The Football League Show

The Football League Show is a programme that succeeds Match Of The Day. It covers the lower leagues of English football; the Championship, League One and League Two. The anchor of the show is Manish Bhasin, who I think is one of the best sports presenters in the country. He is accompanied by either lower league legend Steve Claridge or Leroy Rosenior, who holds the unenvied record of having the shortest managerial tenure known, being a staggering 10 minutes long. Sometimes they are accompanied by a manager or player that is currently plying his trade in lower league football (this season we have had John Still, the Luton Town manager and Dave Kitson, a former Oxford United striker) and I think this offers a different perspective on the game as they are able to tell us what they think whilst currently in their respective jobs.

What I like about the Football League Show is the depth that they go to cover every game. For the big games, they use extensive highlights and the smaller games, they give you a shorter coverage, but you still get to see all the key action. I think the analysis is spot on. I like a pundit who challenges the opinions of others and Steve Claridge is one of those pundits. Claridge is the star of the show and carries the show at times, his punditry is simply breathtaking. His knowledge of lower league football oozes out of him whenever he speaks. His opinions are concise, eloquently put and detailed. He has a future in punditry for sure and it surprised me when he wasn't picked to go with Gary and the team to Brazil to cover the World Cup ahead of the likes of Henry who are just boring and robotic. Rosenior, whilst not as good as Clardige, still offers great insight into the game and also challenges the points of others.

The show also has a weekly feature where Mark Clemmit (known as 'Clem') pays a visit to a team that have been given extensive coverage by the media in recent weeks (such as a team who are on a good run of form, bad run of form, new manager etc.). I like this feature because I think it's interesting to see what goes on behind the scenes of the club, what the managers ideas are, what the chairman plans to do and how the players and fans feel about the running of their club. Clemmit is the perfect person to do this job; he's passionate about the sport and asks sensible questions that are to the point and leave behind little to no ambiguity.

The only problem I have with this show is the chemistry between the pundits and the anchor. Whenever Clardige addresses a point or responds to a question, Bhasin appears uncomfortable and looks like he just wants to move on quickly. He works better with Rosenior, but Rosenior is the weaker pundit out of the two and because of his more basic insights, Manish never tries to rush him on.

Overall, it's a great show and well worth staying up for. It's really improved since it first debuted in 2009 and I hope it continues to do so.