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Be it as the voice of Clubcall, the brains behind Wanderers TV or the talking head giving the latest goal-scorer on Soccer Saturday, Peter Smith has become a familiar presence to Boltonians in the last three decades.
For 30 years he has charted the success of football across the North West, striking up relationships with some of the top names in the game.
But as he strikes out in a new venture, looking to mould the journalists of the future in a specialist media coaching course, he opened up on how life at Wanderers has changed immeasurably from the days of sharing a cup of tea with Bruce Rioch at Burnden Park.
Not a classically-trained media man, Smith described the “Sliding Doors moment” that began his own career as a journalist.
“I didn’t leave school with much but I wanted to be a football commentator,” he said. “It was nigh-on impossible for someone without the qualifications.
“I was working on a greengrocers stall and that was fortunate because most people who left school in Thatcher’s Britain at the time didn’t have anything.
“My mum used to work at Burnley General and she suggested I got involved with the hospital radio. One day, instead of turning left, I turned right and plucked up the courage to approach a big outside broadcast and asked one of the presenters if there was anything going.
“I made something happen. I bought a little tape recorder and my first interviews were with people like Emlyn Hughes and Kevin Keegan. I interviewed Brian Clough in my first season.
“I’d got introduced to Bolton by going to watch the Ian Greaves teams in the late seventies because it didn’t cost much to get the train in from Nelson.
“But in 1988 Club Call took off and after doing Burnley for a bit a staff job came up covering all the North West clubs, which is where I got on board with Phil Neal’s Bolton.”
Smith is quite protective of Phil Neal’s tenure as manager, insisting his groundwork paved the way for Rioch’s later, more celebrated successes.
“It wasn’t an easy time for the club and the Normid supermarket was like a monument to the decline of a club which I’d grown up with in the seventies,” he said. “But I think Phil Neal got a raw deal from a lot of people.
“I know the Sherpa Van Trophy isn’t a massive competition but it was part of the rebuilding job. There were two play-off defeats but I still felt the team was moving forward. He didn’t quite get over the hurdle but the Bros Brothers – Tony Philliskirk and David Reeves – were great to watch.
“Neal could have managed in the second tier. And though Bruce (Rioch) did a phenomenal job, I think he had a reasonable base to build on.”
The Rioch era brought some big characters to Burnden Park but Smith says one of the biggest benefits as a journalist was the access afforded by Rioch.
“All the players would speak to you, you’d have every home number and you could rock up at the ground whenever you liked,” he said. “Bruce would prefer to get some advanced warning but he’d never stop you. I felt literally part of the family.
“I remember one time waiting for Andy Walker and John McGinlay outside the changing room and they were ages. After a while I heard a shout from behind the door to come in.
“There they were, neck deep in a bath, but we had a cracking chat. That is, until Bruce clocked what I’d been doing. He frog-marched me out of there and made sure I knew the one place we were not allowed was the changing room. What happened in there was sacrosanct.
“It’s sad the way football has gone. I wouldn’t say we were friends with footballers, because there is always a distance. Journalists that say they are friends with players is an ego thing. In the best circumstances you could have a good working relationship and there were people who you’d be delighted to see do well.”
“One of the things we used to do in those days to nullify any threat from the tabloids was to pool our information,” he said. “I did it with Gordon (Sharrock) and with David Meek at United.
“I’d get access and material they wouldn’t get and vice-versa. If we synchronised, maybe timing things for when the paper hit the streets at lunchtime, we could pretty much ensure stories were dead wood by the time the Press Association or the nationals got their hands on it.”
After Rioch came a solitary season in the Premier League, but then rebirth under Colin Todd.
“That team in 96/97, with the exception of Jean Tigana’s Fulham, as good a side as I have seen at that level,” he said. “We did Touchline TV back in the day and were at Tranmere on the final day of the season with 98 goals scored and 97 points – of course, they wanted the 100 on both fronts.
“We’d got all sorts of videos lined-up because it was the end of an era at Burnden Park too. And then Gavin Ward let that goal in at the end. He was an unpleasant fella, one of the few who was awkward to deal with.”
Saying goodbye to Burnden was a wrench for all involved but Smith argues the facilities at the new ground made it easy to adjust.
“It was sad leaving Burnden. I don’t even like driving past it on Manchester Road,” he said. “It freaks me out.
“I’ll never forget the final day, I’d turned up at 10am with a TV crew, nine cameras going everywhere. It was a special day, especially as John McGinlay got the final goal and they turned it around against Charlton.
“But the Macron Stadium – and this is no bull – is my favourite in the entire world.
“I’ve been to the Maracana, La Bombonera, done them all as a fan or a journalist and the Reebok or Macron is still the best.
