Cheeky news staff from the Express & Echo in Exeter scored a campaign victory after playing a game of football outside the offices of city construction firm Carillion.

The move was prompted by the company's decision to close a community pitch used by dozens of sports groups - stopping them from playing football on it.

And so Echo reporters Nick Randall and Tom Arnold and content editor Patrick Phelvin decided to play football on the firm's land instead.

Following the stunt - which was caught on video for the Echo's website - Carillion announced it would reopen West Exe community pitch in Alphington later this month.

It has also apologised to all those affected by the closure and said it was now responding to the needs of the community.

The impromptu match was part of a campaign launched by the paper just last week, and the swift result made it the Echo's quickest ever campaign victory.

It began its fight after hearing from sports groups who were losing out because the £650,000 pitch - built with a lottery grant and council cash in 2000 - was closed because Carillion said it wasn't "economically viable" to run the facility while other sites in the city weren't fully booked.

Within two days of the launch of the Give Us Back Our Pitch campaign, almost 100 coupons printed in the Echo had been signd by readers and returned to the paper.

The campaign was backed by a huge range of sporting associations, representing young footballers to adult hockey players.

Carillion inherited the running of the community pitch after taking over the building of five new schools from original developer Mowlem as part of a private finance initiative move in February.