I'm sure that during the late 70's, before the Big Match theme music kicked in, they showed the first goal from this clip of the 76/77 Cup Final.

That bit of Brian Moore commentary ... "through by Greenhoff, Jones is after it, Pearson shot ... GOAL !" I must have heard that a hundred times. In fact, having just found it on YouTube, I could almost remember it word-for-word.

It must have been used for a couple of seasons at least.

I see the old advertising placards for Vera Lynns, dont see that anymore

I hope this works, with luck it should be the even better older Big Match theme

Hey, whaddya know... me and modern technology... I reckon I'm almost ready to get myself a Trimphone like they used on the Golden Shot.

That just took me back. For a moment then I felt back in 1982! The Big Match, Saint & Greavsie, Match Weekly magazine...

I had forgotten how awful the pitches used to get by March. They showed Wolves-Shrewsbury in the 6th round of the cup. The pitch looked like a ploughed field.

They were awful compared to today's bowling green surfaces,many games would be called off today for the players safety!

And they used to play with frost covered pitches too. Anybody remember the home game v Norwich in New Year '80 or '81, when the game was played with blue lines and and an orange ball?

Was at the Norwich game which was New Years day 1980. Very frosty day. Was in the Whitehorse top tier next to the Norwich fans that day, game ended 0-0. Justin Fashanu was on fire at the time but remember him being like bambi on ice that day. Also went to Norwich away that Easter where we were beat 2-1 after Gerry Francis scored a screamer of a volley from outside the area for us to go 1 up. Remember seeing him lash the ball but because of the cage we were in behind the goal (we had about 1/3 of the end I think) could not see the ball hit the net!!!!

Was also in the Whitehorse that day. If my memory serves it was an awful game, the only excitement being when Ian Walsh rounded their keeper right in front of us......and then shot wide of the empty net.

I was there too. 0-0 no bloody wonder on that pitch!

Only saw the last 15 minutes this week (78-79 season) but a lady fan of Alan Whittle had written in and they showed his goal against Man Ure in the 5-0 win and his goal in the famous FA Cup game against Sunderland.

The great Brian Moore made me laugh when reading out the viewers letters (remember them) by stating their full address including the post code.

The closing highlights showed the goals in West Ham's 5-0 win over Newcastle which had been on earlier. Seems unbelievable that West Ham didn't get promotion given their team. I noticed Brooking, Devonshire, 'Pop' Robson, Lampard, Brush. Seems equally unbelievable that as we were going up that year Chelsea were heading the other way.

Remember the previous season when it was so cold for a midweek FA Cup match against Bristol City that they shut the Homesdale because it was too icy. It was considered unsafe for supporters to stand around watching but the poor players were expected to take their chances, diving and sliding about on the rock-hard, frozen pitch.

It was a great night though. I never saw the Whitehorse Lane terrace so packed. Over 21,000 people crammed into the other 3 sides of the ground and a 3-0 win against a City side who were in the 1st Division when we were still in the 2nd.

It must have been like playing on concrete. No way would it be allowed to happen today. Mind you, I remember playing school football and rugby matches on virtual permafrost; it would f-ing hurt if you fell over. Too much rain and it would be cancelled it so it was pretty clear that they were more worried about damage to the pitch than to any of the players. I suspect they're probably a bit more careful in these Health & Safety conscious times.

My mate had is steel toecap Doc Martens taken off him by the police before the game and had to watch the whole game in his socks :eek:

Call me mad but...

I am CONVINCED that the grass in this intro is SELHURST PARK? :eek:

I used to get to the ground ridiculously early when I was a kid and remember, around this time TV cameras filming pre match. There was a big old pole swooping down and gliding across the turf. I think it was for this Big Match intro.

Guess there's no way of confirming this. Unless some lunatic remembers this as well?

Were Massive Attack there?

That symbolises the end of an era for me. Not only was it plain wrong to have The Big Match on a saturday night, but it meant Palace were shit every week and lost just about every time we were featured on it, with Jim hook nose Rosenthal **** sneering at our demise each week.

This reminds me of "school in the morning"



The theme tune is pants, not far off It's a Knockout theme I reckon.

