Match video
WATV: Witton Albion's match video and online match console, 2007–09
Long before streaming was routine in non-league football, Witton Albion posted goals and interviews from almost every match on its website. This page records what the service offered and which games it covered. The footage itself was never archived.
Between 2007 and 2009 the Witton Albion website did something unusual for a club at its level: it filmed its matches and put the goals, and the manager's reaction, online within days. By the last version of the site the service had a name, WATV, and a section of its own with live scores and a "match console".
None of that video can be watched here. The Internet Archive copied the pages around the players but not the films, and this archive holds no footage. The old addresses of the video pages now lead to this page, which records what the service was.
Video on the fixtures page, 2007–08
The first trace is from early 2007, when the original site had a "Play" page that mostly said "coming soon" and a player page headed with a single match, the League Cup tie against Marine on 10 February 2007.
The idea was built properly into the second version of the site, which went live in the summer of 2007. A note at the head of the fixtures list explained that each match's details comprised video footage, teams and scorers, and every fixture linked to its own player page. That page named the match, the clip being shown and the other clips available.
About fifty of those pages were archived. Many are empty shells, but thirty-two still carry their match and clip titles. They show what was typically posted: the goals, sometimes one clip per goal, the manager Jim Vince's thoughts afterwards, and a weekly round-up.
| Date | Match | Competition | Clips listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Sep 2007 | Witton Albion v Altrincham | Cheshire Senior Cup | Match Round Up |
| 29 Sep 2007 | Ashton United v Witton Albion | Premier Division | Monday Training Night; Unibond Round Up 06/10/07 |
| 9 Oct 2007 | Witton Albion v Prescot Cables | Premier Division | Managers Post Match Thoughts; All The Goals |
| 13 Oct 2007 | Leek Town v Witton Albion | Premier Division | More Training Interviews |
| 16 Oct 2007 | Witton Albion v Kendal Town | Premier Division | Managers Thoughts; All The Goals |
| 20 Oct 2007 | Witton Albion v Ashton United | FA Trophy | Rod Thornley; All The Goals; Managers Thoughts |
| 30 Oct 2007 | Fleetwood Town v Witton Albion | Premier Division | Players Question Time; Stocksbridge v Witton Preview |
| 3 Nov 2007 | Stocksbridge Park Steels v Witton Albion | FA Trophy | Stocksbridge v Witton Preview; Witton's Goals; Garry Marrow's Thoughts; Steels v Witton; Jim Vince's Thoughts; Cup round-up |
| 10 Nov 2007 | Witton Albion v Hednesford Town | Premier Division | Players Question Time II; Witton Goals; Man of the match; Hednesford's Goals; Jim's Thoughts; Team of the month; Weekly Round Up |
| 17 Nov 2007 | Witton Albion v Ossett Town | Premier Division | Witton Goals; Man of the match; Jim's Thoughts |
| 27 Nov 2007 | Witton Albion v Hucknall Town | FA Trophy | Hucknall Town's Goals; Mark Peers Goal; Weekly Round Up |
| 1 Dec 2007 | Witton Albion v North Ferriby United | Premier Division | Adam Warlow; Jim's Thoughts; Witton's Goals |
| 4 Dec 2007 | Witton Albion v Winsford United | Mid Cheshire Cup | Weekly Round UP; Witton Goals; Jim's Thoughts; Match Sponsors; Winsford Goals |
| 8 Dec 2007 | Worksop Town v Witton Albion | Premier Division | Witton Goal; Worksop Penalty |
| 15 Dec 2007 | Stamford v Witton Albion | Premier Division | Witton Goal; Stamford Goal; Weekly Round-up; Kyle Wilson's Goal |
| 22 Dec 2007 | Frickley Athletic v Witton Albion | Premier Division | Witton Goal |
| 26 Dec 2007 | Witton Albion v Ashton United | Premier Division | Adam Warlow's Goal; Ashton's Goal; Nigel's Match Thoughts; Nigel's Thoughts On Saturdays Match With Buxton; Santa Comes To Witton |
| 29 Dec 2007 | Witton Albion v Buxton | Premier Division | Liam Brownhill Goal; Rob Lloyd's Goal; Rod Thornley; Witton Supporters Collecting Their Medals |
| 5 Jan 2008 | Witton Albion v Curzon Ashton | League Challenge Cup | Rod Thornleys 1st Goal; Rod Thornley 2nd Goal; Jim's Post Match Thoughts; Jim's Thoughts on Saturdays Ilkeston Match; Curzon Goal |
| 12 Jan 2008 | Witton Albion v Ilkeston Town | Premier Division | Mark Peers Goal; Alex Brown Goal; Ilkeston Goal |
| 5 Feb 2008 | Matlock Town v Witton Albion | Premier Division | Witton Goals |
| 9 Feb 2008 | Witton Albion v Gateshead | League Challenge Cup | Gateshead Goal; Jims Thoughts |
| 16 Feb 2008 | Witton Albion v Gateshead | Premier Division | Witton Goals; Jims Thoughts; Gatesheads Goals |
