A hyperlocal news site is moving into sports coverage after linking up with a football fanzine.

Blog Preston, whose co-editor is former LancsLive editor Luke Beardsworth, pictured, will step up its coverage of EFL side Preston North End in September.

Under the  partnership, features from fanzine ‘The Nose Bag’ – owned and operated by Chris Black – will be published on Blog Preston, giving the North End platform its first online presence.

Luke said: “It’s that remarkable Chris, with no background in journalism, has pulled all this together out of pure passion and drive from his home in Preston. That’s the sort of person anyone would want to work with.

“PNE coverage has long been the most obvious missing thing from what we do at Blog Preston and it’s nice to be able to remedy that.”

Chris, owner of The Nose Bag, said: “I’m happy to be working with Blog Preston to bring PNE coverage to their site for the first time.

“It’s a big step for The Nose Bag, something I do just as a hobby and love for the club – even in the rough times – and I hope it just helps get what we do to even more people.”

Blog Preston’s move into football comes at a time when national newspapers are scaling back coverage of EFL clubs as supplements shrink and budgets tighten.

But the site insists it will not replicate coverage provided by the Lancashire Post, which employs dedicated Lilywhites writer George Hodgson, meaning they will not, for the time being at least, file match reports from the Championship club or attend media briefings.