A former regional sports editor whose newspaper ended up being banned by two rival football clubs at the same time has recalled his experiences in a new book.

Newcastle daily The Chronicle was already banned by Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley at the time of Mal Robinson’s arrival at the paper in 2014, but in December of that year Sunderland AFC also imposed restrictions following a column by former player Don Hutchison.

Mal spent four months with ncjmedia – where he oversaw sports coverage on the three newspapers – having begun his career as a freelance sports writer before joining the RAF in 2003 and seeing active service in the two Middle Eastern conflicts.

His new ebook ‘Attack! Attack! Attack! – The Story of Football, Business and War 10 years on’ brings together the two strands of his career and charts his time working as a writer over the past decade.

Recalling the Sunderland ban, Mal said: “I was on my day off at the time, when I had a load of missed calls from James Hunter, The Chronicle’s Sunderland reporter.

“When I called, he informed me that Sunderland AFC and my old friend Louise, Sunderland’s media officer, wasn’t too happy with a column inside that day’s The Journal from former Sunderland player, Don Hutchison.

“It turns out current Sunderland midfielder, Lee Cattermole had been awarded the North East Writer’s Player of the year award and Don in his column had stated something along the lines of ‘North-East football is in trouble if Lee Cattermole is winning this award’.

“The article itself once read in context wasn’t as scathing as it sounded, yet this piece was a column by a former footballer and he was paid to make these remarks and express his opinion.

“Not long after, I received a call from Louise on this having a go. I tried to point out that a) I was actually on a day off and hadn’t even seen the article in question and b) once I had read the article, Don was quite within his rights to say what he wanted, and it was an opinion piece after all.

“My response fell on deaf ears and as punishment for daring to criticise the club, we were handed a ban from that day’s press conference at the Academy of Light and so in effect for 24 hours, we were locked out of the both clubs we covered.”

Mal’s book is available now on all main eBook platforms and can be accessed here.