the goalfood interview:
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Having served his apprenticeship on regional radio and as Sky Sports News midlands’ correspondent, Martin Fisher can now regularly be heard behind the mic on Match of the Day. As one of the freelance members of the team, he also has the opportunity to do regular live commentaries on Champions League games for Setanta Ireland, and international fixtures for syndication specialists Pitch International.
With saturation tv coverage of the game these days, opportunities are rife but competition is strong for commentary hopefuls. Fisher has proved himself one of the most incisive of the new breed, and is definitely one to watch.
goalfood’s Nick Gordon Brown caught up with the man with the dream job…
They say all music journos are frustrated rock stars. Are you a frustrated footballer?
Oh yes, definitely. My heroes when I was growing up were players. I liked listening to the commentaries, and would commentate on subbuteo games, but I never dreamed of being David Coleman or John Motson.
So who were your heroes?
Well that would give away the team I support, not a good idea!
Did the BBC ask you who you supported before you started on MOTD, and have you commentated on them?
No, I was never asked. They’re not a high profile team, but I did commentate on them once, and they got a surprise result, which tested me. I felt I got a little over-excited when they scored, but I didn’t get any feedback from anyone to suggest this was the case for the viewers, except from my family, who’re all season ticket holders and were pretty excited themselves.
Moving onto your CV, a lot of people will be curious as to how you got to where you are now…
I actually started off aspiring to be a dj rather than a commentator, and got into hospital radio. There were a lot of wannabe dj’s there, but none of them were interested in covering sport, so I thought “there’s a gap for me”.
I wrote to the local BBC station, Radio Derby, offering to cover reserve games, which weren’t touched at the time, and they went for it. I got to know some of the players, and managed to interview them for my radio show. This was the late 80s…the highest profile interviewee was probably John Gregory, who was in his later playing days then.
So that gave you a taste for it?
Yeah, I thought this is good, getting to see the games and meet the players. I got into BBC local radio full time, and when I ended up at BBC Radio Nottingham, I pursued the football angle. This was the tail end of the Cloughie era at Forest. I got some access to him, though he did threaten to sue me for criticising Mark Crossley in a commentary! But of course that was all part of the initiation with Clough, as you’ll know from goalfood’s interview with Duncan Hamilton last month (Click Here).
I was set up for one big interview with him at Nottingham Town Hall on the day he got the freedom of the city. I thought this was finally my big chance to make an impression on the great man, and it started promisingly when I said “Mr. Clough”, and he responded with “call me Brian”. However, that was about as good as it got, as he spent most of the time trying to throw a hat onto a coat stand like Reggie Perrin.
The only quote of value I got from him, that was widely used elsewhere, was “I spent a million on Trevor Francis then stuck him in the A (reserve) team – that’s where you learn your trade”.
Many journalists get stuck in local radio for life, how did you manage to move on?
In 1999 I felt I was getting stale, so I took a gamble resigning a staff post at the BBC to go freelance. I got lucky. My first CV to Sky found its way to the Head of Cricket who was looking for one more reporter to help in their coverage of the 1999 World Cup. I love cricket but it was only a month's guaranteed work.
I took the plunge and on my first day found myself at Edgbaston trying to track down an elusive Brian Lara who continually declined to be interviewed as I followed him pre and post warm-up.. into the dressing room...and onto lunch in the canteen. Some five hours later we found him hiding in one of the many corporate boxes there and he finally relented and did the piece much to the surprise and delight of my new bosses at Sky. In short he was as difficult to get to do an interview as he was to get out on a cricket pitch. Everyone was in the "know" apart from me, so I just kept on hassling him!
It was a great start - a huge six off my first ball if you like and I was off and away.
By the semis I was assigned to Australia. A big sit-down interview with my hero Steve Waugh was the highlight, although it led to the start of a big fall-out with their team manager. The interview was only supposed to last ten minutes, but lasted nearer thirty! The thing was he was SO good and seemed in no mood to stop so I kept on firing questions despite increasingly loud and ever more persistent knocks on the locked door behind me. Eventually it was burst open by the aforementioned team manager who hurled a volley of vitriol my way and ushered an embarrassed Waugh onto the team coach to London.
But it was all smoothed over in the end and I finished up going to their post-Final celebration party in the hotel's penthouse suite which was fantastic … but the least said about that the better!
So you got a foot in the Sky door?
Yes, this led to freelance work with Sky Sports News, and then I became a staffer as their Midlands correspondent. It was primarily football, which was good, but there were downsides.
Firstly, there simply weren’t many big stories in the region as none of the local clubs were enjoying great times. The biggest story was probably Leicester’s La Manga incident, but as we weren’t out there with them, that was all follow up work. I also recall Derby made a mess of sacking Jim Smith.
Secondly, this was Monday – Friday work, and I missed seeing games on Saturdays. I did some bits for Soccer Saturday, a great show to play a part in, but I missed commentary and the big match atmosphere.
So things could have got stale again. How come MOTD came knocking?
I was lucky enough that my Sky contract allowed me to do some commentary work at weekends for TransWorld International, who do sports programmes that get syndicated all over the world.
I was doing a lot of Fulham games, due to the interest from Asia in Junichi Inamoto – not that he ever played much! However, as luck would have it, I got to do an Everton vs Man Utd game in February 2004, it was an ‘off tube’ commentary done at TWI’s offices in Chiswick. It was a brilliant game – United were 3 up by half time, but Everton got it back to 3-3, only for United to snatch a late winner. Shortly afterwards, a mate rang me to say that, with Match of the Day due to return, the Beeb were looking for commentators, and I had the ideal game to send a tape off.
