The Commentators' View: Mighty Maguire & Trubin’s triumph
Football Daily
BBC
4.3 • 4.6K Ratings
🗓️ 30 January 2026
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
John Murray, Ian Dennis & Ali Bruce-Ball talk football, travel & language. They reflect on a dramatic finish to the Champions League league phase and discuss ideas for changing the format. Plus unintended pub and film names returns, as does Clash of the Commentators along with the Great Glossary of Football Commentary. Suggestions welcome on WhatsApp voicenotes to 08000 289 369 & emails to TCV@bbc.co.uk
02:00 John’s fall from grace 06:50 5 Live commentaries coming up 12:50 Champions League reflections 17:45 Does the format need changing? 21:00 Unintended pub and film names 31:50 Harry Maguire for England? 35:45 Clash of the Commentators 47:15 Great Glossary of Football Commentary
5 Live / BBC Sounds commentaries: Sat 1500 Leeds v Arsenal, Sat 1500 Brighton v Everton on Sports Extram Sat 1730 Chelsea v West Ham,
Sun 1400 Man Utd v Fulham , Sun 1400 Aston Villa v Brentford on Sports Extra, Sun 1400 Forest v Palace on Sports Extra 2, Sun 1630 Tottenham v Man City.
Great Glossary of Football Commentary: DIVISION ONE Agricultural challenge, Back to square one, Bosman, Bullet header, Cruyff Turn, Cultured/educated left foot, Dead-ball specialist, Draught excluder, Elastico/flip-flap, False nine, Fox in the box, Giving the goalkeeper the eyes, Grub hunter, Head tennis, Hibs it, In a good moment, In behind, Magic of the FA Cup, The Maradona, Off their line, Olimpico, Onion bag, Panenka, Park the bus, Perfect hat-trick, Rabona, Roy of the Rovers stuff, Schmeichel-style, Scorpion kick, Spursy, Target man, Tiki-taka, Towering header, Trivela, Where the kookaburra sleeps, Where the owl sleeps, Where the spiders sleep.
DIVISION TWO Back on the grass, Ball stays hit, Beaten all ends up, Blaze over the bar, Business end, Came down with snow on it, Catching practice, Camped in the opposition half, Cauldron atmosphere Coat is on a shoogly peg, Come back to haunt them, Corridor of uncertainty, Couldn’t sort their feet out, Easy tap-in, Daisy-cutter, First cab off the rank, Giant-killing, Good leave, Half-turn, Has that in his locker, High wide and not very handsome, Hospital pass, Howler, In the dugout, In their pocket, Johnny on the spot, Leading the line, Needed no second invitation, Nice headache to have, Nutmeg, On their bike, One for the cameras, One for the purists, Played us off the park, Points to the spot, Prawn sandwich brigade, Purple patch, Put their laces through it, Reaches for their pocket, Rolls Royce, Root and branch review, Row Z, Screamer, Seats on the plane, Show across the bows, Slide-rule pass, Steal a march, Straight in the bread basket, Stramash, Taking one for the team, Telegraphed that pass, Tired legs, That’s great… (football), Thunderous strike, Turns on a sixpence, Walk it in, We’ve got a cup tie on our hands.
UNSORTED 2-0 is a dangerous score, After you Claude, All-Premier League affair, Aplomb, Bag/box of tricks, Brace, Brandished, Bread and butter, Breaking the deadlock, Bundled over the line, Champions elect / champions apparent, Clinical finish, Commentator’s curse, Coupon buster, Denied by the woodwork, Draught excluder, Elimination line, Fellow countryman, Foot race, Formerly of this parish, Free hit, Goalkeepers’ Union, Goalmouth scramble, Good touch for a big man, Honeymoon Period, In and around, In the shop window, Keeping ball under their spell, Keystone Cops defending, Languishing, Loitering with intent, Marching orders, Nestle in the bottom corner, Numbered derbies, Opposite number, PK for penalty-kick, Postage stamp, Put it in the mixer, Rasping shot, Red wine not white wine, Relegation six-pointer, Rooted at the bottom, Route One, Sending the goalkeeper the wrong way, Shooting boots, Sleeping giants, Slide rule pass, Small matter of, Spiders web, Stayed hit, Steepling, Stinging the palms, Stonewall penalty, Straight off the training ground, Taking one for the team, Team that likes to play football, Throw their cap on it, Thruppenny bit head / 50p head, Two good feet, Turning into a basketball match, Turning into a cricket score, Usher/Shepherd the ball out of play, Walking a disciplinary tightrope, Wand of a left foot, Wrap foot around it, Your De Bruynes, your Gundogans etc.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, The Traitors Uncloaked. |
| 0:12.7 | But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's Saturday bonus episodes, |
| 0:18.2 | The Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Ryland, and comedy specials from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffel and Romash Ranganathan. |
| 0:25.9 | However, and maybe I'm biased, it's really all about the traitors uncloked. |
| 0:30.3 | So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and podcasts, listen only on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.1 | The commentator's view on the Football Daily with Alistair Bruce Ball, John Murray and Ian Dennis. |
| 0:43.2 | Hello, welcome to the Football Daily. I'm John Murray and this is the commentator's view |
| 0:48.1 | where we five live commentators discuss the football, our travels and the language of football commentary. And we have a full |
| 0:56.4 | house today. Ian Dennis and Alistair Bruce Ball are both here. And how good was it to have |
| 1:04.4 | Jonathan Pierce on last week, Ian? Have you listened to it, Ali? Did you listen back to it? Yes. I listened |
| 1:10.3 | back last night. So that was the first sort of little window I found. I thought, A, that would be a good thing to do before I come on today, having missed an episode just in case, you know, my name might have been taken in vain. Who knows? Not that I'm always thinking about myself, of course, but I just thought, B, I would also love to listen to it. I always think whenever you walk into a press room and you see Jonathan Pierce sitting there doing the same game as you, so if he's there for match of the day and you turn up to do five live, there's always a smile, there's always a story, there's always a joke, he always puts me in a great mood and actually just, I mean, there's this, you know, you could do a whole season of podcasts with, with JP and his stories about |
| 1:48.5 | football commentary. But one thing I would say, having listened to it last night as well, it just |
| 1:52.6 | reminded me what, you know, ever since I started, I remember first, you know, first meeting |
| 1:57.3 | Jonathan Pearce and has, you know know always been so generous with his |
| 2:01.7 | with his time with his feedback with his help with his he's just been a |
| 2:05.3 | fantastic colleague and it was it was brilliant to hear him on the pod and also |
| 2:08.8 | really lovely to hear how much he enjoys the um the golf coverage on the |
| 2:13.1 | radio as well he clearly absolutely loves that so that that was nice to hear too. I think we only actually |
| 2:18.9 | scratched the surface with him. As you say, Ali, he's probably got so many stories, some that probably |
| 2:23.5 | aren't suitable for a podcast, but no, it was great to have him. But, John, his presence actually meant |
| 2:32.7 | that I forgot to bring up a subject with you last week, |
... |
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