Sports journalists are fans too - we just hate the last-minute drama

Some of us are better at finding faults with our jobs than we are stories.

So it can be quite a useful experience for us to talk about what we do every now and then to someone from outside of the trade. It quickly makes you remember how lucky you are.

“So you go to all the matches?” they invariably ask, wide-eyed. You protest it is not always as glamorous as it seems – a Football League Trophy dead-rubber at Grimsby Town (even with nothing riding on it, it went to a long-winded and hard-to-follow ABBA penalty shoot-out) is not how many would choose to spend a cold Tuesday night, as the Blundell Park stands testified – but you cannot disguise the fact we are lucky, lucky people.

I have witnessed some incredible sporting occasions from the stands, from non-league matches to cup finals. I was spawny enough to get a ticket for what I thought would be another dead-rubber in La Liga 19 years ago, but months later when Barcelona met European Cup finalists Valencia it turned out to be a Champions League decider at the Nou Camp and Rivaldo’s incredible hat-trick ensured it went the way of the home side. I was there.

There has also been the downright bizarre, like a World Cup qualifier between the United States of America and Costa Rica when I was on holiday in Colorado. Google “Snow Clasico” and see what I mean because no words I write will make you believe it. I was there, too.

What makes for an enjoyable game as a fan is not the same as what you hope for as a journalist.

We like to watch good football – we are fans, after all – and to report on “our” team winning. Some people seem to think sports writers like nothing more than putting the boot in on a struggling side or individual but, really, it is not the case. Even if you do not support the team you cover – and at club level that is something I have never done – you feel an attachment to them, and covering a losing team is miserable.

For starters, everyone is much happier to speak to you after a victory, but more than that, you get dragged down by the misery. In the days of social media, it is not unusual for supporters to take their frustration out on you.

I covered Sunderland’s slide from the Premier League to League One in consecutive seasons and I can assure you, it was not a barrel of laughs. Working in the North-East as I did for 14 years, post-mortem match reports tended to outweigh celebratory ones.

I was working my notice as a sports sub-editor on the Liverpool Echo when I got a phone call from my soon-to-be sports editor asking if I had a valid passport. I assumed he was just filling out the paperwork, but it turned out he needed me in Heerenveen in a few weeks to cover Newcastle United’s UEFA Cup tie there. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored a towering header for the hosts, but Alan Shearer and Lee Bowyer scored too. Patrick Kluivert was also playing for the Magpies.

In the early years, I even covered Newcastle Falcons in France.

I could have got used to this European football malarkey, but it soon petered out. Instead, the eyebrow-raising moments were often more of the negative variety, like Bowyer’s on-pitch fight with his team-mate Kieron Dyer weeks later. It made for an interesting post-match press conference.

Writing about Durham’s trophy-winning years on the cricket field and sharing the happy individual stories was far more enjoyable. Even though I would much rather second-placed Yorkshire had won the 2013 County Championship, it was hard to feel too downhearted about Durham pipping them.

The nightmare for the journalist is the sweetest thing for fans, the last-minute winner or even equaliser, even if it tips the game the way of “your” team. Much better are matches like Sheffield United’s Saturday-afternoon destruction of Burnley in November – wonderful, flowing football, a good-news story and all three goals before half-time. It is always easier to take in what happens before the interval. The later the game goes on, the deeper your head gets buried in a laptop.

Contrast that with my first evening kick-off of the 2012-13 season, between Everton and Newcastle United at Goodison Park. It was an 8pm start, and they feel a lot more than 15 minutes later than a 7.45pm. If I remember rightly, my report had to be filed by 10pm, so it was always going to be much more reactive than reflective. As it ticked into the 88th minute we were heading for a 1-1 draw, not a bad result away from home.

Victor Anichebe scored for Everton, changing the mood of the night and therefore report completely. With deadline fast approaching, the opening paragraphs had to be completely rewritten.

Before I could finish that, Newcastle’s Demba Ba went through one-on-one with Tim Howard and scored his second equaliser of the game. Even the original intro would not do – taking a point in such dramatic circumstances is a bit different.

At least Hull City’s 4-4 draw with Swansea City was a bit more stretched out – Rhian Brewster putting the Swans in front for the first time after 84 minutes, Tom Eaves equalising in the ‘95th’. Leeds United’s dramatic 3-2 comeback win over Millwall was done at the start of the second half, not the end.

Late turnarounds can make a mug of you. Giddy with excitement at Middlesbrough’s stunning comeback to reach the 2006 UEFA Cup final, a colleague changed his match marks to give every Boro player a 10, but there was not time to alter the words. So, the next morning’s paper carried something to the effect of: “Brad Jones: At fault for first goal. 10/10.”

As for highlights, covering England’s 1,000th game shortly after joining The Yorkshire Post late last year was a thrill. The only previous time I covered the England football team was a pre-Euro 2016 friendly against Australia at the Stadium of Light, hot-footing it there from covering England v Sri Lanka in day one of a Test match at Chester-le-Street.

Just emerging from the tube station and looking down Wembley Way was probably almost as much of a thrill as when I ambled down it on my way to my first FA Cup final, 30 years ago. England v Montenegro in a World Cup qualifier is not, in all honesty, a match to send the heart racing but England’s 1,000th game? That felt special.

It was even more of a non-contest than the first Three Lions game I saw at the national stadium, watching as Andorra were beaten 6-0 a decade earlier. This time, though, I was not there as a fan and England scoring five of their seven goals before half-time was greatly appreciated. I could spend the second half choosing the right words to describe Gareth Southgate’s team securing qualification for the European Championships, look up the records being broken and add the remaining goals as they came.

The opening game was due to take me back to Wembley in June. My first match covering a major tournament was scheduled for my birthday, with a few days off watching Roses cricket in my home town to follow, until coronavirus saw the plans ripped up.

Still, I mustn’t grumble.

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James Mitchinson

Editor