THE VIC MORGAN COLUMN: TV interest is a good thing, even if it disrupts diaries (From Swindon Advertiser)

SWINDON TOWN: THE VIC MORGAN COLUMN: TV interest is a good thing, even if it disrupts diaries

6:00am Thursday 17th January 2013 in Sport

MADE many crossings out in your brand new 2013 diary yet?

It seems as if the Swindon fixtures you pencilled in at the start of the year are the main cause for change.

Before Christmas there was a rash of postponements because of the weather, and there may be more of that to come, but now there’s also TV.

It seems that the Town are currently hot in the satellite television world.

Crawley at tea time, Yeovil at night and now it’s Doncaster at virtually breakfast time.

I suppose it means that our team is doing well and their play deserves a wider audience. It also means planning on a military scale for those of us who prefer to see the game in the flesh.

I’m not going to moan about the influence of the goggle box on the game, after all it means extra cash for clubs like ours and I subscribe to the very channel that makes the changes.

So in a way it’s a case of me just biting the bullet and leaving Devon at nonsense o’clock to get to Donny in time.

I suppose the argument for altering kick-off times is that there’s no live football on at the time when matches are taking place elsewhere.

Except that is on a Tuesday night or Sunday afternoon or when it’s a Champions League match, when presumably Football League matches don’t count.

How often then do you hear, ‘rough night and there’s football on the telly’ when the crowd is low.

It’s all a far cry from the distant days of no live matches except the FA Cup final.

Match of the Day was our one date of the week.

That programme sometimes featured games from outside the top flight and I remember the Town’s first appearance.

A packed County Ground and a 3-3 draw with Southport. David Coleman described Don Rogers as in the £100,000 class.

How much now?

You can still watch it on a well-known video clip site. Ah yes, jumpers for goalposts et cetera.

TV is here to stay, so I guess we just have to make those diary crossing-outs and plan those early or late starts.

Could just stay at home and watch it on telly? Nah, see you at Crawley. Can’t wait for the first midnight kick-off.