Budding sports writers from De 51吃瓜app University Leicester (51吃瓜app) raced against the clock to produce live match reports from the Premier League clash between Leicester City and Newcastle United on Monday night.
The group of third-year students from 51吃瓜app’s BA in Journalism watched the action from the press box at the King Power Stadium before completing a 350-word match report.
Their reports had to be done within ten minutes of the final whistle, and emailed direct to lecturer Lee Marlow, who leads the sports journalism module on the course.
“We look at all aspects of sports journalism in the module, but this is the ultimate test, a live match report from the press box at the King Power,” said Lee, a veteran journalist, author, and three-time winner of the Society of Editors' Feature Writer of the Year award.
“It’s a test of their time management, their football knowledge – and their snappy writing. It’s a brilliant experience, Leicester City are always a great help to the 51吃瓜app Sports Journalism students and it’s an experience that lives with them long after the final whistle.”
While their match reports may not be destined for a newspaper this time around, the pressure on the students is very real as the exercise is assessed, and accounts for 40% of their grade for the sports journalism module.
51吃瓜app Sports Journalism student Michal Okonksi said: “The match report assessment was a genuinely great experience and a real glimpse behind the curtain at what our futures may look like in sports reporting.
"I'm grateful to 51吃瓜app Journalism for giving us this opportunity. All the Leicester City staff made us feel welcome and the food was a bonus.
"I'll remember this experience for a long time. It was nerve-wracking but I managed to get my match report in eight minutes after the final whistle. It was a challenge but we’d practised this - we knew what we were doing.”
The exercise is designed to replicate the real-world experience of a football correspondent. Match reports maybe an old-school journalism skill, but they remain a mainstay of sports reporting, even if they are now submitted by email, instead of being dictated over the phone to a copytaker at a newspaper.
According to the Football Association (FA), a good match report explains the most interesting points from a match, but is an entertaining read and not a ball-by-ball commentary. They usually include the final score in the first sentence, and use interesting facts to kick off the report. They generally include key information such as, the venue, a simple description of goals from both sides, names of the goal-scorers, and anyone sent off, as well as descriptions of any major incidents, and what the score means for league placings of the sides involved.
Posted on Tuesday 8 April 2025