Bad night for Andy Townsend, who misses ITV gig through illness and gets hammered on Twitter anyway

We're all hoping Andy gets better soon

Poor old Andy Townsend. The former Republic of Ireland midfielder was due to be on commentary duty for ITV's coverage of Manchester City's Champions League tie with Barcelona this evening, but was taken ill and had to be replaced by Lee Dixon. Townsend, whose contract with ITV has not been renewed beyond this season, has earned the ire of many for his analysis, but if he thought he might earn the sympathy of the social media hordes he had another thing coming. Joking aside, though, let's hope Townsend makes a swift recovery from whatever ails him. https://twitter.com/JamesBusby8/status/570310093755056129 https://twitter.com/Notti1980/status/570310008270942209 https://twitter.com/HarByrne6/status/570309805912559617 https://twitter.com/ScottimusRex/status/570309922937827328 https://twitter.com/markgreggs87/status/570309794134953985 https://twitter.com/frontwards/status/570309579898265600 https://twitter.com/DaveDosocho/status/570309693475835904 https://twitter.com/MrPaulRobinson/status/570309716456435712 https://twitter.com/JohnPudney/status/570309446326484993 Not everyone was pleased, however. https://twitter.com/giniekay/status/570309673020235777