Solent's Wembley final

The lucky eight students were given Press Box accreditation for the English Football League (EFL) 2025 League One and League Two Play-Off Finals, which saw Charlton and AFC Wimbledon gain promotion.

They were tasked with producing web, TV and social media content for their University outlet, Solent Sports News.

“I had the best time ever and still can’t get my head around it,” said third year, Freddie Dorman, who was in charge of publishing a match report seconds after the final whistle.

Second Year student, Ed Groves, said: “It was the best experience ever and I felt like I learnt a lot. The noise is something I could never have anticipated - the roar of the Wembley crowd took getting used to when writing the live blog, however, I really enjoyed the adrenaline rush of providing quick updates as they happened.”

First-year Harvey Gerring, was a camera operator who also produced a behind-the-scenes video, said: “It was wonderful to be surrounded by journalists and pundits, such as Jobi McAnuff, Mark McAdam, Geoff Shreeves and Gary Taphouse. Recording interviews with fans on Wembley way whilst thousands of Wimbledon and Walsall fans headed towards the stadium was a unique experience that doesn't come around often.”

The opportunity came from a graduate of the course who now works as a Communications Executive at the EFL.

David Reilly, Senior Lecturer in Sports Journalism, said: “There are many experienced sports journalists who have never got to report on live game at Wembley Stadium, so this is a huge experience for our students.

“On the course, we make sure that they gain match-day experience, and enforce tight deadlines, but there is nothing like doing it for real on the biggest stage.

“Our graduates are in amazing jobs all over the world and we’re really grateful when a former student gets in touch with an opportunity like this.”

The 2025 Play-Off weekend was officially the most successful ever, with 209,000 fans in attendance over three days.

Graduates of Southampton Solent University’s BA (Hons) Sports Journalism and MA Sports Broadcast Journalism are working in TV, Radio, social media and newspapers at Sky Sports, TNT Sport, BBC Sport, TalkSport, IMG, Premier League Productions, ESPN, Two Circles, Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton FC, to name a few.