Spiers meets match in Motson

DON’T be surprised to see Times’ Scottish football correspondent, Graham Spiers, resplendent in a sheepskin coat at a football match near you.

He’s just back from interviewing recently-retired television match commentator, John Motson – forever associated with said item of clothing – for BBC Radio Scotland.

‘Child of the Manse’ is a six-part series being compiled by Spiers, who is the son of a Baptist minister. And in Motson, Spiers encountered, he says, “uncanny” parallels.

Motson is the son of a Methodist minister.

Spiers told allmediascotland.com: “Both our fathers were fiery preachers, who’d bang out their sermons on the Saturday morning, on a typewriter, and then take their sons to football in the afternoon, because they were also passionate about football. It was uncanny, how identical the ritual was and how we, sons, remembered it.”

The series is being broadcast from next month.