Sport on TV: BBC's Havant snub leaves the Sky team in hysterics

If you google "havant waterlooville bbc" the top hit is the BBC's own page: "Who are Havant & Waterlooville?" Well might they ask. It could have continued, "... and why have we only just heard about them? Is that why we didn't show the Liverpool game live? How incompetent are we?"

Why didn't Gary Lineker issue an apology on Match of the Day, or at least have the decency to look shamefaced? I'm sorry to bang on about this, having laid into the Beeb last month for not showing Havant's third-round win over Swansea live. The thinking then, presumably, was that the Swans just weren't big enough. There was no such excuse for the fourth round.

So who did we get instead last weekend? Man Utd v Spurs, which is fair enough – prospective tie of the round and all that; Mansfield v Middlesbrough, in which an upset was possible, though not one to quicken the pulse particularly; and Wigan v Chelsea, which would be a lamentable choice as a live game under any circumstances. Havant weren't best pleased, either, at missing out on the £150,000 live-TV money. Understandable.

So in the event the BBC were spectacularly upstaged by Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports 1, who had one of those great TV sporting moments. Jeff Stelling, the anchorman without peer, went to Paul Merson, who was watching the Peterborough-West Brom game, but just as Merse was beginning his account, it happened.

"It's against the run of play and it's West Brom 1-"

An hysterical shriek: "OH! GOAL! IT'S A GOAL!"

Stelling: "We're going to leave you, Paul – we'll come back 'cause there is a goal, and you'll know which way it's gone! Unbelievable, to paraphrase Chris Kamara. Matthew Le Tissier!" (I love that "to paraphrase Chris Kamara".)

Le Tissier: "Havant & Waterlooville are 1-0 up! It's Pacquette, I think, has got the goal. Unbelievable! Get the camera on that man there [that man being the former Liverpool defender Phil Thompson]! There's people crying in the stands! It's unbelievable! Inswinging corner, Pacquette is just left five yards out on his own in the box – he just headed it down and it's gone in. It's 1-0 to Havant & Waterlooville!" As he finished he was banging the desk in sheer disbelief, while around him the team cracked up.

The shocked laughter continued as Stelling kept the show on the road: "Havant & Waterlooville are 82 minutes away from the greatest shock in FA Cup history... It doesn't matter what happens for the rest of the afternoon – they are the story of the day!" I wonder if anyone from the BBC was watching as he said it. And then it happened again. Havant scored and a couple more BBC execs self-defenestrated.

"YOU-WILL-NOT-BELIEVE-IT!" Stelling roared. "He doesn't believe it" – Thompson again – "Matthew Le Tissier doesn't believe it, and I don't believe it either!"

Anyway, it's brilliant. For a few delirious seconds it's up there with Aggers and Johnners. Watch it on www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NNqtMSJBMQ.