From the Commentary Box

You have have heard a familier voice on NPLTV of late, this has been none other than the Heed Army's very own Alan Percival.

Alan has written about his first commentating experiences since joining Unibond coverage on NPLTV, hope you enjoy reading.

Alan's words:

Those who frequent the forum will know by now that I’m commentating on NPLTV (if you don’t you must be wise and ignore most of my postings). I’ve been lucky enough so far that I have covered three Gateshead matches in four months.

It is quite a privilege to watch the team you support and talk about them (without being bias) for others. Although it means I sometimes have to miss matches I would normally attend just as a supporter (which hasn’t been too bad either, just the away trips to Ilkeston and Guiseley as, being in South Yorkshire, I miss most home matches anyway) I do get to see our rivals in action and see how they are progressing on the field of play.

The first game I covered at North Ferriby against Fleetwood was fairly nerve wracking. For a start I didn’t know if it was for real after having spoken to one person, my main travelling partner and excellent cameraman Michael, on the phone.

Luckily the day went well, apart from commentating in the disabled area on my knees, and I received some pretty good feedback from each set of supporters who watched the highlights.

I have tried to improve on each game and watching the Frickley Thriller (well the second half at least when we scored four to win the game) and then some of the Witton game from last Saturday it was quite obvious where the improvements were.

Commentating on the first Gateshead match (the ULCC 4th round game against Sheffield) was scary stuff, until the game started. Going up to the Int. and sitting by your own fans was fairly daunting, but as soon as it started it was just like normal, except I had to stay neutral and say how good the Sheffield goals were without being disappointed.

This game was nothing compared to that Frickley game though. It was the second time I had been to do commentary on a Frickley match and the first one had seen drama with the home sides keeper sent off and punch-ups galore (a warm-up if you like for our match).

Staying neutral for that match was almost impossible saying things like: “Frickley are winning 3-0 and have all but won this match” and “what an incredible turn around by Ian Bogie’s side. They now lead 4-3” whilst slumped in my seat and then trying not to jump all around the main stand in joy.

The game caused controversy as we all know and after the game I was in the board room with the video watching the sending off for the elbow on Thommo with the Frickley chairman and the player himself saying it was his arm (they didn’t appeal surprisingly). Not a situation I wanted to be in because I knew and we all know it was a blatant foul.

Speaking of Thommo he has caused me no end of trouble because I have to remind myself not say the nickname and stick to Thompson. Most of the time I get it right but you just know the name on the highlights will be the one time I say Thommo is the mad rush to get brain messages to mouth. Still he only had five minutes at Witton so hardly had to say his name.

The next game will be just as hard to stay neutral as I have put my name down to commentate on the Skelmersdale Semi-Final match. I have seen Skelmersdale this season in the Quarter-Final win over Marine. Both sides were either not bothered or performed badly. If it is the latter we have nothing to fear.

A big thank you to Alan for sharing that with the Heed Army Blog.