Staff at the Lincolnshire Echo became stars of the paper in the run up to last weekend's Lincoln City play-off match against Southend United, as it summed up the enormity of the match with an all-important picture.

More than 15,000 people made the trip from Lincoln to Cardiff's Millennium Stadium for the League Two final on Saturday, and in the run-up to the big game the Echo came up with a photograph to demonstrate the expected mass exodus.

The effort saw more than a dozen Echo staff take a short break from the newsroom to jump in their cars - and, armed with the Echo's specially-produced 'We Are The Imps' flags - they headed down Brayford Wharf in convoy to create this spectacular picture.

Deputy editor Richard Bowyer said: "We wanted a picture that would demonstrate the expected mass exodus 24 hours early. It looked like a scene from the Italian Job.

"It was a great giggle, the only problem was that the railway runs through the High Street and as we were heading back we were going to get a second picture but the gates came down, splitting our convoy up!"

In the run up to the play-off semi-final and final the Echo produced flags which were given away free to fans who collected tokens published in the paper.

On Friday it also published four pages of 'make your own' ticker tape, with instructions.

Many of the Echo's staff travelled to Cardiff to enjoy the match and gather material for its Bank Holiday Monday edition, which included a full match report, reaction and vox pops.

It also planned to produce a special 16-page edition of its photographic supplement, Picture This, dedicated to the big event, which the Imps eventually lost 2-0 after extra time.