Staff from the Scottish media took their rivalries onto the pitch when they gathered for a football tournament at Glasgow’s Hampden Park.

Teams were fielded from 28 newspapers, TV and radio stations, including the Edinburgh Evening News, the Evening Express and Press and Journal in Aberdeen and the Dundee Courier.

But it was the Falkirk Herald which flew the flag for local newspaper journalism, making its way to the quarter-finals of the BT Scotland Hampden Press Challenge.

Scotland legend Ally McCoist and former Celtic striker Andy Walker were among the star turns playing for national newspapers in the six-a-side tournament.

But the Herald fielded its own team of rather more home-grown stars, with James Friel, Colin Hume, Kevin McDonald, Richard Dixon, Jimi Rae, Dougie Crawford and Brian Marjoribanks all taking to the pitch.

The group stages saw the Herald brush aside The Galloway News and The Glasgow Evening Times, with both games finishing 3-0.

Brian became the team’s top scorer for the day with four goals, and Jimi and Richard scored one apiece.

A 0-0 draw with the Sunday Express meant the Herald went through with the best goal difference in the tournament and without conceding a goal.

But its challenge ended abruptly with a quarter-final defeat to The Sunday Post, which saw two late goals knock them out despite a last minute consolation goal from Richard.

Herald journalist Brian said: “We played really well in the group stages and it was a great day out in the sunshine.

“But it was disappointing to lose the quarter final tie because we had a strong enough team to win the tournament.”

The BT Scotland media trophy went to Real Radio, which beat the BBC 1-0 in the final.

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