“Whether it’s great times as a Bolton correspondent, or a supporter, or just the fact it still feels so modern 21 years on. I feel at home in the place.”
It took time for Wanderers’ training ground to catch up to their modern new stadium, as some of Smith’s early interviews at Euxton will attest.
“Coming from Nelson I thought Euxton was quite modern,” he laughed. “I remember doing an interview with Sam and putting it out on Wanderers TV, and one punter writing in to ask if we’d filmed it in his granny’s front room.
“The wallpaper was like Wheeltappers and Shunters. A visionary manager and the place was embarrassing.
“Players got changed in porta-cabins but the quality of player he had, the attention to detail, meant it didn’t matter.
“Yes, there were a couple of nervy seasons. I remember jumping around the house on a Saturday evening when Ruud van Nistlerooy scored a penalty against Ipswich, which meant they couldn’t catch us.
“And then I recall Sam grinding out a 0-0 at Southampton knowing he could go into the game against Middlesbrough on the last day and a win would keep them up.
“That game, for me, was probably the best Macron Stadium memory I have got. The relief when Per Frandsen scored… And it was professional relief too because our Wanderers TV budget was covered by the Premier League. If the club went down, bump, we went too.”
Smith has worked as a freelancer with Sky Sports and, most recently, launched a media coaching course aimed at teaching some of the skills he has accrued over the last three decades.
“I’ve worked with a lot of top journalists and got to know the industry so well,” he said. “In 2008 I got asked if I could fill-in at a university for a few months and I really enjoyed it.
“I feel strongly that the only people who know the media, are the media. I think a lot of educational establishments don’t really understand, there are a lot of gaps.
“I only coach when I think students would need if they got a break in a football club media department, or a local newspaper office. Then, if they got the break to move on to a national level, I’d also be able to tell them how it is done.
“Reporters nowadays have got to do a Twitter feed, a running match report, audio-visual stuff, the job has changed beyond recognition.
“And one of the important things, for me, is that not everyone wants to go to university to learn journalism. I think maybe people get seduced by degrees, but all I get asked from contacts in the game is that they want individuals who can handle a tough job.
“I feel qualified because for 30 years I have been under those pressures.”
Smith admits the pressure rarely piled higher than it did when Wanderers travelled to Belgrade in 2007, when police had taken a stance because of trouble the previous week.
“Some Partizan fan had set a policeman’s hair on fire,” he said. “The police were not going to tolerate anything so when the Bolton fans landed, they were penned in on the runway for hours. It was horrible for them.
“My main brief was working as a media liaison officer for the travel company – but I’d planned to do updates for Sky Sports News on the game via a telephone.
“I was supervising a tour of the city but when I got back to the hotel one of the other freelance operatives explained what had happened with the Bolton fans.
“They were trying to negotiate with police to let the fans through but Phil Gartside had caused an absolute uproar. He was not happy with how they were being treated.
“My concern was that once Sky Sports knew what was happening they would have wanted me to drop everything and get a Belgrade TV crew to the airport, which meant I couldn’t get the media to the game.
“I was sweating. Sky would have caused so much trouble but by the time they found out, I was 10 minutes off the stadium.
“It was a terrifying experience. Gavin McCann got the goal, of course, but every policeman had batons and guns.”
Another European trip with Wanderers, to Besiktas, cast the spotlight on a player Smith regards as a Bolton legend.
“Football out there is bigger than politics,” he said. “I’d seen what the Turkish media was like having gone to games at Fenerbahce and Galatasaray and there were 12 TV crews waiting for Jay Jay Okocha at arrivals. Once he stepped through the door they swarmed around him. He was like a God to them.
“He was an incredible footballer. He was the best I have seen in a white shirt. That free-kick against Aston Villa is still the best I have ever seen. And the time-wasting stuff against Arsenal, I mean, sometimes you just had to stand there and applaud.
“I know Nat Lofthouse and John McGinlay are naturally the one and two icons, in whatever order, but Jay Jay would be three, for me.”
Smith has hope for the modern day Wanderers, too, praising the job Phil Parkinson has done to not only stabilise the club in the last couple of seasons, but get it back into the Championship at the first attempt.
“A club like Bolton deserves to be up there in the Premier League again,” he said. “I know the landscape has changed and there is a lot more money sloshing around, but I’d like to think that in the not-too-distant future we can be reporting on top flight football again at a stadium which certainly deserves it.”
But whether he is covering Carlisle United or Manchester United, Smith’s passion for the job remains undiminished.
“My biggest fear is that one day having to go back to work,” he said.
“I never take anything for granted. I appreciate the luck I have had professionally.
“I love the job I do, it’s the best in the world.”
