The Culture of Contempt

The Culture of Contempt – Abel

‘Hello Simon, and a belated welcome to the Championship’ ITV’s Matt Smith greeted Simon Grayson with on The Championship a few weeks ago when we were the featured match (away at Ipswich). Six months at this level and finally some recognition of how well our management team have done in not only leading us to the Championship, but (barring a run of results of Newcastle United esque proportions) keeping us there too with points to spare.

But why had it taken so long for us not to have to put up with 30 seconds of grainy footage that did no justice to the way that we played? After all, opposition fans have on the whole complimented us after matches for our style of football and stated their belief that we’ll beat the drop this term. Yet week after week on The Championship, we seemed to get nothing more than a passing mention. In fact, I don’t even think we feature on the opening credits to the Championship (yet Leeds still do!).

Sky Sports have fared a little better. On the Big League Weekend they have at least had a few features on us and interviewed Larry on occasions. However, when the Pool were shown live away at Scunthorpe the two studio guests were Paul Simpson (then Preston manager) and Brian Laws (ex-Scunthorpe manager), and bar a nice feature on Larry, little attempt was made to present a balanced analysis of the match.

Then of course there are all of the stereotypical and predictable comments: ‘It’s been a rollercoaster of a season’, ‘Blackpool Rock’ and so on and so forth. I bet if you were to ask the large majority of the presenters on TV (especially from ITV), the majority of them could write what they know about our club on the back of a postage stamp.

Surprisingly, it’s Virgin who regularly provide the best highlights (even if they have been known to refer to Keith Southern as Kevin!) even if they’re not available until 48 hours after the game.

Will it change once the BBC take over the rights for matches and highlights? Who knows? All I know is that we’re still seen as a little fish in a big pond, despite sitting in the top half in the Championship. Why’s that? Well, only having two stands doesn’t help? but that’s another story.