The visit of West Ham to the Etihad for a momentous Premier League finale will mark the 500th City men’s game that the hugely admired commentator has covered across the course of his distinguished career.
For more than three decades, Alistair – a winner of three Royal Television Society awards and a former BT Journalist of the Year recipient - has been one of the country’s most familiar and respected voices, calling the shots in countless big games across the globe for ITV, the BBC, Sky and TNT.
More recently, he has become even more synonymous with City fans through his key role as our CITY+ chief commentator.
As he prepared to describe the action on his 500th City men’s game, Club journalist Neil Leigh spoke to Alistair to reflect on his long and memorable career covering City.
Alistair, Sunday promises to be a special day in so many ways and, fittingly, will mark your 500th game commentating on City’s men – can you sum up what reaching that landmark will mean?
“I can’t believe it’s going to be my 500th City game to be honest.
“Over the years I’ve worked for lots of different companies, and there have been periods in my career when I’ve not done a City game for, you know, two, three, even four years.
“And then obviously there’s been periods when I’ve done every single game with my role at CITY+ which is an absolute joy.
“It’s something I’m very proud of and something I’m incredibly pleased to have done and it makes me realise just how big a part the club has played in my life.
“I’m never one to tempt fate as we all know that anything can happen in a football match, but if it does turn out on Sunday that the side are able to win the title once again that would just be stunning. I mean, it would just be a moment to treasure.”
The Manchester City of today is a completely different animal to that of the one in 1992 when you called your first game. Can you believe the journey that’s unfolded in those three decades or so?
“It’s incredible to think of how far the Club has come since I covered that first game against Notts County in April 1992.
“I’ve commentated on them in all three divisions. I’ve seen them literally at their lowest point and commentated on City when they got relegated from the Championship for the first time after going down despite beating Stoke 5-2 in 1998.
“And then commentated on them at the pinnacle in Istanbul last season to win the Champions League and the Treble.
“So I feel like the City fans in many ways in that I’ve kind of served my apprenticeship. I’ve been through the good and the very, very bad and everything in between.
“I’ve known about the despairs, I’ve known about the times that have been the absolute pits and then to see the era that’s happened in the last decade, and the Pep Guardiola years in particular, I can’t believe how much it’s transformed, but I guess there’s a generation of City fans who can’t believe it either.
“When we saw them lose to Lincoln City all those years ago, then you consider what we’re seeing now, you know, it’s incredible.”
“There’s a generation of fans, including my son, who have only ever known the good times. But there is a generation older, for whom this is all literally pinch yourself stuff and who are still in disbelief at what we are seeing.
“It has been a remarkable, unforgettable journey!”
Are there any particular games that stand out for you in those three decades?
“There are. I mean, obviously, Istanbul is an absolute nailed on moment because there was something about City in the Champions League that made you think it might never happen.
“Everybody kept calling them the best team in Europe but up until last June they didn’t have the trophy to prove it so, obviously, that will always be a moment to treasure… the fact that it completed an historic Treble in the process made it even more extraordinary.
“And actually to do it alongside Andy Morrison, who was my co-commentator that night and who was the City captain at the Gillingham League Two play-off final in 1999, kind of made it a nice full circle in many ways. So that will always be a treasured memory in my life and something that I’ll always remember.
“But it’s all eclipsed bizarrely by the 3-2 Aston Villa comeback win a couple of years ago to seal the 2021/22 title. Because to be 2-0 down at home to Villa and seemingly out on our feet and finished and to see that turnaround with three goals in 11 minutes was incredible and it was particularly special for me because in 2012 I wasn’t at the Aguero QPR game.
“Instead, that day I was commentating on Wigan v Wolves for Match of the Day, so I missed out on the Aguero moment and all the drama that went with it. So my QPR moment became the Aston Villa game.
“When the Villa game happened, with all the drama that unfolded and to have a legend like Shaun Goater alongside me, doing the co-commentary that day, that for me was my Aguero moment.”
Over those years are there any standout or favourite moments for you?
“I remember the incredible hat-trick that Sergio Aguero scored against Wigan in September 2011, which may be a bizarre thing to say because he had so many amazing moments. But David Silva and Aguero that day were both extraordinary.
“It was a game that most fans might not even remember, but that always stands out my mind because it was Aguero’s first City hat-trick and David Silva basically provided him with all the assists in the way that Kevin De Bruyne does now with Erling Harland, and I always remember that day thinking just how gifted and how special those two were.
“You just felt something special was happening with those two.
“Vincent Kompany’s iconic header against Manchester United on that Monday night in April of 2012 is another very special one. It’s funny as I did a line of commentary that just came through, where I said ‘Cometh the hour, Cometh the captain’ and I don’t know why!
