Pre-match chat & a freezing night at the Palace

Before every match, each club will invite the press to come and talk to the manager as well as selected players as part of the build-up to the game. In the Premier League these can be quite formal occasions that are attended by all the national press as well as the local media. Below that level, it is quite different and last week I got a late call to attend Watford's training ground at London Colney ahead of the match against Nottingham Forest.

When I arrived I could see that I was the only radio reporter there and the only other journalists there were two reporters from local magazine 'My Watford News'. I sat at a table at one end of the canteen area as the players started to filter in and have their lunch. I put in my request for a player interview to the Watford media staff and that was duly arranged.

Scott Loach was one of the first to finish his lunch so I was able to get my interview with him under way without much waiting around. I had wanted to speak to him as I knew his family were all Forest fans so that would give us a nice angle in the lead up to the game and also the match was to be his 100th appearance for Watford, to be followed up by his 100th start at Crystal Palace. Before we started he was checking his appearance figures himself and also finding out where he stood in the table of all-time consecutive starts for the Club - he has some way to go, that's all I can say, but wants to try & overhaul Adrian Mariappa sooner rather than later!

He revealed that his family had all been in the Watford end at Derby the previous weekend but had all got tickets in the Forest fans for the game so he was hoping for a few of them to applaud him when he was in goal at the Vicarage Road End, which would make a change from getting stick of opposition supporters! He also confirmed that he does look at statistics and likes to know how many appearances he is on and things like that. His honesty is genuine and very refreshing.

I then waited for Malky Mackay to emerge from various meetings over lunch to get his pre-match thoughts. I don't often get to go to the pre-match briefings as up until a few weeks ago I had a 'day job' but talking to a number of people who do this full-time, waiting around for interviews is part of the job and you really can spend hours sometimes waiting for even pre-arranged interviews. It wasn't too long a wait for me though and anyway, it gave me chance to talk freely with other players and staff as they started to head to the gym although some had a game of table tennis first. From what I could see, Lloyd Doyley seemed to see of the challenges of Stephen McGinn and Adrian Mariappa before Danny Graham took over against Andrew Taylor.

After I had interviewed Malky Mackay it was then a dash back round the motorway to home to ensure I was home in time for the school run and then I needed to get the interviews sent to Three Counties Radio for them to use in the news bulletins on Friday. This is either done by sending the recording back to the studio via an ISDN line or alternatively converting the recording into a mp3 or other media file and e-mailing it over. The e-mail version worked for me (fortunately otherwise it would have been another motorway dash back up to Luton) and my work was done!

Last season I went to the training ground twice before games and both times the matches ended in 5-0 defeats, so at least Saturday's 1-1 draw with Forest stopped that particular run!

On Tuesday it was the familiar but awkward journey to Selhurst Park that awaited. This is a journey that I always do by car and can take anything from an hour up to four hours and I have experienced both! So I decided on an early start to try & avoid the rush hour traffic and it paid off as we made it to the ground in just over an hour and a half. However, the downside was we were sat in Sainsburys car park next to the ground at 5pm, a full three hours before kick-off. Those that know the area will be aware that there isn't exactly much to do but we did find a little fish and chip shop that had a seated area inside. So it was somewhere to keep warm for half an hour and to sample a portion of cod and chips (somewhat expensive at £5.50 though!).

We wandered back to the ground and collected our press passes before making our way, completely unchallenged into the ground. I wasn't completely sure of the way in but we decided to follow the Palace keeper, Julian Speroni, through an unlocked gate and then went up a staircase which seemed familiar from my last visit! Still there was no-one to stop us and we got all the way to the top of the stand and into an empty press box. It seemed quite bizarre that we had been able to get up there without anyone seeing us, let alone checking who we were, so we waited for a while before setting up our equipment just in case anyone else decided to come in to the ground that way and help themselves to our kit!

We were eventually joined by more reporters which made you feel a bit more comfortable and we set up all our equipment. I was asked to arrange a couple of interviews pre-match so we spoke to my BBC London counterpart who gave us an interesting insight into the situation at Palace, and once my summariser for the evening, Derek Payne, had battled his way through the traffic we had a chat with him too before kick-off.

The view from the press box at Selhurst Park

The press seats are situated at one end of the main stand so it can be hard to peer around the pillars to get a clear view of what is happening at the far end. But I certainly had a clear view of the eagle sat on his perch just by the players tunnel ahead of kick-off. He was huge and every now and then would turn around to face the stand. I was convinced he was looking straight at me each time, even though he must have been 100 yards away! He also demonstrated his wing span a couple of times which was very impressive although with both his handlers in close attendance he didn't appear to want to try and fly off into the South London night!

Just before kick-off, he was taken onto the pitch and his handlers positioned themselves on the edge of each penalty area. The eagle then flew between them whilst the players began their final warm-ups.

Derek Payne was the latest former Hornet to take the role of co-commentator and this was the first time he had done anything like it. He admitted to some pre-match nerves but then grew into the role very quickly, and offered great opinions and tactical assessments of the game as it ebbed and flowed. As debuts go, his was an excellent one and you can read his views on the game at http://www.watfordfc.com/ and also see a picture of him with his headphones on! It's not an easy role to fill but I think I have been very lucky so far to get some great Watford names onto the airwaves who all talk very well about the game. Derek was no exception and he said afterwards how much he enjoyed it. I hope everyone listening did too and I am interested to know your thoughts on our summarisers. We will definitely be inviting Derek back again soon! He also gave us a few little snippets from his playing days, including his thoughts on his Vicarage Road nickname which of course was Fred West!

The game was a great one for the neutral, with some fantastic goals and lots of near misses. Of course, a little run without a win means we hear more from listeners via text and e-mail and there were some frustrated people getting in touch on Tuesday night. It's great to get so many people contacting us and we really do try and get every comment onto the airwaves. It's interesting though that bad results prompt more people to get involved rather than good ones. Why is that the case?

My post-match interview with Malky Mackay was conducted in the empty, windswept and extremely cold stand and he was clearly angry and upset at his team's profligacy in front of goal that cost them so much on the night.

Just before leaving, I was in the relative warmth of the press room and we could hear shutters being pulled down outside the door. The other reporters had the same thought as me that we were potentially about to be locked in! Fortunately, the door opened and we were shown another door that would allow us to get out of the ground! I haven't been locked inside a ground yet, and it was a relief that Selhurst Park was not going to break that record!