View from the Sofa: Passionate Robbie Savage adds that Marmite flavour to the commentary box

FA Cup BBC 2

Robbie Savage revels in his 'Marmite' persona (Getty)

Michael Owen and Robbie Savage must have skin like buffalo hide. The two ex-footballers have carved themselves out media careers: the former as a co-commentator on BT Sport, the latter as a pundit. And, in this age of any clot with a smartphone deeming themselves entitled to insult who they choose, they cop a fair amount of criticism on social media.

Put it this way: if Owen had a quid for each time he has been called boring on Twitter, he wouldn’t need to bother with his horseracing business. Savage, on the other hand, revels in his “Marmite” persona. Both men give as much as they get, with Owen often calling out his trolls as “idiots” and Savage frequently free and easy with his retweeting of boneheads.

Savage made his FA Cup co-commentary debut on Friday night, perched in the temporary scaffolding for the BBC’s return to the competition, with a match that sounded like a cross-code rugby fixture: Warrington v Exeter. And boy, did he show his passion, as a home side made up of plasterers, web developers and fitness instructors took the game to their professional opponents.

Savage’s shouting was manna from heaven for the keyboard warriors. “This is a great game!” he repeatedly screamed, cranking his voice up beyond the threshold of pain. By the end of the match he was reduced to single word contributions – some of which were more onomatopoeia than English: “Woooooah! Unbelieeeeeeevable!”

His commentary was more enjoyable than the build-up to the match, where Dan Walker’s relentless cheerfulness and ramshackle “ooh, isn’t this exciting, they’re all enjoying it” schtick made the event sound like a school holiday live special of a CBeebies pantomime.

A highlight of the build-up and half-time chat was the presence of Karl Robinson, the Milton Keynes manager, who was once a player at Warrington and was there to watch his brother Craig, who scored the winner.

It wasn’t clear if Karl had just gone along to cheer on his brother and catch up with some mates over a few jars (he was dressed as if he had) and had been roped into punditry duties. But he was as enthusiastic as Savage, as well as being an insightful half-time voice – one that comes from playing at that level – on what Warrington should do to preserve their lead.

Over on BT Sport, Owen is another who strives for insight, more than sheer excitement – as far as we can gather, anyway. He was in the chair for Liverpool’s loss to Chelsea on Saturday and, although we’d love to wax lyrical on what he said, thanks to BT Sport’s failure to make good on its promise to provide us with the necessary instructions to receive the channel (the email will be with you in 24 hours, BT told us Thursday. We’re still waiting) we saw nothing of the game.

Neither did we see Savage and Owen on the same channel together, on the magazine show Fletch and Sav on Saturday morning. According to Twitter, Owen was boring. And Savage was either passionate or shouty, depending on who you read. Not that either man will have let it bother them.