ITV's EFL coverage is a disgrace but Sky Sports+ is not the answer

My club's return to the EFL has left me yearning for something I never thought I would miss and that is truly embarrassing for the decision makers

As a Chesterfield supporter, this summer could not have gone quicker in my book as we prepared for life back in the EFL following our six-year absence.

Among the excitement of reacquainting ourselves with old rivals and the prospect of bigger attendances and more appealing away days, there was also the intrigue as to how coverage of the Blues would improve. During the misery of the National League, the silver lining was that the spotlight on the division was impressive.

I am not naive enough to think that a huge part of this was not down to Hollywood Wrexham being in the fifth tier but nevertheless, the product offered up by BT Sport and latterly TNT Sports was night and day to what we have seen in the two months back in the EFL. In Adam Summerton and Adam Virgo, the broadcaster had a largely dependable and knowledgeable commentary team.

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Pitchside, Matt Smith was often joined by pundits like Aaron McClean who, while you may not have always agreed with them, at least could be respected for their devotion to the division. So that's what makes the offering handed down to us by ITV particularly pitiful at the moment.

In the age of modern technology, perhaps the need for a nightly TV highlights programme which rounds up all the action from across the three divisions is not needed. However, it cannot be underestimated how big a gap there is for effective punditry on the EFL clubs each weekend.

In its heyday, the BBC's coverage of the 72 clubs became a standard bearer with Manish Bhasin and Steve Claridge offering a comprehensive guide to the weekend's action. Meanwhile, regional broadcasts of the Late Kick Off highlighted some of the talking points and issues surrounding the clubs away from the 90 minutes.

Incredibly, ITV have decided to ditch this duty and instead offer an experience which is worse than going onto YouTube and searching for match highlights. If your team is not the featured game, there is no chance of any insightful analysis - it begs the question why bother offering highlights at all.

It could be argued that Sky Sports+ is aiming to fill the huge gap left by ITV's dereliction of duties but I am not convinced their model is particularly what was needed. Being in League Two, it is good to see coverage this season being spread away from the Championship instead of the division and League One being ignored until the international break.

However, Sky's crimes against competent broadcasting are filtered into their decimation of the fixture list. Among the egregious kick-offs this weekend are Bromley's away trip to Fleetwood and Hull City's visit to Norwich City both being moved to lunchtime.

This may be more acceptable if those matches were given actual punditry teams but instead, fans will be 'treated' to a stream of the action which may or may not buffer. Not quite as revolutionary therefore as Sky would have had you believe at the start of the season.

So what is the solution? In terms of ITV, they need to start giving the product they have paid good money for some love and offer at least a highlights show which provides more than just goals which can be found on social media 15 minutes after full-time.

As for Sky Sports, they must end this pursuit of showing every team 20+ times per season if it means showing matches that have very little riding on them at increasingly inconvenient times for match-going supporters. It is not rocket science and if TNT Sports could pull it off with the National League, I'd be shocked if ITV and Sky couldn't work it out.