For more information on Peter Smith’s media coaching course visit www.pro30smc.com
Source
For 30 years he has charted the success of football across the North West, striking up relationships with some of the top names in the game.
But as he strikes out in a new venture, looking to mould the journalists of the future in a specialist media coaching course, he opened up on how life at Wanderers has changed immeasurably from the days of sharing a cup of tea with Bruce Rioch at Burnden Park.
Not a classically-trained media man, Smith described the “Sliding Doors moment” that began his own career as a journalist.
“I didn’t leave school with much but I wanted to be a football commentator,” he said. “It was nigh-on impossible for someone without the qualifications.
“I was working on a greengrocers stall and that was fortunate because most people who left school in Thatcher’s Britain at the time didn’t have anything.
“My mum used to work at Burnley General and she suggested I got involved with the hospital radio. One day, instead of turning left, I turned right and plucked up the courage to approach a big outside broadcast and asked one of the presenters if there was anything going.
“I made something happen. I bought a little tape recorder and my first interviews were with people like Emlyn Hughes and Kevin Keegan. I interviewed Brian Clough in my first season.
“I’d got introduced to Bolton by going to watch the Ian Greaves teams in the late seventies because it didn’t cost much to get the train in from Nelson.
“But in 1988 Club Call took off and after doing Burnley for a bit a staff job came up covering all the North West clubs, which is where I got on board with Phil Neal’s Bolton.”
Smith is quite protective of Phil Neal’s tenure as manager, insisting his groundwork paved the way for Rioch’s later, more celebrated successes.
“It wasn’t an easy time for the club and the Normid supermarket was like a monument to the decline of a club which I’d grown up with in the seventies,” he said. “But I think Phil Neal got a raw deal from a lot of people.
“I know the Sherpa Van Trophy isn’t a massive competition but it was part of the rebuilding job. There were two play-off defeats but I still felt the team was moving forward. He didn’t quite get over the hurdle but the Bros Brothers – Tony Philliskirk and David Reeves – were great to watch.
“Neal could have managed in the second tier. And though Bruce (Rioch) did a phenomenal job, I think he had a reasonable base to build on.”
The Rioch era brought some big characters to Burnden Park but Smith says one of the biggest benefits as a journalist was the access afforded by Rioch.
“All the players would speak to you, you’d have every home number and you could rock up at the ground whenever you liked,” he said. “Bruce would prefer to get some advanced warning but he’d never stop you. I felt literally part of the family.
“I remember one time waiting for Andy Walker and John McGinlay outside the changing room and they were ages. After a while I heard a shout from behind the door to come in.
“There they were, neck deep in a bath, but we had a cracking chat. That is, until Bruce clocked what I’d been doing. He frog-marched me out of there and made sure I knew the one place we were not allowed was the changing room. What happened in there was sacrosanct.
“It’s sad the way football has gone. I wouldn’t say we were friends with footballers, because there is always a distance. Journalists that say they are friends with players is an ego thing. In the best circumstances you could have a good working relationship and there were people who you’d be delighted to see do well.”
“One of the things we used to do in those days to nullify any threat from the tabloids was to pool our information,” he said. “I did it with Gordon (Sharrock) and with David Meek at United.
“I’d get access and material they wouldn’t get and vice-versa. If we synchronised, maybe timing things for when the paper hit the streets at lunchtime, we could pretty much ensure stories were dead wood by the time the Press Association or the nationals got their hands on it.”
After Rioch came a solitary season in the Premier League, but then rebirth under Colin Todd.
“That team in 96/97, with the exception of Jean Tigana’s Fulham, as good a side as I have seen at that level,” he said. “We did Touchline TV back in the day and were at Tranmere on the final day of the season with 98 goals scored and 97 points – of course, they wanted the 100 on both fronts.
“We’d got all sorts of videos lined-up because it was the end of an era at Burnden Park too. And then Gavin Ward let that goal in at the end. He was an unpleasant fella, one of the few who was awkward to deal with.”
Saying goodbye to Burnden was a wrench for all involved but Smith argues the facilities at the new ground made it easy to adjust.
“It was sad leaving Burnden. I don’t even like driving past it on Manchester Road,” he said. “It freaks me out.
“I’ll never forget the final day, I’d turned up at 10am with a TV crew, nine cameras going everywhere. It was a special day, especially as John McGinlay got the final goal and they turned it around against Charlton.
“But the Macron Stadium – and this is no bull – is my favourite in the entire world.
“I’ve been to the Maracana, La Bombonera, done them all as a fan or a journalist and the Reebok or Macron is still the best.
“Whether it’s great times as a Bolton correspondent, or a supporter, or just the fact it still feels so modern 21 years on. I feel at home in the place.”
