‘It’s up for grabs now’

Among football fans of a certain age, there will always be great affection for Brian Moore. Putting it simply, he was pretty much the face and voice of the game for decades.

It seems hard to believe in this era of wall-to-wall TV sport, but there was a time when live football coverage was restricted to the FA Cup final, England games and big international tournaments. Back then, televised highlights were key and Moore was our regular weekend companion.

He’ll be long remembered as a voice of great authority and dignity. One of the true gentlemen of the game.

We think of Moore almost exclusively as a TV man, but in fact he was one of the great all-rounders, beginning in newspapers and then moving into radio.

While everybody knows Kenneth Wolstenholme’s "They think it’s all over" from the 1966 World Cup final on BBC television - and maybe a few recall Hugh Johns describing the action for ITV - it’s rarely remembered that Moore was there too, commentating on the game for BBC Radio.

But it was with ITV that Moore really became synonymous with the game, and became a permanent fixture in our living rooms. He joined the new London Weekend Television, and began on The Big Match in 1968, ITV’s answer to the BBC’s Match of the Day. This was shown mainly in the London area for many years, although other regions would often carry the broadcast too.

Millions of viewers quickly got to know Moore, and they liked him from the start. He always came across as erudite, distinguished, decent and fair-minded.

We all know nostalgia plays funny tricks on the mind - it was always sunny and we never had a care in the world if I remember rightly - but it certainly does seem there was an innocence then that’s now long gone.

Televised football had a way of feeling more special. Less is more and all that. And so viewers would settle down with Moore and The Big Match on a Sunday afternoon - and sometimes on a Saturday night in later years - as he guided them through the key action of the weekend.

Moore wouldn’t just front the programme of course. He would often be the main commentator at the big televised match of the weekend too.

Here’s a good example from March 1979. To sum up: Moore says hello. He introduces the action. He commentates on Tottenham against Manchester United. He does the interviews after the game. He reads out letters from viewers. He previews the following week’s action. He looks back at a famous match from the past. He introduces highlights of Wolves against Shrewsbury. He says goodbye at the end. I think you get the message. As far as the viewers were concerned, Moore was The Big Match.

Fans became familiar with his style, his mannerisms. The cry of "it’s in there" to greet a goal. Some football broadcasters are far easier to pigeonhole. They were either a studio man or a commentator. Moore was definitely both.

Televised football in the 1970s will always bring back memories for many of Moore chairing a selection of rather maverick ITV panels. He regularly clashed with that glorious one-off Brian Clough, memorably so on the night Clough kept referring to Poland’s goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski as a "clown" during a 1973 World Cup qualifier against England.

It wasn’t only Clough that Moore had to placate - he had to keep the likes of Malcolm Allison, Derek Dougan and Pat Crerand in order too. Typically, he did it with grace and charm.

Moore regularly stayed at home for World Cups back then, as the main presenter of ITV’s coverage. Here’s some footage from the 1978 tournament in Argentina, showing us that Andy Gray’s days as a pundit began long before Sky Sports.

As the main terrestrial channels began to show live league football in the 1980s – beginning with Spurs against Nottingham Forest on ITV in 1983 – we heard even more of Moore.

These were my formative years, and Moore was in his pomp. There was a strangled "Hewitt waiting in the middle… Hewitt" as Aberdeen amazingly beat Real Madrid to win the European Cup Winners’ Cup, an amazed "John Barnes now, might go all the way for England" as the Watford man dribbled through the Brazil defence at the Maracana, an excited "Whiteside… that’s incredible" as Manchester United stunned Everton in the FA Cup final at Wembley.

And surely his most famous ever line emerged from one of the most dramatic games of all time in the spring of 1989.

Nobody gave Arsenal much hope of going to Anfield in the final game of the 1988-89 Division One season, with the Londoners needing to beat Liverpool by two clear goals to steal the league title.

Arsenal were 1-0 up as the game entered stoppage time. The Gunners launched one final attack. Everybody remembers "it’s up for grabs now" but Moore’s words in a wider sense are actually quite brilliant and accompany the pictures perfectly.

‘Arsenal come streaming forward now in what will surely be their last attack. Good ball by Dixon, finding Smith, Thomas charging through the midfield, it’s up for grabs now, Thomas, right at the end, an unbelievable climax to the league season. Well into injury time, the Liverpool players are down, absolutely abject. Aldridge is down, Barnes is down, Dalglish just stands there. Nichol’s on his knees, McMahon’s on his knees, suddenly it was Michael Thomas bursting through, the bounce fell his way, he flicked it wide of Grobbelaar and we have the most dramatic finish.’

Aston Villa fans produced a banner with Moore’s words from their 1982 European Cup final triumph over Bayern Munich. "Shaw, Williams, prepared to venture down the left. There’s a good ball in for Tony Morley. Oh, it must be and it is. It’s Peter Withe."

A fanzine at Gillingham, Moore’s favourite club, was affectionately named after him - called "Brian Moore’s Head Looks Uncannily Like London Planetarium" from a line in a song called "Dickie Davies Eyes" by the eccentric Liverpool band Half Man Half Biscuit.

In the 1990s, Moore and ITV’s main summariser Ron Atkinson regularly teamed up for the channel’s live coverage of the early years of the Champions League, Uefa’s new spruced-up version of the European Cup.

Moore’s swansong came at the 1998 World Cup in France, and it could hardly have been more dramatic. He later said Argentina against England in St Etienne was the most memorable match of his career.

Moore’s commentary of Michael Owen’s early solo goal was typically pitch perfect. His voice rose in excitement along with the watching millions. "Oh it’s a wonderful goal" he shouted breathlessly as the ball nestled in the top corner.

Typical of the perfectionist Moore was, he later said how much he regretted putting summariser Kevin Keegan on the spot during the penalty shoot-out, asking him whether David Batty would score as he stepped up to the ball. "Yes" said Keegan, wrongly as it turned out.

But even then there was something so endearing about the way Moore involved himself with these big occasions - he spoke for us, he was with us. Not aloof or distant, but as involved as those of us hundreds or thousands of miles from the action.

Moore’s final game was the World Cup final at the Stade de France, with the hosts beating Brazil to win the tournament. "It’s another one," he exclaimed excitedly as Emmanuel Petit scored the third goal in the dying seconds.

This lovely ITV tribute actually shows Moore in his commentary position while talking us through that goal. Look at that childlike enthusiasm. He never lost that. It would be so easy after all those years for him to slip into cynicism, a "seen it all before" routine. But every big match felt like a first in a way for Moore. And didn’t we love him for it?

Moore died only three years after his retirement, on the same day that England famously won 5-1 against Germany in Munich. A few days later came one of the most touching things I can recall seeing at a British football ground, an impeccably observed minute’s silence for Moore before England’s clash with Albania at St James’ Park.

The game moves on of course. There are new matches, new voices. But we’ll always hear the great ones in our heads, won’t we?

I thought starting this new series with Moore fitted in ideally with this weekend’s FA Cup final. It was a day he loved so much.

When Moore died, BBC commentator John Motson recalled that he was nervous before his first FA Cup final in 1977. Moore left a note on his desk that day, saying "make sure you enjoy it". A gesture that summed up the man.

I also remember reading once that Moore could never stop the tears flowing during the traditional Cup final hymn, "Abide With Me". He simply wiped away the tears, picked up the microphone and carried on with the show.

I’ll think of Moore during "Abide with Me" at Wembley before Crystal Palace play Manchester United. We’ve listened to some wonderful voices of sport over the decades. Moore remains one of the most special.