REGARDING your coverage (Sport Extra, May 5) of the game between the Railway Hotel and the Centurions in the Eddleston Cup Final at the Anchor Ground, Darwen, I must ask whether your reporter Steve Tinniswood is a Centurions supporter?

I think it's disgusting that the winners, the Railway Hotel, had very little coverage.

All the pictures were dominated by Centurions players.

The way it was covered you would have thought the Centurions had won the Cup.

No mention that the man of the match, Phillip Mercer, was a Railway player.

Thank goodness Mr Tinniswood didn't have any influence on that decision.

By the way, the goalkeeper dislocated one finger, not two broken ones - as the headline read: "Broken Bones, Broken Dreams."

I think the coverage of Blackburn Combination is poor. Most of the coverage is of Sunday League or Burnley football.

MARGARET CLARK, Preston Old Road, Blackburn

FOOTNOTE: We are unable to cover every local football league game and this was one report that Steve Tinniswood had to pick up from the comments of respective managers.

In the space available, he provided a balanced report and again was only acting on information volunteered when describing the injury as broken fingers. We have covered seven league and cup games from the Blackburn Combination this season.

If another daily paper in the country gives a league of similar status such in-depth coverage, I would like to know! - NEIL BRAMWELL, sports editor

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.