ITV, You're F***ing S**t

I love the FA Cup. Especially in the early rounds where you can still see some of the non-league clubs give the big boys a fight. I'm pretty sure there are a few people around these parts who still get a chill when the name Havant & Waterlooville gets thrown out there. The big upsets are harder to come by before the third round, because that's when the EPL and Colaship teams get drawn into the, ahem, draw. Still, when a team like Leeds United, less than a decade removed from a semi-final berth in the Champions League, scuppers down into League One, it's an exciting draw for whomever gets them.

Especially for a non-league team like Histon who got the big boys at home in the Second Round. It's almost enough of a story to know that Histon beat Leeds on Sunday 1-0, through a goal by a postman. While that is pretty swell, there's another bit of the story of the day to go.

The match was televised by ITV, which you can think of as the CBS of Britain. Like CBS's Super Bowl broadcast from a couple of years ago, there was a little bit too much shown by the network. Histon, as is the norm, celebrated post-match in the locker room in various states of undress. One player felt a little more frisky than his teammates and danced around naked. Either this guy is super-tall, or the cameraman let his attention (and eye) wander, because the unnamed player managed to go Full Monty to the entire nation. Sadly, at this time, no video is available of the incident.

There is, however, video of the other incident mentioned in the article above. About 14 minutes into the match, Leeds fans commandeered a pitchside microphone, one used to get the sounds on the pitch and of the crowd, and used it to let all viewers know exactly what song they were singing. It's a simple ditty, really only one line repeated until boredom. That line--"ITV, you're fucking shit". You can hear it in the background at about the 20 second mark, then, nine or so seconds later, the microphone gets picked up. Two more rounds of the song follow, until sound is cut off.

There are two things I really like about this video. One, I love the conditions the announcers have to work in while calling these FA Cup matches at non-league sites. Second, they both had that "I don't get paid enough for this shit" moment and just shut down when the chant came over their headphones. Priceless.

For their giant-killing efforts, Histon have been awarded another fine draw for the next round, getting Colaship side Swansea City at home. For those that remember, this is the same team that got pushed to the brink by minnows Horsham last season. Here's hoping Histon can do the same. Perhaps Histon can pick up a certain deaf striker before the match to help them in their quest.


Histon's goal