Sutton faces hoops telly test

Chris Sutton faces the toughest test of his brief managerial reign when the ITV cameras take in tomorrow's Northwich Victoria-Lincoln City FA Cup tie.

Despite their league status it looks like a tough assignemt for Sutton against the green and white hoops of Northwich who knocked out Charlton Athletic in the last round.

Sutton's side have been devastated by injuries with ten players missing from his squad due to injuries and the unavailability of loan signings.

Former Rangers reserve Brian Gilmour has been signed after being released by FC Haka of Finland and is likely to make his debut at Northwich.

Sutton said: “It goes without saying that our preparation has been less than ideal but we have to deal with it.

“We've struggled in the last few games, especially in front of goals and everyone can see that. The final pass and decision making isn't quite there.

“We're trying our best to to try and help the players and hopefully in January we'll be able to do something to change that.

“Everyone is aware of how difficult a match it will be at Northwich, we know that they are a decent side and might look on themselves as favourites for the match.”

Despite winning his first two games in charge Lincoln are fourth from bottom of the basement division and just five points above relegation.

Pushing up the league is clearly the priority for Sutton but a place in the third round of the FA Cup and the chance to play against a Premiership side and generate some cash for the January transfer window.

Elsewhere in the FA Cup tomorrow Norwich travel to face Carlisle for a place in the third round while Simon Ferry will be in the Swindon team that travels to face non-league Wrexham.

The streaming challenge offered to Celtic

Getting away from whether or not it's enjoyable watching Celtic at the moment there is a large gap in the Celtic media experience.

For a few seasons we were able to lap up Celtic TV, despite all those re-runs of games against St Johnstone- but not the game against St Johnstone- it was a fantastic service with former players joining The Huddle on a daily basis and a number of great shows put together.

All areas of the club were covered past and present with a favourite of mine but never likely to be a commercial smash-hit being an hour long interview with Pat Stanton taking us back to the double winning 76/77 season and looking at how Stanton joined Celtic then retired through injury.

Lisbon naturally was covered in great depth, there is no shortage of material and when you get a few Lions around for a blether it's always worth listening to.

Complementing Celtic TV was the regular Setanta shows with a healthy bias towards Scottish football giving us all the previews and features that we could ask for even if some of the presenters were trying too hard to become characters and controversial.

VOID

Post Setanta there is a large void in the Celtic viewing experience, no longer can we give opinions on reserve players because as well as the demise of Setanta the Reserve League has become a casualty, depriving us of a monthly mazy solo goal from Paddy McCourt to walk away with the goal of the month award.

In it's place we find the SPL getting a similar level of prominence as League One with Sky Sports and ESPN concentrating their energy and resources on the golden goose that is THE PREMIERSHIP.

There has been a few snippets here and there about changes afoot at Celtic to increase communications within the club which looks mainly like providing an extended Chanel 67 coverage which currently allows those outwith the UK and Ireland to watch matches live online.

This service receives mixed responses from the North American Celts, the quality can be variable but at least the club is attempting to provide a service where there is a demand.

VOICE

Providing those closer to home with a daily 'streaming' schedule to keep on the ball with things happening at the club must surely be a priority, hearing from those employed by the club and giving supporters and former players a voice is clearly desirable.

Establishing a quality on-line service will allow the club to work around the limitations of television broadcasting and reduce overheads and breakeven points.

Further down the line, and not too far down the line, is the possibility and potential to stream matches live online.

Clearly this is a very delicate area but already the English FA have moved into the field as did the Ukrainian FA with their decision to sell live television rights for their recent World Cup qualifier against England to an online provider.

That experiment seemed to work well with all parties keen to test the ice with online streaming.

CREDIBLE

With the loss of Setanta to the FA Cup package the FA have elected to screen live matches on their website with the first match, Oldham v Leeds United, attracting a very credible 176,000 online audience watching free on the FA website.

The BBC and ESPN are both in negotiations with the FA to pick up on the Setanta contract but with neither company able to negotiate a deal, that doesn't upset the main broadcaster ITV, the FA are playing it round by round with the online experiment continuing on Saturday when Carlisle United host Norwich City with a 5.15 kick off.

Both clubs will be paid by the FA for the live coverage with the test of resolve coming at the third round stage which is traditionally one of the highlights of the English season despite the lack of interest from some Premiership clubs.

DEDICATED

Streaming matches for free online can attract a massive audience which with some simple registration process can open up a fantastic dedicated market for the football business to develop.

Clearly the FA are impressed with the quality and feedback that they got from the Oldham-Leeds match and will be looking closely at the figures for the Carlisle match this weekend.

