Viewers to Fox Soccer Channel on Saturday were pleasantly shocked and surprised to see live coverage of Soccer Saturday, the weekly show from Sky Sports.

It was one of those rare Saturdays where Fox Soccer Channel had no Premier League matches on-air while Setanta Sports had the two matches from the day: Manchester United against Wigan, and Aston Villa versus West Ham United. Due to so many English teams playing in the UEFA Cup and Champions League, the majority of the matches are scheduled for Sunday, October 7.

So instead of reruns, Fox Soccer Channel showed Soccer Saturday live from SkySports so many of us had our chance to experience first hand how viewers in the UK follow live matches on TV. For a review of my first Soccer Saturday experience from this past February, go here.

On the minus side, the network only showed the first hour of the show from 10-11am, so viewers were unable to see the second half news and scorelines. Instead, Fox Soccer Channel showed the Premier League Preview Show, an excellent show no doubt, but one that could have been shown in a different timeslot.

If you watched the Soccer Saturday show on Fox, consider yourself fortunate. It’s going to be quite some time until we’ll have another Saturday with no football on Fox during the Premier League season.