A sports editor who preferred covering football matches from the terraces instead of the press box has died aged 77.

Tributes have been paid to Mick Cork, who spent three decades covering sport in Kent for titles including the Folkestone Herald.

Mick, pictured, was best known for reporting on Folkestone Invicta Football Club, the team he supported throughout his life, for the Herald.

After retiring in 2011, he went on to serve Invicta in a voluntary capacity as a press officer and as a supporters’ club committee member.

Former Herald editor Simon Finlay told Kent Online: “Mick was a very good sports editor who just got on with the job and served the Folkestone Herald readers well. He left a big hole when he retired from the paper in 2011 after more than 30 years.

“Unlike most sports reporters, he was a genuine fan of the club he covered, Folkestone Invicta. You’d never see him in the press box – he’d be standing on the terraces with his mates.

“Yet the reporting was straight as an arrow, tailored for his audience who trusted him to tell them how it was. The Invicta fans even had a song about him – not many journalists can say that.

“Apart from that, Mick was a good laugh, a kind presence in the newsroom and always very generous to the younger reporters on the paper. It was very sad to hear the news.”

Neil Cugley, who was Invicta manager for more than a quarter of a century, added: “He was a good person for the club, not just doing the reports but also on the supporters’ club committee.

“He went to all the games, and we used to have some fun on the coach on the way home, as we did in those days.

“He’d have his red wine on the way home – or during the game – and he could be boisterous, but only in a nice way. I had a lot of time for Mick, a lot of time for him.”

Folkestone-born Mick was married to wife Lorraine for 51 years and is also survived by three children – Stewart, Nicola and Dan – as well as five grandchildren.

His health had declined in recent years and he had lived with dementia prior to his death on 15 December, according to Kent Online.

Mrs Cork said: “He just loved football, and obviously Folkestone were the ones because he was born and brought up here.

“He was easygoing, he was always happy, especially with the family around, he always loved having the family around.”