Sky Sports have moved to defend Martin Tyler and Gary “I’m Bored’ Neville after their character assassination of Everton fans during the game at Goodison Park against Manchester City.

During the first half, and after Ross Barkley’s sublime opening goal which sent Goodison into raptures which was then followed by the away team regrouping and at first equalising and then taking the lead – Gary Neville said that he was “bored” while Tyler was almost inconsolable when City scored their second, much as he had been at Anfield when City had equalised against his beloved Liverpool.

Tyler also claimed that his technical equipment indicated that there was “no noise” at Goodison Park, despite the fact that even when Everton fans were stunned by City’s goals, the travelling support was at City’s usual peak. “My technical equipment indicates sound but today there isn’t any” he moaned as he saw the title slip out of Liverpool’s reach.

Several readers of our Everton forums wrote to complain to Sky about the complete lack of impartiality – or truth – in the commentary team’s reaction to the game, but the response they got was far from satisfactory.

Our live coverage is designed to tell the story of a football match. A major storyline of the fixture was how an Everton win would boost Liverpool’s title winning chances and therefore the likely impact on the atmosphere at Goodison Park. This subject had also been debated across other parts of the media before the match. Obviously it is our duty to inform our viewers of what is happening during the live coverage and only right that they discussed the atmosphere during the match, particularly considering our on-screen talent boast years of experience commentating and playing in big matches, including at Goodison Park. Again, this was consistent with other parts of the media where, for example, the words ‘flat’ ‘strange’ and ‘odd’ were used in match reports.

The 37,000 Evertonians in attendance at Goodison Park will disagree, again, with Sky and their defence of their employees, and perhaps when looking through media reports the people at Sky could have read The Guardian instead of the Beano or Daily Mail for their findings, given Andy Hunter’s view of things:

“The opportunity was threatened by Everton, who required only 11 minutes to silence the conspiracists who contended they would stand aside to damage Liverpool’s title chances. Ross Barkley, outstanding throughout in front of the watching England manager, Roy Hodgson, swept a glorious first-time shot over Joe Hart. Goodison erupted in celebration, although you would be forgiven for thinking otherwise according to the Sky commentary and subsequent baseless accusations levelled at the club.“

They could even have asked the Everton manager his thoughts, or at least taken note when someone else had done so, given Roberto Martinez’s response was, “In the second half especially the crowd were incredible. We felt galvanised by our crowd and I thought that our performance didn’t deserve a defeat.”

A stark contrast to Tyler’s take on things, when he remarked at one point, “‘the fans failed to lift their team after Barkley’s goal which is a reason why they are now losing.”

Everton were shown on TV 16 times last season, with Sky Sports broadcasting 11 of those games and BT Sport the other five. Perhaps the introduction of even further competition for TV rights in the near future could end Sky’s dominance by incompetence and bring about the downfall of shameless shysters like Tyler.