Honestly, Some Men

Jacqui Oatley made her Match of The Day debut last weekend, commentating on the Fulham v Blackburn match, and to be honest she would have attracted less bad press if she'd been caught on camera giving John Motson a blowie. As usual the dinosaurs of the English football press have thrown around such phrases as "the end of an era," "no place for a woman," etc, etc.

The most bizarre set of comments came from Steve Curry in the Daily Mail, a man so unattractive he's not allowed on television before the watershed. He said that as a woman she had no grasp of tactics and she didn't have the background of Motson or Green. No she doesn't have their background, she actually played the game at a high level (okay we are talking women's high level but that's not the point), besides which since when has Alan Green or John Motson shown any awareness of tactics? This week on 5Live, I have to admit that watching the Cricket World Cup Semi Final was always going to take precedent over a Champions League match, Greeny spent a considerable amount of time complaining that there was so much noise in the commentary box that he thought he was commentating from a public urinal.

I listened to Miss Oatley's commentary and I have to say that her only weakness was not reading the game far enough ahead, but that will come, as Ray Houghton once remarked most supporters only see two moves ahead at most whilst players have to see three or four. It may be that she was watching the action on a monitor rather than looking out onto the pitch, again that is something she will stop doing with experience.