Diary of a (Relieved) Sky Sports Reporter

It’s the penultimate Saturday of the season in the Football League and Sky had given me one of the crunch games in League 2 – promotion chasing Accrington’s home game with relegation threatened Barnet. I’m really looking forward to it, until a phone call comes through from Sky Sports News on the Friday, which changed my mood for the next 24 hours.

Sky wanted me to arrange a Sunday interview with Barnet if they got relegated into the non-league ranks! No problem was my initial answer, but then it dawned on me what I would need to do, ie I would have to walk up to the club bosses immediately after they’d dropped back into oblivion and say ‘is it ok if we come along tomorrow and rub it in how rubbish you are!’. When I looked at the fixtures of all the relegation candidates however, I figured that scenario was unlikely, so I went to the match in the belief that I should avoid that awkward conversation. But as the afternoon progressed my worst fears were beginning to come true as Accrington took the lead while all Barnet’s closest rivals went ahead. This remained the case until mid way through the second half when Lincoln conceded twice at Oxford to see their survival hopes take a dent. However, as I passed on the latest score to the BBC Barnet reporter doing live commentary, I realised that my relief was nothing compared to his as he contemplated the prospect of going to Gateshead, Hayes & Yeading, Alfreton and Braintree next season.