“These things just pop into your head. You say them, and you try to capture a moment. And since then I’ve seen and heard that line of line of commentary about 100 times on the big screen at the Etihad over the years and, you know, you still get the goosebumps on your neck that you are able to capture such a moment.
“I also remember vividly the last few minutes of that Stoke game in 1998 when City went down from the Championship because it didn’t seem real. It seemed like you were watching a film. It didn’t feel like it was sinking in.
“I mean I’ve seen City get relegated from the top division to the second tier, but to see them go down to the third tier, despite winning 5-2... that is something that will live in my memory for an awful long time because it was just so surreal. It just didn’t feel like it was happening. And yet there it was, in black and white.
“And, of course, you then have the 4-0 Champions League semi-final second leg win against Real Madrid last May, which I think was the best performance I’ve ever seen at the Etihad.
“I know they had to beat Internazionale in the game after, but that felt like the night they’d won the Champions League.
“And again there’s another line of commentary I made that night, when I said ‘We’re All Going To Istanbul’ that I keep hearing back over and over again and I’m privileged to hear it all over the Netflix Together Treble Winners documentary.
“You just say them - you don’t even think about it. You just say them and try to capture the occasion with a line of commentary, so that was a special night as well.”
Football and technology has changed beyond all recognition in that time – has your role changed or evolved too?
“Oh gosh yeah, I mean it absolutely has. The first ever City game I did - that nondescript Notts County home game in April of 1992 back in the old Division One - was for Granada TV and was just before the advent of the Premier League in August of that year.
“However, your role is dictated to by who you work for and the contracts that they have.
“I think the Premier League took the top division in England to an incredible level but what then happened to me personally was that I was with ITV, who had the rights to the top division, but then the following season Sky obviously bought the Premier League rights and suddenly, for several years, I wasn’t allowed to commentate on the top division in England as ITV didn’t have the rights for it anymore.
“Another way that your role changes as the years go on is that you become aware of social media and how little clips that you say, they don’t just become tomorrow’s fish and chip paper, they become things that are synonymous with the club and go on social media and become memes and become people’s ringtones.
“So you have a greater responsibility when you commentate. You have to think a bit more about what you’re saying. Thinking back to that first game in 1992, I defy anyone to remember anything I said that day.
“Whereas now if something turns out to be a significant moment in City’s history, then it becomes all over social media straight away and suddenly you become remembered, for either the right or the wrong reasons, for your role as a commentator.
“It’s there for posterity and lives on.”
You have also become synonymous as the voice of CITY+ - how special and pleasurable a role has that been for you?
“Well, when I was a kid, I was brought up in a City household.
“Initially, you have these dreams that you want to play for your club, that your family have always supported. So that was my dream... to become a City player.
“Well, that wasn’t going to happen because obviously I wasn’t quite that good so the next best thing, I guess, is to have a role within the club or to do something that’s associated with the club.
“So when I started to commentate in the early 1990s, one of the first commentaries I ever did was that City game at home to Notts County in April 1992 – a 2-0 win by the way!
“And you think, blimey, this is great, you know, because it’s like a busman’s holiday at that point. So then fast forward a few years and I start to do regular commentaries for City. That became almost the realisation of a dream.
“But every time I do a City game I still pinch myself, so to have taken on the role as CITY+ commentator in the last three or four years it’s kind of like the fulfilment of a dream. I’m not talking as if suddenly I’m retiring as I want to do this for many more years!
“However, to do it at a time in which the club has won a Treble, in which they’re playing the football that is unimaginably good, that they are such a special group, that they are under the greatest coach of our generation… all those things mean that the dream itself has become a reality.
“And for it to have coincided with such an amazing period in the club’s history, it is pinch myself territory.
“It’s something I never take for granted, something that I’m incredibly proud and honoured to have been able to have done.
“To be able to do it genuinely brings a lump to my throat and, literally, I’m as excited to do a City commentary now as I was the first time I did it back in 1992 because it’s the club that my family always supported and was always such a big part of our lives.
Finally what would it mean to you if you were able to mark that 500th game by describing City making English history once again?
“Well, you know, I hate, with a passion, tempting fate.
“I can’t even go there because I dread the thought of jinxing it in any way, shape or form.
“All I can say is if City create football history and win the title for the fourth year in a row… I mean I shed tears in Istanbul, so I’d imagine I’ll be in buckets on Sunday if that’s the case.
“But I don’t like to tempt fate and jinx it so let’s just keep our fingers crossed and cross that bridge when we come to it!”