Ian Watmore, Chief Executive of the FA said: "We have been absolutely thrilled with the viewer reaction and user numbers for the games we have streamed live to date.

"This has proved that there is a growing online audience eager to see live football for free on the internet that is in addition to and complementary to the live games featured with our broadcast partner, ITV."

For almost a decade we've heard various proposals for Celtic to escape from Scotland with the goal being to tap into the latent support that the club carries throughout the British Isles and beyond.

SUBSTANTIAL

Establishing a quality online service to initially cover costs would pave the way for a greater more substantial service which should become a money spinner without the current dependency on traditional broadcasting methods.

Almost every net user has tuned in to a stream of some sort to watch a match, the results are mixed with strange foreign commentators, lots of buffering and matches that can be running way behind radio commentary.

The music industry has had a horrendous time dealing with online evolution, if football, and more importantly Celtic, take a hands on role and lead rather than follow the club could finally begin to open up directly to the dedicated markets that the club has to reach to develop as they wish.

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Sutton to face hoops in the FA Cup

Fresh from steering Lincoln City into the second round of the FA Cup at Telford manager Chris Sutton now finds himself up against the super hoops of giantkillers Northwich Victoria.

The Conference North side are currently in administration, a terrible fate for any football club, but put that behind them to beat Division One pacesetters Charlton 1-0 today.

The game against Lincoln is again likely to attract television coverage giving Northwich another financial boost with both clubs looking to make the next round when the Premiership clubs (pay-days) enter the competition.

Lincoln qualified for the 2nd Round of the FA Cup for the first time since 2003 thanks to a 3-1 win at Telford with Sergio Torres amongst the scorers for the visitors.

Elsewhere in the FA Cup Paul Lambert's Norwich City have an away tie at Morecombe or Carlisle United while Swindon Town will be away from home to Conference side Wrexham.

WATFORD

Amongst the loan Celts and former Celts dotted around the game there wasn't much to cheer about over the weekend with Malky Mackay's Watford continuing their yo-yo season with a 2-0 home win Preston.

Following last week's 5-0 defeat at West Brom Mackay will be pleased to see his side back to winning ways and sitting comfortably in mid-table.

Loan Celts Darren O'Dea and Cillian Sheridan again had to make do with viewing from the bench as Reading drew at home with Roy Keane's Ipswich and Plymouth's revival continued with a 2-1 home win over Doncaster Rovers.

Over in Hungary Willie McStay would have been disappointed by his side's 1-0 defeat at home to league leaders Videoton which allowed the visitors to double their lead at the top of the table.

Sutton's FA Cup challenge

Former Celt Chris Sutton dips his toes into the managerial graveyard of the FA Cup tomorrow when he takes Lincoln City to face Conference North side AFC Telford.

The New Bucks Head Stadium is a million miles removed from the stadiums that Sutton graced as a player but already in his management career the former England striker has shown his keenness to roll up his sleeves and get to work at the footballing coalface.

Lincoln haven't made the second round of the FA Cup since 2003/04 when their manager was dominating Scottish football in the final season of his partnership with Henrik Larsson.

Sitting in 19th place out of 24 in League Two, Lincoln won't be taking anything for granted at Telford although Sutton happily wasn't overdoing the cup cliches when he previewed the match.

The Lincoln boss said: "If you'd asked me would I rather draw Norwich, Leeds and Charlton or Telford I would pick Telford, and that's no disrespect to them because we are expecting a tough game.

UPSETS

"I think over the years they've caused a few upsets and last year they were unlucky to lose to Southend, so they will think they're in with a chance.

"It's a very special competition and I am aware that we haven't won through to the second round for the last six years.

"That's too long and it's about time we put that right by beating Telford tomorrow, although I realise it will be tough. Myself and Ian Pearce (Sutton's assistant manager) went to watch them the other night and they are decent.

"They will certainly fancy their chances, especially as they are at home but ultimately it's about what we do and we simply have to be at it from the first whistle."

ZAMERETO

Elsewhere in the FA Cup Paul Lambert takes Norwich to face Paulton Rovers who play five levels below the Canaries in the Zamereto League.

Paulton have won through five qualifying rounds to face Norwich with the game a 2,500 sell-out despite being shown live on ITV, kick off 12.45 Saturday.

Loan Celts Simon Ferry and Ben Hutchison will be expecting to progress with Swindon at home to Woking with Ferry on the scoresheet in last week's 4-1 win at Tranmere.

Evening Herald report from Hamburg