Sky Sports will broadcast their 500th live match from The
Football League tonight.
The landmark will be reached with the live coverage of West Ham v
Leicester City and comes eight seasons after Sky Sports broadcast
their first Football League match.
Hammers midfielder, Steve Lomas, then playing for Manchester
City scored the first televised goal against Ipswich on 16
August 1996 and the goal tally has now risen to 1255 - an average
of 2.51 per game. The highest amount of goals in one game is eight
- Sunderland 4 - 4 Charlton Athletic in the 1998 Division One Play
Off Final and Barnsley 7 - 1 Huddersfield Town during the 1998/99
season.
Kevin Phillips has been the top goalscorer from Sky Sports coverage
with 11 goals and he is one of nine players to score a live
televised hat-trick alongside Iwan Roberts (Wolves), Clive Mendonca
(Charlton Athletic), Brett Angell (Stockport County), Shaun Goater
(Man City), Louis Saha (Fulham), Jack Lester (Nottingham Forest),
Paul Peschisolido (Sheffield United) and Dean Bowditch (Ipswich
Town).
The most popular team for the Sky Sports cameras has been Ipswich
Town, followed by Sheffield United and Wolves.
Commenting on the landmark, Football League Chairman Sir Brian
Mawhinney said: "Well done Sky on televising the 500th
Football League game. I'm sure it will live up to the extremely
high standard you have set in the previous 499. We thank you
for enabling so many people to see the high quality, exciting
football that The Football League has on offer week in, week
out."
500 Up For Sky Sports
18th March 2005