Easter Diary of a Sky Sports Reporter

Easter is normally a part of the year to spend some extra time with the family – but that’s usually not the case for a football journalist.

This Easter was no different as I covered two Championship games for Sky Sports over the festive period (and was offered a match on another day – which I couldn’t do). Game One was Watford v Barnsley on Easter Saturday and it provided a remainder why a reporter needs to be prepared and ready to work from the start – as the opening goal went in after a mere 43 seconds! I did a clear live update on Sky, which was just as well because that was the only goal and therefore my only report!

Game Two was Burnley v Portsmouth on Easter Monday. In some respects it followed a similar pattern as I was asked to do an update after a few minutes, even though little had happened. In these moments, you learn how to say something about… absolutely nothing at all! I did another update early in the second half, before Portsmouth scored and, as if night followed day, my telephone line developed a fault. Do I panic? No. I know what the problem is and I fix it within a couple of minutes. Although I don’t do a report straight away, Burnley soon equalise and I tell the story of both goals in one swoop. Job done. Sometimes when things go wrong, you can look and sound a lot better than when everything goes smoothly.

This was one of those occasions.