It took time for Wanderers’ training ground to catch up to their modern new stadium, as some of Smith’s early interviews at Euxton will attest.
“Coming from Nelson I thought Euxton was quite modern,” he laughed. “I remember doing an interview with Sam and putting it out on Wanderers TV, and one punter writing in to ask if we’d filmed it in his granny’s front room.
“The wallpaper was like Wheeltappers and Shunters. A visionary manager and the place was embarrassing.
“Players got changed in porta-cabins but the quality of player he had, the attention to detail, meant it didn’t matter.
“Yes, there were a couple of nervy seasons. I remember jumping around the house on a Saturday evening when Ruud van Nistlerooy scored a penalty against Ipswich, which meant they couldn’t catch us.
“And then I recall Sam grinding out a 0-0 at Southampton knowing he could go into the game against Middlesbrough on the last day and a win would keep them up.
“That game, for me, was probably the best Macron Stadium memory I have got. The relief when Per Frandsen scored… And it was professional relief too because our Wanderers TV budget was covered by the Premier League. If the club went down, bump, we went too.”
Smith has worked as a freelancer with Sky Sports and, most recently, launched a media coaching course aimed at teaching some of the skills he has accrued over the last three decades.
“I’ve worked with a lot of top journalists and got to know the industry so well,” he said. “In 2008 I got asked if I could fill-in at a university for a few months and I really enjoyed it.
“I feel strongly that the only people who know the media, are the media. I think a lot of educational establishments don’t really understand, there are a lot of gaps.
“I only coach when I think students would need if they got a break in a football club media department, or a local newspaper office. Then, if they got the break to move on to a national level, I’d also be able to tell them how it is done.
“Reporters nowadays have got to do a Twitter feed, a running match report, audio-visual stuff, the job has changed beyond recognition.
“And one of the important things, for me, is that not everyone wants to go to university to learn journalism. I think maybe people get seduced by degrees, but all I get asked from contacts in the game is that they want individuals who can handle a tough job.
“I feel qualified because for 30 years I have been under those pressures.”
Smith admits the pressure rarely piled higher than it did when Wanderers travelled to Belgrade in 2007, when police had taken a stance because of trouble the previous week.
“Some Partizan fan had set a policeman’s hair on fire,” he said. “The police were not going to tolerate anything so when the Bolton fans landed, they were penned in on the runway for hours. It was horrible for them.
“My main brief was working as a media liaison officer for the travel company – but I’d planned to do updates for Sky Sports News on the game via a telephone.
“I was supervising a tour of the city but when I got back to the hotel one of the other freelance operatives explained what had happened with the Bolton fans.
“They were trying to negotiate with police to let the fans through but Phil Gartside had caused an absolute uproar. He was not happy with how they were being treated.
“My concern was that once Sky Sports knew what was happening they would have wanted me to drop everything and get a Belgrade TV crew to the airport, which meant I couldn’t get the media to the game.
“I was sweating. Sky would have caused so much trouble but by the time they found out, I was 10 minutes off the stadium.
“It was a terrifying experience. Gavin McCann got the goal, of course, but every policeman had batons and guns.”
Another European trip with Wanderers, to Besiktas, cast the spotlight on a player Smith regards as a Bolton legend.
“Football out there is bigger than politics,” he said. “I’d seen what the Turkish media was like having gone to games at Fenerbahce and Galatasaray and there were 12 TV crews waiting for Jay Jay Okocha at arrivals. Once he stepped through the door they swarmed around him. He was like a God to them.
“He was an incredible footballer. He was the best I have seen in a white shirt. That free-kick against Aston Villa is still the best I have ever seen. And the time-wasting stuff against Arsenal, I mean, sometimes you just had to stand there and applaud.
“I know Nat Lofthouse and John McGinlay are naturally the one and two icons, in whatever order, but Jay Jay would be three, for me.”
Smith has hope for the modern day Wanderers, too, praising the job Phil Parkinson has done to not only stabilise the club in the last couple of seasons, but get it back into the Championship at the first attempt.
“A club like Bolton deserves to be up there in the Premier League again,” he said. “I know the landscape has changed and there is a lot more money sloshing around, but I’d like to think that in the not-too-distant future we can be reporting on top flight football again at a stadium which certainly deserves it.”
But whether he is covering Carlisle United or Manchester United, Smith’s passion for the job remains undiminished.
“My biggest fear is that one day having to go back to work,” he said.
“I never take anything for granted. I appreciate the luck I have had professionally.
“I love the job I do, it’s the best in the world.”
For more information on Peter Smith’s media coaching course visit www.pro30smc.com
Source