Spot the 'Bring a Pal to The Palace' sign. :D

How many Palace must've been there?

Exactly. But this is a theme music that reminds me of spending the evening desperately trying to avoid hearing the final scores on the radio or TV. Of watching the match in your pyjamas because your parents only allowed you to stay up to watch under the strict condition that it was "straight to bed afterwards".

loved Sportsnight, Harry Carpenter was great, forgot that Wimbledon played their FA Cup replay at S/P who many were there? It looked placked out

There were just over 45,000 there that night, myself being one of them. Remember that Wimbledon were very unlucky to lose. Loads of Palace.

:lux:

Another thing that would've been lost to memory forever, and having seen this post and heard the commentary, again, it's like I only heard it last week. Definitely used before The Big Match theme, in the same way as Match of the Day used commentary for a McDermott goal, but not as memorable:

If you listen to the commentary on the first one of Chocky's clips, Barry Davies sounds like he was taking the piss.

"All the support it seems, for the under-dogs from the Southern League ... Certainly support from Leeds; one or two of them have made the journey down from Scarborough."

That's the modern equivalent of saying "loads of Chelsea fans from Surrey here today".

Very unlucky. Half of London there it seemed - almost too many. I was relieved when the Burnley game in 79 took the ground record over 51,000 - for a Palace game.

Was Barry Davies a Leeds fan, or at least have some sort of soft spot for them? Because I remember donkey's years ago he was commentating on some important game at Elland Road, Leeds scored a winner late on and he just screamed "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!!" Slightly over the top for a 'neutral' commentator!

I thought that was odd, but enjoyable!

I'm going to write a letter to Richard Keys and Andy Gray on Ford Super Sunday and tell them my Dad's team as a teenager was St. Mirren, and ask them whatever happened to Hamish McTavish Och Aye in the Nood, the famous Saints striker of that era, maybe they will read out my full address and show a couple of clips of him.

I think he was commentator for that Leeds v Southampton fixture at the height of Leeds' powers when they were stroking the ball around arrogantly, with Davies' arrogant schoolmaster tones matching perfectly.

Didn't they, for quite a while, always feature the Charlie George goal in the 1971 Cup Final? Or was that at the end of the Big Match theme, rather than at the beginning.

I recall the commentary went something along the lines "And it's come to Charlie George, who can hit 'em..."

Who remembers the 'phone line commentary'? In the 70s, most commentary for away European matches came to us via phone lines, David Coleman etc would sound like they were talking down some crappy phone. Well actually there were.

From what i know of, the line-ups of the next few weeks are-

9th April- orient v brighton 3-3
16th April - spurs v Q.P.R 1-1
23rd April- charlton v west ham 0-0
30th April- crystal palace v notts co 2-0
7th may - orient v crystal palace 0-1

Thanks for the dates JOHN1509. At the end of this disappointing season, it's good to re-live that run-in.

That Orient game was my dad's one and only-ever away trip! What an unbelievable atmosphere. I seem to remember a goal - in our favour - went in at one of the other relevant games and news (as usual) spread like wildfire round the ground. That seemed to spur the lads on and we got the vital goal a couple of minutes later. But I could be wrong...

If you watch the end of the Orient game you see Budgie ask a fan who ran on the pitch "are we up?", the fan seemed to have told him "yes" because he skipped off happy.

Fairly sure it was Wrexham who had scored against Sunderland to get the Palace fans rocking. :p

I've loved you more than words could express ever since the day you sent me that DVD.

There were 3 other teams in serious contention for promotion with us (Brighton, Stoke & Sunderland) and that afternoon was the last match of the season for all of them. If any of them had lost or Sunderland had even drawn, then a win at Orient would have seen us promoted. All 3 of them were playing away and of course all 3 of them won.

The only other long-shot was that West Ham still had 2 games in-hand. As things stood that morning, if they'd won their last 3, then we'd have needed 3 points from our last 2 games to stay above them. Fortunately, West Ham lost away to already relegated Blackburn, ruling them out of contention. That would possibly have been the good news that the crowd heard although Sunderland only won 2-1 at Wrexham so there could well have been an equalizer that would have been enough to send us up.

