A sports journalist who covered a football club’s “golden era” for a regional daily has died aged 70.

Tributes have been paid to John Wray, pictured left, who reported on Leeds United FC for the Bradford Telegraph & Argus for 20 years.

During his career with the T&A, John reported on the 1975 European Cup final between United and Bayern Munich, and forged life-long friendships players with some of the club’s most famous players including Billy Bremner, Eddie Gray, Allan Clarke and Peter Lorimer.

However, not everyone involved with the club took to John, with United’s short-lived manager Brian Clough referring to him as “the ginger-haired b*****d from Bradford” after he published a story that wasn’t to his liking.

John’s career began on the Pudsey & Stanningley News, which he joined after leaving school and where he served as sports editor.

Five years later he turned down the chance to edit the News to join the news desk at the T&A, and soon took over the job as Leeds United correspondent.

In 1990 he became a partner in Gosnay’s Sports News Agency and continued to cover the club as a freelance up to the end of last season, when he had completed 50 years.

An obituary on the T&A website reads: “He was the consummate professional, able to craft his reports to suit the brashness of tabloids or the more considered prose of broadsheets.

“Apparently effortlessly, he often did the two within minutes of each other to terrifyingly tight deadlines.

“And in an age when relations between press and footballers is nowhere near as close as it was when he started, he retained the trust of players and wrote many insightful interviews during his time as editor of the Leeds United match-day programme.”

John is survived by widow Helen, daughters Liz and Louise, and three grandchildren.