Two regional newspapers pulled out all the stops to celebrate success at opposite ends of the Football League spectrum.

For the Manchester Evening News, it was glory in double measure as Manchester City joined champions United in the Premiership with victory over Blackburn.

For the Shropshire Star, it was delight at sheer survival as Shrewsbury Town beat Exeter to secure another season of League football.

The MEN was devoting pages 1,2 and 3 of today’s paper to coverage of City fans celebrating. Eight pages of the daily Pink sports pullout were also being given over to the story and even the masthead was being changed for a day: out went the usual “North-west newspaper of the year” banner and in came “Blue Moon Rising”, with a picture of the moon on a blue background in celebration of City fans’ favourite song.

A 32-page promotion special was also being produced. It was being printed tonight and tomorrow and will go on sale this week.

On Saturday, the paper hired a light aircraft to fly over Ewood Park, trailing a banner saying “Come on you blues”. Five thousand caps with the logo “M.E.N. in blue” were handed out and up to 6,000 sponsored copies of the Saturday Pink, leading with a picture of Shaun Goater – who went on to score the vital equaliser – were given away outside the ground.

The paper had six photographers on duty at the ground, in the air and in the city centre at night. The paper also got pictures from the hotel where club chairman David Bernstein and manager Joe Royle celebrated into the early hours.

One particularly memorable moment for the City reporter Chris Bailey came minutes after the final whistle. He was in the City dressing room when Goater made a point of thanking him for his coverage, especially a couple of years ago, when the player was not among the fans’ favourites but Bailey urged them to give him time.

The paper had extra staff on duty yesterday and some were at their desks by 5am today. Editor Paul Horrocks said they had responded “very well – as always”.

“It’s been a great weekend,” he said.

“A year ago, Manchester was gearing up to be red, with United winning the treble. Now, of course, we’ve got the city turning blue.

“There’s a great atmosphere in the city. David Bernstein is taking about Manchester being the Milan of Britain.

“It’s really exciting for the city and it’s great for the paper.”

He added: “We’ve worked very hard to shrug off the persistent belief that this paper was dominated by Man United, and we’ve tried hard to make sure that the coverage was as equal as it can be, even when City were in the second division, because 30,000 people every week support Man City. I think tonight we get the opportunity to show that we are fair with both clubs.”

Click here for the Shropshire Star story.

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