A reflection on my time at the Burnley Express

I spent two weeks during November working at the Burnley Express on the sport desk. I was there at a relatively unfortunate time because the weekend between my two working weeks the Premier League was on an international break. Basically that meant that Burnley weren't playing, so there wasn't a game to build-up to and Chris (sport editor) didn't have a whole lot for me to do, although I managed to occupy myself and enjoyed what I did get to do.

Also most of that first week I was getting to grips with the system and the people, but I did get to meet and ask a couple of questions to Wade Elliot, who is a Burnley hero after scoring the goal to put them into the Premier League after a 33 year absence!

The second week Chris was away on holiday so I was working with Dan, who is the other sports staffer. That was a fairly busy week and I got to go to the unveiling of the international honours board at Turf Moor, which was an eye opener being my first real taste of a 'media event', trying to muscle to the front and get quotes, and especially trying to pin down the important people for a quick couple of questions.

I also got to sit in on Thursdays pre-game match conference for the Aston Villa game which was an excellent experience, and got to meet another Burnley hero, Brian 'Beast' Jensen, who was waxing lyrical about the Thierry Henry handball scandal.

This again was a brilliant experience and I was immersed in secret mirth as the Beast ranted on about Henry and France. When I got home that evening I watched his interview back on Sky Sports with my brother and we were in stitches. The Villa game that Saturday was also my birthday and I have to say, being that involved in the behind-the-scenes build-up made it even more fun to watch.

Before I started this degree I had pretty much convinced myself that I didn't want to work at a local paper when I came out the other side, but having been a Burnley fan for nigh on 20 years and being so involved with the club was purely amazing. Chris and Dan (and most of the other staffers there) were huge Burnley fans too so the sheer passion for the work gave me this warm, fuzzy feeling and made it that bit more fun, and gave me that bit more enthusiasm. So much so in-fact, I'm going to try my utmost to get more work there after graduation.