Bloody bad luck that we didn't settle it that afternoon when you think about it but then we wouldn't have had that Friday night so we can hardly complain.

Just watching the Orient vs Brighton game, Whittle, Roffey, Henry Hughton & John Jackson are playing for the O's, had a decent team back then..

I watched this,ralph coates's combe over in his interview at the end was the highlight for me:D

plus mark lawrenson getting clattered made it worth watching as well.

And Gerry Ryan was playing for the scummers.

Orient had someone called Nigel Gray playing for them. Stupid bloody name that is, must've been a jocko or something.

I love the state of the pitches,those were the days:D

That was Stanley Mann. He thought we were up.

The Big Match revisited
 

has anyone been watching these on ITV4 there runnnig the 1978-79 season just coming up to the end of the season. (thursday morning ITV4 repeated friday & sunday mornings.)
Boy their funny, i think other than the terrible football i.e zero ball control and lack of modern day basic skill, even worst commentry (sorry Brian) has to be the pitches my god this weeks match at Derby there was so much sand on the pitch two centre half's were camels!

old skool football rocked!

The pitches were a great leveller imo. And the commentary was usually calm and understated, much preferable to the modern day hysterionics.

by the way AATOT.

I feel a merge coming on:D

http://forums.cpfc.org/showthread.php?t=182044

I'm sure they'll be a little merger soon!

as an aside, Gerry Francis, Chris Jones & Peter Taylor on display right now!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA0NzuCJYkg

Look who pops up after 10 seconds. :lux:

next week its bolton v ipswich,and i'm pretty sure its the game where frank worthington scored a classic goal.From what i remember the ball came over his head on the edge of the penalty area and as he and practically the whole of the ipswich team were running away from the goal,he flicked the ball over his head and the ipswich players,turned and run on and slotted the ball home.It looked more impressive than it probably was because it seemed to trick the whole ipswich team as they were running out on mass as a defending team do.

and low and behold its on youtube:p

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlqU-pQMR74

Cracking goal too ... that Allardyce looked a tough customer :D

I have to say,while looking at that clip,notice the old mullery goal of the season clip?

much as i dislike(being kind) him,that was some goal!!:eek:

That Worthington goal is an all-time classic. Worryingly though, surely that was either Central or Granada's version of the Big Match. Bolton v Ipswich & West Brom v Wolves. Was Brian Moore even on there ?

In those days, each ITV region had their own version of The Big Match, focusing on their local teams. ITV4 is a national channel. I'm a wee bit concerned that come the weeks that we're expecting Palace's matches against Notts County & Orient, we'll get some Division One highlights from YTV, Anglia or some other godforsaken backwater.

Unfortunately, the Division One Championship was still undecided on the official final weekend of the season. I remember because Liverpool clinched it at home a few days before The Burnley match and there was a bigger crowd at Selhurst Park to see us secure our title than there was at Anfield. We can only hope, but I fear we might very well end up with just the goals from Palace's matches after extended highlights of a typically dour 1-0 Liverpool win away from home with an Ian Rush goal on the break and then 89 minutes of sideways passes between the Liverpool back four prior to the inevitable backpass to the keeper while the commentator gushes sycophantically about the mighty red's cultured, passing :S:

Its been the Brian Moore's london version every week so far,they had orient V brighton as the main game a couple of weeks back,so we should be ok........but I take your point,knowing our luck they'll pull the plug on the whole programme just as we're about to be on.

Hope it's on. I was thinking of starting a Palace v Notts Co live comm and updates :D

and what about a palace v notts county crystal ball......................I'll go for palace to win 2-0 with swindlehurst and murphy to score.:D

just had a look because I thought It must have been due as we're getting near the end of the season and Its on next week!!!!

The Big Match

palace V Notts County (28th april 1979)

30/4/09,thursday,ITV4, 4.15pm

You're right. All the one's I've seen so far have been presented by Brian Moore and the main match involved a London team; I'm getting. Even so, I missed the first 10 minutes or so today but as far as I could tell, the 2 main matches this week were Bolton v Ipswich & West Brom v Wolves.

