Networked ITV Football Coverage
1968/69 - 1982/83

Midweek football highlights on ITV during the 1968-1983 period were usually networked (shown by all or most regions). Initially the programmes were broadcast under no specific title and there was no theme tune, typically beginning with a shot of the crowd and a caption detailing the fixture/competition together with an introduction from the commentator. By the end of 1974/75 highlights were going out as The Mid-Week Match* and then from 1978/79 as part of Midweek Sports Special. Brian Moore tended to be the first choice commentator for midweek games circa 1969-71 (regardless of which region the game was being staged) but from around 1972 Gerald Sinstadt generally did all the North-West games and Hugh Johns covered the Midlands fixtures. Midweek Sports Special saw presentation shift from the ground to the studio where Jim Rosenthal became a regular face as the sports news reporter with Brian Moore now presenting, leaving it to other commentators to voice even the big games and internationals.

*"The Mid-Week match" is sometimes listed as "The Wednesday Special" in newspapers, this was a mid-1970's over-arching brand name for ITV's Wednesday night slot that followed "News at Ten", there was often a documentary special or other sports.

Identifying which midweek games were shown has proved to be a more difficult task than gathering details of ITV's weekend fixtures. The Football Pinks - which could often be relied upon for listings of the weekend TV games - were obviously not published on weekday nights whilst national weekday newspapers were generally not permitted to print specific details of fixtures to be shown because of the potential effect on attendance's. To narrow down potential missing televised games, the TV deals with the Football League during this period only allowed for weekend league games to be televised, so all midweek matches would have been cup ties.
Known BBC midweek games are also listed on this page (in grey) as John Motson's Match of the Day book doesn't include the games that were shown on Sportsnight.

Theme Tunes
Granada apparently began adding their Sunday "Magic Trumpet" theme to midweek games recorded in the North West in the early 1970's. By 1973/74 the midweek highlights had their own theme, but still no title. "The Mid-Week Match" first appeared in 1974/75 together with a new theme tune (similar instrumentation and feel to the BBC's long running Athletics theme, but faster), though the Yorkshire based midweek matches retained their own Sunday Soccer Special titles. The 1976/77 title sequence was a montage of goals and celebrations before the camera zooms in on a banner in the crowd with lettering spelling out "The Mid-Week Match" whilst the 1977/78 titles were one of the most imaginative ITV put together during the 1968-83 period, these included scenes of a boot-room, close ups of players getting changed, an ITV Sport camera swinging around, a zoom shot into the dazzling floodlights and a spectator entering the ground through a turnstyle.
Midweek Sports Special had two theme tunes during its' run from 1978-1991, the original opened with South American style percussion and would have made for a much better ITV World Cup 1978 theme than "Action Argentina", the rest of it was a jaunty tune played on strings. By 1984/85, possibly earlier, it had been replaced by a fondly remembered soaring theme tune which again was predominately played on strings.

Presume the local commentator for ITV games unless stated*.

*Viewers in Scotland would probably have had their own commentator for televised European ties involving Scottish teams that were also shown in England. BBC Scotland, STV and Grampian had their own midweek sport shows and so most of the games listed below would not have been seen North of the border.