R.I.P John “Motty” Motson

Am I the only person on here with a Motty iconic commentary quote in my user name.

Norman Whiteside has done it again.

1985 FA Cup final.

The voice of football.

RIP Motty

It's sad being at my age seeing all these people you grew up with passing on.

RIP Motty

Still the best commentator of them all.

comment by ●Billy The Spur● 20*21*22* ENIC OUT! (U3924)
posted 8 hours, 26 minutes ago
Motty was rumoured to be a Spurs fans, like Barry Davies was
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He wasn’t

RIP Motty

He was a Chelsea fan but used to say he was a Barnet fan to sound unbiased.

I'd heard he was a Spurs fan too but I've just looked it up. There's an extract from his book. He was a secret Chelsea fan. Had 40 years worth of Chelsea programmes and got hooked when his dad took him to see them play in 1952.

Says a lot about the professionalism of the man that he had all us Spurs fans fooled. He was so unbiased we thought he was one of us.

Best story I ever heard about him was Mark Lawrenson on The Quickly Kevin podcast. He was on co-comms alongside Motty, who complained about not being able to see properly because the sun was getting in his eyes. He gave a dead-eyed stare at Lawro, pointed at the sun and shouted "do something about that!!!!", like he's feckin' Moses commanding the elements to change. By all accounts he was a proper little bstard to work with but bloody good at his job.

Barry Davies on the other hand has always been in his shadow and is apparently one of the nicest guys in sport. Still, Barry is responsible for my favourite ever bit of commentary (no googling, let's see if I can remember word for word) -

"Mabbutt's gone forward with Stewart to the right... Lineker and Howells to the left... Is Gascoigne gonna have a crack?...He is you know.... Oh, I say....brilliant.... That was schoolboys own stuff.... Is there anything left for this man to surprise us? That was one of the finest free kicks that this stadium has ever seen.... Seaman... got his hands... couldn't hold....Paul Gascoigne, the scorer."

Feck! I missed one line - "Oh, I bet even he can't believe it".

Still that's not bad after 32 years.

Funny enough Fridge, one of ours, a good lad who is on 606 actually thought he was an Ipswich fan so as you say it was a tribute to his professionalism that no-one could easily tell who his allegiances were actually to.

wasnt he a Boston United fan?