sums up everything I love about Britain.

[hermanJnr112]

Really like this Ron Manager moment - I'm not even a great fan of football, but somehow his summary of it all is just absolutely spot on ^^

Like the final Rowley Birkin sketch, this manages to be funny but also slightly sad and quite "different" in tone.

Unlike his usual ramblings it really does bring a sense of nostalgia!

[WolvesFanNo1]

Wish they'd play this right before match of the day, just the perfect advert for football ........ and im not just saying that cos Ron said Wolverhampton Wanderers :P

[pprc5]

Charlton Athletic...reasuring name!

[PeterPumpkinhead1]

Poetry in motion. Sublime!

[DEMONDAY]

"Jumpers for goalposts"

[rubbishycrap]

Cheesey peas at half time!

[discjockerey]

giggsy-wiggsy! xD

[j4wn]

lol!da da da da da da da da da.

[Kevo216666]

Poetry. Beautiful.

[emellemc]

kevo i don't kno who you support west ham, arsenal the arsenal, preston north end or toni guba you.... well nothing else to say.

[kelmeister01]

Special mention made to the supporting role played by Victoria Park - a real football ground, home to the mighty Hartlepool United!!

[lolsu]

Victoria Park added in the description. Seems like the Rink End according to wikipedia.

[kelmeister01]

It is indeed the Rink End. Many early Fast Show sketches were filmed on location in the Teeside Area - Paul Whitehouse's "ain't milk brilliant" was often shot walking along the beach near Teesmouth, not far from the Nuclear Power Station!

[twinjl]

@lolsu it is indeed the rink end, the end for away support

[krakenwave]

@kelmeister01

I remember Hartlepools as the coldest, most bleakest place I ever saw a match at. That would have been around 1983.

Of course I enjoyed every minute of it.

[kelmeister01]

@krakenwave It's permanantely freezing at the Vic and not the prettiest of grounds - but for all its bleakness and (usually) low crowds it often generates an atmosphere way out of proportion to its size or status - unlike Gruesome Park / Riverside, former and current homes of our neighbours Middlesbrough, TKmaxx has more soul than those places.

[krakenwave]

@kelmeister01

I couldn't think of going to one of those soulless car-park centres. Not just the travel costs and entry money demanded now (and the shitty way that visiting fans get treated by the old bill and officials and them - the "We've got your money now fuck off" attitude) - but the whole top division thing has been ruined. That part of football lost me long ago. I haven't been to the NE for a match since Roker Park went. Now if I bother I go to Barnet - or Exeter when I visit me mum.

[kelmeister01]

@krakenwave The biggest tragedy is our great rivals Darlington. Unlike The Vic, their former ground, Feethams, was one of the leagues prettiest and within staggering distance of the town centre. Having been taken for a ride by a charlatan with a comb-over from hell, they are now dumped in a souless monstrousity at least four times too big, stuck on the ring road miles from the town centre, where they rot in the Conference. Feethams stands sad, empty and derelict - like some Dickensian ghost

[krakenwave]

@kelmeister01

That's a shame. Yeah, they're your rivals and all but you do not want to see that happening to any club. And I may be going against current trends and opinions but I hate to see places like that rot (or turned into Tescos or yuppie-nests) when with a bit of flexibility from the FA and some imaginative, far-sighted investment planning, they could be upgraded. But no, they get flogged off as good sites for peanuts but to companies that always go tits up the next year.

[krakenwave]

@kelmeister01

Now THAT is a pisser. Seems like there's always some local wideboy who thinks a football club is no different "business" from whatever dodge he got rich off of; they turn up with fanfare, promises, a wave of goodwill and hope, and then n years later run and dump the lot, leaving the club in a nightmare of debt, contract hell & local misery.

BTW - The NHS 'reforms' are in essence EXACTLY this. Like Vardy bought hisself a school so now the same will get stuck into our hospitals.

[BadEggCymru]

@kelmeister01 Darlington fans all look like the actor Donald Pleasance,even the women

[Mokhnaar]

Everything is alright in the world isn't it ?

[Trail717]

At least it is on a saturday afternoon :)

[cmrules]

Legendary names.. Tony Gubba lmao!!!

[braptasticmerkage]

Beautiful sentiments from Ron.

Best sketch in all of the Fast Show in my opinion.

[whonut]

Cheesy peas at have time. LOL

[emellemc]

this is so much better than that bird who turned up on dr who ...whats her name kathrin tatt... errr. the fast show... thursday night....wasn't it?

[whonut]

marvellous

[josatinho]

RON MANAGER IS GREAT..

[Gibbo118]

Legendary names...Tony Gubba :D

[lordoftimeguy1]

They left a bit out where at the end he just stares off in to the distance looking sad.

[Ilikebeer6000]

'listening to the game in some far flung corner of the world'.....

'We apologise but due to licensing restrictions, broadcasts outside of the UK are prohibited'.

The fuckers

[Ethrion006]

Yeah! Money grabbing bastards.

[8G00SE8]

Still have the world service.

Get it places like afghan and iraq.

[Guedingen]

Well said