Sheffield has been paying tribute to the late John Motson after the former BBC commentator’s sad passing at the age of 77.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The iconic commentator began his football career in the Steel City, working for the Sheffield Morning Telegraph in 1967 and 1968.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Motson became a famous voice of BBC’s Match of the Day, taking his place behind the mic for fixtures between 1971 until 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BBC Radio Sheffield commentator Rob Staton saw Motson as an icon in the profession who the industry has struggled to replace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said: “A lot of modern commentators will try and talk too much about a situation, we can all see what’s happened, it just needs that emotive sentence to sum up a moment perfectly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“He inspired everybody that wanted to be a journalist and every person who wanted to be a commentator, when I grew up, if you said to anybody that you wanted to be a football commentator, they would ask if you wanted to be the next John Motson.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was his commentary of Ronnie Radford’s strike with Hereford to knock Newcastle out of the FA Cup the following year which made him famous, soon becoming the face of Match of the Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps the most memorable moment for Sheffield United fans choosing to remember ‘Motty’ was the commentary on Tony Currie’s goal to put the Blades 3-2 in front against West Ham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“A quality goal by a quality player” Motson dubbed it, as Currie shimmied and shot after picking the ball up from just inside The Hammers’ half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n