Was there a London match at the start ? Like I said, I worry that there's a chance that we'll get Granada's version or somewhere else if there was a potential League Championship decider.

I speak from bitter experience because (tragically) I can still remember the weekend of the Notts County match. In those days, we often visited my Grandmother who lived in Worthing on a Sunday and I can still recall gathering around her TV after lunch, expecting highlights of Saturday's Palace match. What we got was sodding Southern's version (presented by Gerald bloody Sinstadt ... the name still haunts me) which only showed the goals from our game after interminable highlights of some meaningless Southampton, Portsmouth (or more likely Brighton) match.

panic over mate,Its on next week,I've set sky+ already.......we can all re-live an exciting end to a season to take our minds off this one.:p

Just got my digital aerial up on the chimney and running in time

Will be recording this!!!

The Big Match Revisited
Crystal Palace v Notts County :Crystal Palace v Notts County. Highlights of the match at Selhurst Park from 1979.

Thursday 30th April at 11:20am on ITV 4

Repeated
Thursday 30th April at 4:15pm on ITV 4
Friday 1st May at 11:30am on ITV 4

Thanks Dorking, I must set the recorder.

I saw this,there was no london match at the start,It was granada's version of the big match,no brian moore,It was introduced by elton welsby,different theme tune as well.

How shite was the Granada sunday football programme - "The Kick Off Match" with Elton Welsby. The fking "kick off" match??? :D :D :D

And the interviews with the old t'bastad northerners before """""kick off"""""".

Just off to watch "The Indirect Free Kick Match" featuring Barnstonworth United losing 8 bloooody 1 on the Ay Oop Channel.

Don't do this again ITV4, we want the Orient game as well the week after Notts County!

it was so ******* wrong!

I really missed the old LWT ident to start the show
looking forward to next weeks edition

I have not seen this weeks edition yet but i saw that palace were not mentioned on the sky guide well it's just typical that itv suddenly start messing about with it still relieved that we should be on next week and fingers crossed that the big match version is on the following week too

Just checked the Sky TV Guide & our match with Notts County is on 11;20, next Thursday morning ITV4.
Repeated later the same day at 16:15.
Again,the next day(Friday morning) 11:30 and probably,yet again, the following Sunday morning at 10:25.

as uncle brod says mate,our game is definately on,it says so on the sky channel guide.

Saw the Northern version this morning on ITV4 - Elton Welsby looked hilarious!

We better get the Orient game the week after - I used to have that and the Notts County game on James' DVD but it broke about a year ago, so this s a gold dust opportunity to get the games recorded again!

ditto... mine got snapped by my dog:(

Whats the betting I forget this now everybody has mentioned it.:(

thats why Sky+ is a wonderful thing;)

Yes I recall being at the game, we all came running back for the last 10 mins, but were still disapointed. Did not Fulham do the double over us during that season ?

Incredibly we only lost 4 games in the league that season but Fulham away wasn't one, that was a goalless draw. We lost to Fulham and Bristol Rovers at home (both 0-1), Burnley (1-2) and Newcastle (0-1) away. The Fulham and Burnley defeats were back to back so we thought the rot was setting in!

If you knew what trouble I`ve had with that you would understand why I`m running off into the hills screaming.:D :D

I always used to sit in the ground and listen to the tannoy for the results from other games.Really was confused as to what was going on at that Foolham game.I wonder what would happen today in the same circumstances bearing in mind the influence the Police have?

I was at the Orient game, great atmosphere before, during and after. Especially 10 minutes from the end when all the results were going our way and we thought we were up.

Shame they went against us inthat final 10.

I went to Australia with the army 3/4 days later and missed the Burnley game.

Never been lucky enough to have seen highlights from that game.

Was at the Notts County game as well. Used to come up from Tidworth Garrison near Salisbury to see home games and away games as often as possible during that time.

Which one, Orient or Burnley?

highlights have never been shown as it was a midweek match,The only footage around is a clip from the 10 o'clock news showing the goals

And Jerry Murphy coming close and a shot of the packed Holmesdale and the pitch invasion and players in the Director's Box. :p

Can't wait for tomorrow. I was at the match for my 10th birthday, with various relatives and friends. We were all certain that they had a close up of us with our scarves in the closing credits. No video recorders then, so 30 years of wondering whether or not it was us could be over.

