PAUL ARMSTRONG edited the BBC’s football flagship Match of the Day for 15 years and worked at seven World Cups. Behind the scenes, he rubbed shoulders with a galaxy of commentators, pundits and celebrities. And for fans who believe anchorman Gary Lineker

STEVEN GERRARD has never travelled in a Tardis, but his outlandish talents include beating Doctor Who at his own game – as Time Lord of the airwaves.

Give or take a Premier League champion’s medal, Gerrard won nearly everything with Liverpool in his playing career.

But in the FA Cup Final in 2006, the Kop idol was unaware he was the pivotal figure in a huge row behind the scenes at the BBC.

Senior figures at network control went into meltdown when Gerrard’s stoppage-time equaliser in the 3-3 draw with West Ham in Cardiff sent a thrilling final into extra time and penalties. One Beeb executive was so desperate to screen the first part of Doctor Who story Rise of the Cybermen promptly, in its advertised slot, that he threatened to pull the plug and take the Cup Final OFF the air before Prince William had handed over the trophy ( far right).

And it took the intervention of Match of the Day anchorman Gary Lineker (right), with a personal appeal to the controller of BBC One, for common sense to prevail, the football to overrun and Gerrard’s cabaret to run its full course on screen. The drama – and madness – of the row is featured in BBC Sport production legend Paul Armstrong’s new book,

‘Why Are We Always

On Last?’

Armstrong reveals:

“With a few minutes to go in extra time, and neither exhausted team having made a breakthrough, there was another call (from BBC One network control at Television Centre).

‘This is going to penalties, isn’t it?’ (accusing tone)

‘Looks like it.’

‘Right, as soon as someone wins, you have to get off the air.’

‘Er... the trophy presentation?’ ‘Nope, no time for that.’

“I paused, truly lost for words, and eventually came up with, ‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you. If you do, you’ll lose your job.’ “He hung up again. We were incredulous – they were intent on missing the trophy being lifted for the first time since the FA Cup Final was first televised by the BBC in the 1930s, and all for a Doctor Who episode that was presumably timeless. Well, he was the Time Lord, wasn’t he?

“Fortunately, the ever-resourceful, never-booked-in-his-career, supremely well-connected Gary Lineker, listening in to this nonsense, had quietly texted BBC One controller Peter Fincham.

“Just as we were waiting for the penalties to start, and preparing for mutiny, we had another call from network control.

“It was as if a different person had taken charge – think Peter Capaldi morphing into Jodie Whittaker – and we were told to make sure we didn’t come off the air until we had interviewed the main protagonists.

“And of course, both the football and