Red, white and X-rated

Poor sound, poor quality

Wrexham v Middlesborough, FA Cup 3rd Round, December 1999

If you have read my pieces in previous editions of RP you might think I’m a grumpy/negative sort of person. Well, this review won’t disappoint you. As videos go, this one is seriously lacking a number of key features. First of all, presentation. The cover boasts a close-up view of Dean Spink - a player who was not involved in the Middlesborough game at all. Overall the front-cover looked as if the club had hired a group of five-year-olds to cut out pictures from magazines and stick them together. Very poor. Then we get to the video itself. One thing I did like were the pre- and post-match interviews - to get a feel of the build-up and the after-match reaction - but it is pretty difficult getting excited listening to Flynn and Reeves.

The match was covered by one solitary camera which I thought was diabolical when you consider the magnitude of the match. However, the cameraman did his best and no major incidents in the game were missed out. I'm really sorry, but I have to bring up another negative point: the sound quality. Absolutely awful - the crowd was a muffled background noise spoiling the overall atmosphere of the video. Again I would like to applaud the one and only cameraman in the ground for his coverage of the game (and the way he focused in on me in the crowd going wild after Gibson's goal!) There were a lot of Dearden close-ups during the game. I’m not getting at him, but he isn't the obvious candidate to be zoomed in upon!!!! Oh yes, how could I forget the commentator? I’m afraid he wasn’t up to the standard of the really top commentators. Even so, he did a professional job - but not as commanding as I would have liked him to be.

Overall the video was disappointing - and all for a rip-off price of £15. No way did it cost that much to make. WFC Commercial Manager Allan Thomas called it "a great stocking-filler". Or did he say “a great pocket-filler”?

Gareth Roberts