Soccer Night
| Soccer Night | |
|---|---|
| Developed by | Granada Television |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Production | |
| Running time | Varied |
| Release | |
| Original network | ITV |
| Original release | 1990s – 2008 |
Soccer Night was a regional television football programme on independent television in United Kingdom between the 1990s and 2008.
The programme concept began in the early 1990s on Granada Television in the north-west England. Granada Soccer Night, which was shown late on a weekday night, presented by Elton Welsby as a replacement opt-out from the networked Midweek Sports Special. It showed highlights of midweek matches, particularly League Cup games, and often featured then-current and former northwest players and managers as studio guests. The show's iconic theme tune was "Shall We Take A Trip" by Manchester band, Northside.
By 2004 following multiple mergers and the formation of ITV plc, versions of the original programme were developed for all ITV regions in England and Wales - a late night magazine show, focusing on Football League clubs, was introduced for the 2004-05 season to replace the long-standing Sunday afternoon highlights programmes owing to cutbacks at ITV plc.
Wales Soccer Night (produced by ITV Wales) was axed in December 2005 in response to high viewer demand for the return of a full highlights programme on Sundays as opposed to the magazine-based format on late Thursday nights. Soccer Sunday returned on 15 January 2006 with extended highlights of Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham matches, presented by Jonny Owen (a local actor and assistant producer at ITV Wales) with match commentary provided by Bob Symonds and Phil Duffell.
The programme was extended to an hour in February 2007 and incorporated goals from all other Football League games. ITV West sports editor Jed Pitman presented the newly expanded programme. The new format was dropped at the end of the 2006/7 season and Soccer Sunday returned to its original format. Pitman left the programme at the end of the year and was replaced by Jonny Owen.
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