A Nottingham Evening Post reporter was forced to report on a football match using a big screen TV after she was banned from the press box at Millwall – without an explanation.

Michelle Wilson had planned to report on the match between Nottingham Forest and Millwall from the press box at Millwall’s ground, the New Den, on Saturday with dedicated Reds fan Stuart Astill.

Stuart had been invited by the paper to join its reporting team and compile the terrace ratings for Monday’s paper as Forest fans were banned from the match following hooliganism at Millwall’s play-off game against Birmingham in May.

Stuart had hoped that this would allow him to continue his record run of watching 1,214 consecutive league matches but his press pass was revoked by Millwall on Friday afternoon after the club said it received emails from disgruntled Millwall fans.

Hours later the club contacted the Evening Post to ban reporter Michelle Wilson as well – forcing her to file her report with the help of a television and colleagues at local radio stations.

Assistant editor Neil White said: “We had arranged for Stuart Astill to be in the press box because we wanted him to be part of our reporting team.

“Our regular readers will know that we carry a fan’s verdict every week.

“Of course, it was pleasing to be able to pick someone who had not missed a Forest match in 29 years.

“We were certainly not secretive about our intentions because we printed that information in our newspaper on Wednesday.

“Millwall approached us about Stuart’s role on Friday and we offered to fax the club our regular supporter’s feature to show what Stuart would be writing. We certainly did not deny that he was a fan.

“The club representative was not interested. The next morning the club rang back and withdrew Michelle Wilson’s pass, but would not give a reason. Their reaction was baffling.”

Millwall’s chairman Theo Paphitis initially agreed to be interviewed on Saturday to discuss the situation, but later changed his mind.

The club’s press office said a statement would be faxed to the Evening Post but by Monday morning it had still not arrived.

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