| 23 Feb 2008 | Witton Albion v Whitby Town | Premier Division | Todays Goals; Jims Thoughts |
| 12 Mar 2008 | Gateshead v Witton Albion | Premier Division | Rob Lloyd thoughts about the Gateshead game; Players with the press; Todays Goals |
| 15 Mar 2008 | Guiseley v Witton Albion | Premier Division | Jim Thoughts; Wittons Goals; Guiseley Goal |
| 21 Mar 2008 | Marine v Witton Albion | Premier Division | Witton Goals; Jims thoughts |
| 24 Mar 2008 | Witton Albion v Fleetwood Town | Premier Division | Fleetwood Town interview and goals; Jim Thoughts |
| 12 Apr 2008 | Witton Albion v Guiseley | Premier Division | Jim's Thoughts; Witton goal |
| 15 Apr 2008 | Witton Albion v Frickley Athletic | Premier Division | Witton goals; Jim thoughts |
| 19 Apr 2008 | North Ferriby United v Witton Albion | Premier Division | North Ferriby goal |
| 26 Apr 2008 | Witton Albion v Worksop Town | Premier Division | Worksop goals |
Dates and competitions are from the club's fixtures and results list. Clip titles are given as the club wrote them, apart from capital letters.
The clip titles are occasionally useful as evidence. The club's fixture list recorded the game at Matlock on 5 February 2008 as a 2–0 defeat, but the only clip listed for it is "Witton goals", which fits the published result, a 2–0 win.
The club news list of the same season also linked to "Players' Question Time" films and to interviews recorded at Monday night training. The homepage carried a link to the league's own web television service, which in March 2008 was advertising live coverage and a match of the week from around the division.
Recognition, May 2008
The service was noticed. On 1 May 2008 the club reported that its chairman, Mike Worthington, had been asked to speak at a seminar for non-league clubs about raising money through the internet, to be held at Wincham Park the following Thursday, 8 May. The story said the club's website had been praised for its post-match highlights, which included interviews with the manager and players, and that Worthington would also describe the club's experience of selling advertising on the site to local firms. The seminar was organised by Sponsor-Link, a company based in nearby Winsford and described as the league's official web development partner.
The invitation came at the very end of Worthington's time as chairman. He left the club in the upheaval of the following days, described in the 2006–08 news digest.
WATV and the match console, 2008–09
When the site was rebuilt in August 2008 the video moved into a section of its own, introduced as Witton Albion Football Club TV and abbreviated to WATV, with the invitation to watch Witton Albion on a home computer. It had four parts:
- Highlights. One match was featured on the front of the section. In the copy archived in February 2009 it was the home game with FC United of Manchester, which Witton had won 2–1 on 24 January; in April and June 2009 it was the 4–2 win over Ashton United on 10 March.
- Interviews with players and staff, hosted on a separate video server.
- Live scores from matches across the league's divisions, on a page that refreshed itself every five minutes. The copy archived on Saturday 7 February 2009 shows a winter afternoon on which most of the programme was postponed, including Witton's own cup tie with Guiseley.
- The match console, which listed every Witton fixture month by month and offered a team sheet, statistics (goals, bookings, dismissals and attendance) and a match report for each.
The console is the reason the 2008–09 results on this site can be labelled by competition. The season's fixtures page did not say which matches were cup ties; the console did. Its copy of the league table, last archived in June 2009, is the final table of the season.
The team sheets, statistics and reports themselves were never archived. Only the lists of fixtures survive.
What survives and what does not
| Part of the service | Archived? |
|---|---|
| Titles of matches and clips, 2007–08 | Yes, for thirty-two player pages |
| The video files | No |
| The WATV front page, 2009 | Yes |
| Live scores | One afternoon, 7 February 2009 |
| Match console fixture lists | Yes |
| Team sheets, statistics and match reports in the console | No |
| The league table | Yes; see the league table page |
This archive would be glad to record where any surviving films can be seen.
Sources and notes
The table of matches was produced by script from the Internet Archive's copies of the individual player pages. A few clip titles that named private individuals have been left out. The account of the seminar is from the club's own news story of 1 May 2008; the description of the league's television service is from the league newsletter of 1 March 2008.