Reminder: It's on today.... set your videos now everyone

11.20 today, ITV4 for the Notts County game.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but next week they're not showing the Orient game, but instead Wrexham v Sunderland and Newcastle v Br*ghton

gutted.

Shame about the Orient Game but is that the game a lot of us have got on video/ DVD where it looked almost like a home game with the place full of Palace?

Bollocks. :grrr:

It would've been nice to see the whole programme including the interview with Swindlehurst & Cannon tkaing the piss out of a young Sansom etc. I think Jimbo said he hoped or expected there would be 30/40,000 at Selhurst for the last game against Burnley. :D

It's one of my rota'ed days off.

I am as excited as I was on the morning of the actual game.

:lux:

Palace V Notts Co - Live Com and Updates
 

I'm a bit disappointed no one has started the live com thread yet

;)

I was tempted - in fact I dreamed I had done it last night. How :sob: is that?

Here we go...

Get in you soon-to-be team of the 80's.

:lux:

(Can't believe they're not showing the Orient game next week :( )

YYYYEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!

Swindlehurst!!!!!!

How good was Hilaire...

Just seen the game again! I was at the original 30 years ago. It was fantastic to see that young Palace team rip another team apart.

And the crowd was great. Must have been 26 - 30 thousand at that game. Fantastic memories, brought a few tears to my eyes I can tell you.

I was in the Arthur Wait that day.

Burnley, as I mentioned, I went to the Orient game.

Oh for a young Vince Hilaire, Dave Swindlehurst, Jim Cannon, Billy Gilbert Gerry Murphy in the team again!


Anybody remember the Boney M song about Vince Hilaire that season? Wouldn't go down to well these days,

'There's a Brown Boy on the wing tra la la la la,
There's a Brown Boy on the wing tra la la la la la,
Brown Boy on the wing tra la la la la
And his name is Vince Hilaire!!!

Football was so much simpler then.No one feigning injury,hardly a bad word to the ref. Can you imagine if a smoke bomb went off at a game today & play was allowed to continue? Brighton had fans in those days too!

Great memories.

How the bloody hell was that Brighton goal allowed to stand with a smokebomb totally obscuring the goalkeeper's view. Interesting how the Blackburn players didn't complain; can you imagine the fuss that would be kicked up if it happened today. I suppose the match was meaningless for Blackburn though.

It was also a weird reaction from Brian Moore, earnestly speculating what the Brighton fan who threw the smokebomb would have thought if the goal had been disallowed. No doubt he was thoroughly pleased with himself for helping Brighton cheat their way in-front. Were we supposed to worry about how guilty the poor bloke would have felt if the referee had made the right decision.

It was also good to see that Brian Horton was too thick to be able to understand the league table in the post-match interview. "If we win at Newcastle, we'll be champions" he smugly informed the presenter. You did win at Newcastle Brian, but you didn't end up as champions did you ? Unlucky.

I was at the game,on the Holmsdale,but I don`t remember a single thing about it :( my memory is so poor from that season.I can only remember a few things.:(

I hope my DVD worked today, I'm looking forward to seeing this. Shame about the Orient game not being on next week to go with it... bloody ITV.

The Big Match Revisited
 

Not sure where to put this, but if it should be in Memory Lane then I apologise.

ITV4 are showing the run-in to the end of the '78/79 season tomorrow at 11.30am, with the second part next Thursday at 11.55am. :p

Thanks Slimbloke'H'. Sky Plus tonight me thinks

Isn't it the Notts County game tomorrow

Friday, May 1st, 2009
11:30am to 12:30pm

Classic football action from 30 years ago this week. Today's programme features a game between Crystal Palace and Notts County from April 1979. Palace - managed by Terry Venables - are on a promotion charge as the end of the season approaches.

It is but I didn't realise it was on today as well. Sorry.

Hi "H" there's already a thread on it in ML It's us against Notts county game this week but they are not showing the Orient game next week.