Some 2023 highlights from the extratime.com team as inspiration to maybe join our crew?

Maybe your New Year’s resolution to get to more live football matches. Well nothing beats being there. But what if you also want to bring the action to those who aren’t there?

Well at extratime.com we can help with that as we are, as always, on the lookout for talent to join our volunteer team that covers domestic and international football.

Do you want to cover action from the Men’s or Women’s Premier Divisions or the First Division? Are you up for the FAI Cup? What about reporting or taking photos showcasing the #MagicOfTheLeinsterSeniorCup

Our reporters and photographers cover matches domestically and internationally (from press boxes in Malta, Iceland and Turkey in the last 12 months).

We were there for those match day minus one press conferences and in the huddles post-match hearing from the managers. We had photographers pitch side covering Ireland senior internationals from Dublin to Athens and Amsterdam.

To hopefully inspire some budding sports journalists or photographers out there to join our team, we asked a trio of our reporters to talk about their standout moments from their own 2023 season in the pressbox.

Luke Jordan

Sports writing has always been a keen interest of mine, so getting the opportunity with extratime.com this year to report on matches, and interviewing managers and players post-match was a no brainer.

My personal highlight of 2023 was covering my first international - the Republic of Ireland game against Latvia in the Aviva Stadium last March. To most it was just your bog-standard friendly as the big game against France was on the horizon in the following days, but to me this was the big match.

I remember everything about the day. Getting the DART over to Lansdowne Road, talking to fans on the way to the game about the year ahead, asking stewards where the ‘press’ are meant to go, arriving in the press box way too early and double checking there is no ‘assigned seats’ to not upset anyone on my first day. 

And after all the pre-match histrionics, the game began, and I got to work. The memorable moment from the match was witnessing Evan Ferguson’s first goal at senior level. A nice claim to have if the young Irish starlet continues his upward trajectory.

Growing up I had always dreamt of reporting on the Irish team, and that dream came true for me last March, and without extratime.com that would have never happened.

I reported also on League of Ireland action throughout the season, mostly on St. Patrick’s Athletic, but occasionally popping up in other grounds across the league. Another personal milestone this season was covering my first European game as a reporter when Shamrock Rovers faced Breidablik in the Champions League first round qualifier in Tallaght Stadium.

So if you’re like me, and have an interest in sports writing, join us here at extratime.com.

Since I was young, I always dreamed of covering the Irish team but never really thought it happen. That dream came true today. Unbelievable experience working for @ExtratimeNews tonight covering Ireland v Latvia.

Match Report below 👇 https://t.co/sY6WZkgaM0pic.twitter.com/wWBBr3F1Qv

— Luke Jordan (@L_Jordan4) March 22, 2023

Andrew Dempsey

There were plenty of memorable moments for me during the year which began with an entertaining First Division tie between Bray Wanderers and Kerry before I travelled to Malta for the UEFA Under-19 European Championships.

As part of a group covering the event from throughout Europe, Africa and South America - it was a privilege to represent Ireland - and extratime.com at the tournament.

In fact, I also managed to squeeze in a Champions League qualifier between Hamrun Spartans and Maccabi Haifa on a rather chaotic night… The less said about that the better.

And while the competition was relatively low-key in the country - undoubtedly because of hosts Malta’s early exit - the stars came out towards the latter stages of it.

Former AC Milan midfielder Zvonimir Boban attended the final as one of UEFA’s suits, while former Chelsea and Benfica forward Joao Felix also showed up to watch his brother Hugo. Michael Kayode who scored the winner in the final for Italy is now a regular for Fiorentina in Serie A.

If it wasn’t writing match previews on a Friday night for the weekend fixtures in the League of Ireland Premier and First Divisions, I came full circle in a number of ways.

As a child, I grew up with vivid memories of watching Longford Town lift back-to-back FAI Cups with my Dad - and I managed to write about that first cup success in 2003 against St Patrick’s Athletic.

Knowing that it was unlikely that De Town were going to go all the way in 2023, I opted to write it before their tie against the Saints in last year’s competition - evoking memories for fans and players alike.

I even made poor Sean Francis feel old when I approached him to ask if he wanted to speak about the game!

Who knows, I might do another one next year on Longford’s subsequent win in 2004 against Waterford… Let’s not mention the war with Blues fans though!

But on the whole, between late night stories, previews and grabbing exclusive interviews with Ross Tierney and the likes - it was a year to remember with the extratime.com team.

"Someone told us that Pat’s had jerseys made of being FAI Cup winners – that spurred us on. I will never forget the experience that day.."

Words from @SeaniePrunty, Sean Francis & Eric Lavine on @LongfordTownFC's FAI Cup final win in 2003 v St Pat's 🔴⚫https://t.co/WDhwP3NH0p

— Andrew Dempsey (@AndrewDempsey98) July 22, 2023

Macdara Ferris

The 2023 European campaign for Shamrock Rovers was one to forget for the League of Ireland champions. From the highs of qualifying for the Europa Conference League the previous season – playing 14 matches including the seven at home in front of 45,1118 spectators and earning €3.93m in UEFA prize money – to as short and as disappointing campaign as possible in 2023 – four games, four defeats (two at home in front of 10,953 supporters earning the very minimum €810,000 in prize money).

However, the Euro away matches for the Hoops were the highlight for me as a reporter for extratime.com with eventful trips to Iceland (an amazing place to visit even with its eye wateringly high costs)  and a Rovers return to Budapest for the second time in 12 months and what turned out to be back-to-back 4-0 defeats for the Hoops at the hands of Ferencvaros.

As the only reporter to travel to Reykjavik, both clubs were very accommodating to me. On the eve of the game I had the experience of chatting over coffee (and some biscuits for me) with the Breidablik captain and being quizzed by the friendly local media on the likely Rovers formation and lineup.

On match night I got to see a bit of Irish football history as VAR awarded a penalty to a League of Ireland side for the first time with Graham Burke converting for his eighth European goal to move to fourth in the all-time list of LOI scorers in Europe.

Admittedly I was thankful the winner of the tie was known well ahead of the full time whistle as I was supplying match reports for multiple media outlets and a late rewrite would have been difficult on the tight deadline! Afterwards I sat in the away dugout with Stephen Bradley to get his thoughts following the 2-1 away defeat that saw his side exit the Champions League qualifiers.

In Budapest, I got the chance to talk with Bradley for nearly an hour in the team hotel on the eve of the match.

It was in the middle of very difficult part of the season – the Hoops wouldn’t win a game in July and would only score one goal that month – but the Hoops boss, while making it clear the tie was beyond his side after a 2-0 home first leg loss, stated he believed his team would come good towards the end of the season and he was proved correct as his side earned a historic four-in-a-row in the league.

Stephen Bradley: ‘We've been doubted before and we'll be doubted again but come see us in November and see where we are’ - https://t.co/94rjArr8tjhttps://t.co/UYXA48wrzx

— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) July 26, 2023

If some of the above sounds like something that might interest you, now is the time to get in touch with us by emailing extratimedotcom@gmail.com explaining why you want to be part of our volunteer team, details of any journalism experience to date (if any) and, where possible, a one page CV.