The First Team

Wanted to like it given track record of those involved (Inbetweeners) - but it was a disjointed mess without a good comic setup, decent comic characters or good jokes. Not at all sure who it's aimed at - too puerile for a mature audience and not savvy enough or well-enough observed for young adults. Cast didn't have much to offer and story-line was dull and unfunny with a poor pay-off. Won't be tuning in again.

Make no mistake Damian Beesley and Ian Morris are two of our best sitcom writers. After the brilliant Inbetweeners, Siblings and White Gold it was inevitable that a turkey had to come along. With the exception of Mike Bassett for some reason comedies about football never work. Which is strange when you consider the material you have to work with.

Despite the best efforts of the two writers the gags just don't work. Which is a real shame as I was so looking forward to this series. Far more sitcoms fail than succeed they are incredibly hard t write and I'm sure Beesley and Morris will be back.

I actually really enjoyed this show. Ok it's basically the same formula as The Inbetweeners but transposed to the context of a football club. You have the same basic characters - the fish out of water geek, mr thinks he's more attractive than he is, mr nice but dim. Had it's share of cringeworthy moments but a high number of laugh out loud moments too. It's the kind of show that could improve further as it finds its feet in future seasons or could just fizzle and run out of ideas. Let's hope season 2 comes along and delivers

While the first team may have been billed off as a premiership division team, their players did not come off as responsible premiership soccer based players. Something I would like to believe the directors went for when taking into account the petulant behaviour of soccer players in the 21st century. The training base appeared to be a soccer training base found on the Welsh border and Wrexham but I might be mistaken. The show was well directed and the acting was good, especially from the older heads, but it was just very enjoyable from the soccer aspect of things. It just appeared to miss that spark. An amicable effort however.

The First Team

Definitely written for a knowing football fan audience, I think this was very funny and even more so if you are football fan.

Great comic acting, great timing, great script.