I believe in fate, and working on that game was a fateful moment for me. The BBC liked what they heard, offered me regular MOTD games, and that enabled me to leave Sky to go freelance again.
But as a freelancer, MOTD isn’t your only gig?
No. I have a terrific blend right now. I work on Premiership games for the most iconic football show on TV, and I also get to do regular live commentaries for Setanta Ireland on Champions’ League games and the Premiership.
Then in addition I get regular work with Pitch International, another company who do programmes that are syndicated worldwide and broadcast to millions. I do one offs such as a feature on the Brazil pre-World Cup training camp in Switzerland in 2006, and their English language commentaries on international matches, World Cup qualifiers and the like.
Moving onto your commentary style, do you have a list of clichés you try to avoid using?
Not consciously, no. What I am conscious of on a TV commentary is talking too much, in some ways radio commentary, where you talk more, is more natural. But it can be a fine line, as when you’re not talking at all viewers might think you don’t know who’s got the ball. You also never know how your commentary will be edited for a highlights programme, for instance you may have paused for a reason, but it can sometimes count against you. A great piece of commentary may not make the cut, whereas another moment where you didn’t call it quite so well gets used.
Like most commentators, I don’t enjoy hearing myself back, but you have to do it. The biggest pressure is always to make sure you call the goals right.
Have you ever gone blank, or made any spectacular gaffes?
Thankfully no.
I did do Sunderland quite a bit last season, and as it’s very hard to see the numbers against their striped shirts, you find yourself looking at hairstyles, boots, anything that might help.
They were playing Wigan, and Andy Reid sprayed a ball out to the far side. I was 95% sure it was Darryl Murphy, but from a distance he does look a bit like Dean Whitehead, and the worst thing possible is to call it wrong. Then, as you might remember, Murphy cut in from the wing, and scored a fantastic long range goal. I had to go with something along the lines of “What a shot…and what a goal!!!”, then take a quick breath, check on the monitor, and quickly credit Murphy.
It went on to be goal of the month, and as I pride myself on player identification, it was a shame such a great goal didn’t feature my best commentary.
How do you balance watching the game live with using the monitor?
Primarily I watch the match, but you have to be aware of what’s on the monitor as whilst you can see what’s happening on the whole pitch, the viewer is seeing what’s on the monitor. Generally, I’ll watch the pitch during a move, but check the monitor the moment it’s finished.
What have been your commentary career highlights to date?
On MOTD, I was commentating on the Bowyer / Dyer fight at Newcastle, which was memorable! I saw it straight away, but had to look twice to check what I was seeing!
For Setanta in the Champions’ League, Chelsea’s game at Valencia when Essien scored that late winner was a great night, as was Arsenal’s win at the San Siro last season, which I took a lot of pleasure in, as I was the only one on the Setanta team who predicted an Arsenal win!
Any European night at Parkhead is special too.
I’ve also been lucky enough to cover two African Cup of Nations for the BBC in Egypt and Ghana. Facilities were, shall we say, basic…the schedule extremely punishing but the whole experience so enjoyable.
The viewer only sees the glamorous part of the commentator’s job on match day, but presumably your week is taken up with research?
I’ll spend a minimum of a whole day prepping for an MOTD commentary, researching 22 players per squad, checking stats sites and the like. Fan sites can be too subjective, but local newspaper sites are invaluable for picking up on stories and angles not picked up by the national press.
Live games can be a bit easier. Both Sky and Setanta can justify research departments to back up their commentators as they have so many live games. Sky, for instance, will send you a big pack a couple of days before a match, whilst for Champions’ League games, UEFA provide you with a detailed media pack which just needs a little supplementing.
The toughest assignments can be international games where you get minimal info and are relying on Wikipedia and trawling for national newspapers on Google, hoping they have English language sections.
I did a Poland v Azerbaijan game for Setanta Ireland, aware there’s a big Polish population in Dublin. At kick off I had no line ups, only squad numbers…and there were no names on the back of shirts. In these circumstances, you pray for no early goals. Poland scored twice in the first 5 minutes! Fortunately, I recognised the scorers having commentated on them previously, then after 10 minutes the line ups finally arrived.
I did an off tube commentary on a Bolivia v Paraguay game, very hard to prep for. We finally got the team news 5 minutes before kick off, the game got underway…then 10 minutes in, we were told we’d been given the wrong teams!
What ambitions do you have for the future?
At some stage I’d like to be one of the main commentators on one of the main stations, but as I said earlier, I have a terrific blend at the moment, so I’m happy to bide my time, I’m enjoying freelancing.
Finally...what are your favourite gantries?
Most of the newer ones, be they at new grounds or in refurbished stands, are very formulaic – normally at the back of the stand, in some cases too far back to be ideal for commentary, St James’s Park being an example.
For me, the best ones are the older ones. Spurs is great, you’re right over the pitch. I also like Anfield and Goodison, though both are difficult to reach. Each involves a number of ladders...at Everton you actually walk across the roof of the stand too, whilst at Anfield there is a wooden platformed area to cross with its own loo.
I’ve done FA Cup games for MOTD at the likes of Altrincham and Barrow. Actually, the Barrow game was a memorable one – their centre half decided to lamp a Bristol Rovers player, and he knocked him out, breaking his jaw in the process. It’s the sort of thing he may have got away with normally, but he did it on national television and the cameras caught him. He got sent down for it!