An editorial team at a regional daily worked against the clock to produce a 16-page football supplement in just 75 minutes following an historic football victory.
The Northampton Chronicle and Echo decided to put together a special pull-out for Thursday’s paper to mark Northampton Town’s away game against Premiership giants Liverpool in the Carling Cup.
But when the game went to penalties – resulting in a dramatic 4-2 win by the League Two side – the newspaper’s team were left with just 75 minutes to put it together before their midnight deadline.
The supplement included a two-page match report by Cobblers reporter Jefferson Lake, a comment piece from sports editor Jeremy Casey, a diary piece from reporter John Harrison who travelled to Anfield with the fans and more than 60 photos.
Editor David Summers said: “It was an absolutely incredible result, not just for Cobblers but for the town as a whole.
“I am so proud of my team for their hard work in turning around the 16-page supplement in such a short space of time and it was a fantastic end result in the paper.
“It’s nights like that which make you proud to be an editor and is why all of us are in newspapers.”
The newspaper also published an eight-page nostalgia pull-out on Tuesday looking back at the last meeting between the two sides in 1965 and an eight-page matchday programme supplement on Wednesday ahead of the match.
On the day of the game, it ran an online chat session on CoveritLive so fans could keep track of the day and the team have also put together another 16-page supplement for today’s paper giving more reaction to the victory.
News editor Daniel Owens said: “It was one of the biggest games in Cobblers’ history and we had to make sure we did it justice.
“We had a total of four reporters and two snappers at Anfield, plus three of us back at the ranch frantically writing and laying out pages.
“From a production point of view, penalties was the worst possible outcome for us but somehow we pulled it off.
“It was an absolutely fantastic night for the town and hopefully we have produced an edition of the Chron, plus a superb online archive, that football fans will treasure for years to come.”