The Swindon Advertiser has been banned by Swindon Town football club after the team's manager objected to a Twitter message posted by the Newsquest daily's chief sports reporter.
Sam Morshead shared the news that star striker Nike Ranger was in the team to play Peterborough United at 1.15pm on Saturday, 45 minutes before the team sheets were handed to the match officials.
It's my understanding that Nile Ranger will be involved in today's game after #stfc changed their minds about terminating his contract.
— Sam Morshead (@SamMorshead_SA) January 11, 2014
He had seen a Tweet by fan Daniel Hunt who had photographed Ranger’s shirt hanging in the dressing room during a pre-match tour of the ground at 12.30pm.
Swindon Town chairman Lee Power said he believed Peterborough had changed its team after seeing Morshead's Twitter message.
According to the Advertiser, it later emerged that Ranger himself had told his 13,198 followers on Instagram that he was back in the team at 1.32pm.
Morshead had a tip earlier in the week that Ranger would be featuring in the game, but agreed to a request from the club not to reveal the news.
He told the Advertiser: “I went along with the club’s request for the good of the team. It was only when I saw the Tweet from the fan who stated he had seen Ranger’s shirt hanging in the dressing room during a stadium tour that I Tweeted what was already being spread around.
“Once it was in the public domain I felt I had the right to report on it. It is what any reporter would do.”
Advertiser journalists are now banned from the press box at the County Grond and from pre and post-match interviews.
Editor Gary Lawrence said in an opinion piece: "We’ve supported the club through relegation, promotion, cup glory and Wembley heartache. We travel the long miles to away games and burn the midnight oil to ensure the reports and interviews are there for the fans to read and enjoy.
"We put our money where our mouth is too. Every year for decades we have backed the club with thousands of pounds of sponsorship – there can be few firms who have been putting their hands in their pockets for as long.
"But now we may be the only commercial partner in the club’s history to be banned from the County Ground.
"We have been barred because the club didn’t like Sam Morshead Tweeting about Nile Ranger playing on Saturday, even though a fan and even the player himself also let the cat out of the bag.
"We think the fans need to know what is going on at the County Ground and we believe we have the right to assign anyone we choose to do the reporting."
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