IN THE days before the internet and on the morning after a famous Town victory, I would invariably find myself in the newsagent’s trying to sneak a look at the back pages of the national press - this paper was the Evening Advertiser in those days and not available to read at breakfast time as it is now.

I was feverishly trying to take in the thoughts and views of sports journalists who, the night before, had made a rare visit to Swindon before I attracted the attention of the shopkeeper for reading and not buying.

Scanning their thoughts on our team, a team which was a stranger to national attention, felt wonderful. They were praising our players, lauding our loyal fans and delighting at the exploits of the “Wiltshire Wizards” or whatever turned out to be headline of their piece.

So it was on Tuesday morning this week that I feverishly clicked through the sports pages of the websites looking to replicate the thrill and excitement of pre-digital days.

The Telegraph, The Mirror, The Sun – nothing.

On I clicked through The Times, The Independent and The Express all in vain.

The unlikely bedfellows of The Daily Mail and Guardian where the only titles that gave the Town any coverage at all, with the former calling the 10-goal thriller 'The Greatest Play-Off of All-Time''.

So what was keeping this unforgettable League One encounter off all but two national newspaper websites?

You guessed it, the never-ending, wall-to-wall coverage of the 'world’s most exciting' league, the Premier League.

On a night when just one Premier League match had been played, the ceaseless sycophantic reporting of every twist, turn and rumour of rumours continued unabated in wilful ignorance of anything else occurring outside its bloated boundaries.

Some of the stories keeping our version of Monday Night Football out of the news were trivial tales about players’ off-field lives.

Of course regurgitating stories about Fabrcio Coloccini trying to build a house in his garden is a lot easier than getting out of your house, down to the County Ground and writing a story about the sport itself.

While our club is being shunned by the national press, the local press - at least this particular paper - is being shunned by the club itself.

It was especially saddening to read that for the first time in its long history, the Advertiser Player of the Year award will not be presented to its winner baecuse of the rift between the club and one its biggest supporters.

We all hope that bridges can be rebuilt between the paper and Lee Power.

Meanwhile, the nationals can ignore us all they like - we are off to Wembley and we are Swindon – we make our own headlines.