Man United Overcome Crewe in League Cup Joy

In a recent blog post on the EPL Talk Blog, we discussed ITVN’s beta testing of their “On Demand” service which will allow customers to choose from the major matches recently shown on Setanta Sports. It’s the perfect remedy for soccer fans who return home after a hard day at work, and can then watch any of the matches shown that day (or earlier in the week).

I’m one of the beta testers of the new service, but as an example of what can go wrong, I watched the Crewe against Man United match tonight “On Demand.” Yet again, Setanta did themselves proud by showing the entire coverage. One hour before kickoff, Sky built up the excitement for the match by showing interviews with the managers, analysis from Craig Hignett and Darren Ferguson (with lead man Tim Lovejoy in charge). Plus, we saw a very interesting piece about Dario Gradi and his 23 years managerial career at Crewe.

The match lived up to its expectations. But here’s where it went wrong. After the match ended in regular time at 1-1, the League Cup tie went into extra time. However because ITVN had set the match to record for 120 minutes, the “On Demand” coverage ended just before the teams were ready to swap halves before the final 15 minutes of extra time. So, I missed the final 15 minutes of the match and United’s eventual winner that sealed the 2-1 victory.

Let’s hope this is fixed prior to the “On Demand” service being released.