The Big Match Revisited

In December 1979, Brian Moore hosted a football highlights programme showcasing three matches: Crystal Palace versus Nottingham Forest, Middlesbrough against Southampton, and Ipswich Town facing Manchester City. The broadcast captures the key moments from each game, reflecting the season’s early excitement.

The broadcast is a television programme presented by Brian Moore and listed as an episode. It compiles football action recorded in December 1979, giving viewers a concise look at the sport during that month. The show is designed to capture the excitement of the season’s closing weeks and to present the selected matches in a single viewing slot. The heart of the episode consists of three specific fixtures. First, Crystal Palace take on Nottingham Forest; next comes a clash between Middlesbrough and Southampton; and finally Ipswich Town face Manchester City. Each encounter is included in the programme’s lineup, offering a snapshot of English football across a range of clubs and regions. Brian Moore acts as the presenter, introducing each game and providing brief context for the action. His role is to guide the audience through the December 1979 encounters, framing each contest and highlighting the relevance of the match‑ups for the teams involved. The presentation links the three fixtures together under a unified format. By assembling these three matches, the programme delivers a compact record of English football at the end of 1979. Categorised under the genre “episode,” it functions as a straightforward compilation that preserves the December 1979 fixtures for later viewers, without adding any material beyond Moore’s introductions.