Saturday saw the final whistle for Cardiff’s Football Echo.

The birth of the internet and the death of universal 3pm Saturday kick-offs led to a red card for the pink paper.

Ken Gorman, Welsh football writer for the Sunday Mirror, told BBC News online that reporting for papers like the pink was "very hard work". Reporters had to phone in copy constantly during matches – sometimes as often as every 15 minutes.

Mr Gorman said: "I think you have to be of a certain age to appreciate what these football pinks right over the country – not just Cardiff – really were about."

That makes me feel my age. Back in the 1970s, Dad and I made a habit of picking up the Foorball Echo after a game at Ninian Park. I still have the reports of the Bluebirds’ FA Cup run in 1977. Those fading cuttings record the exploits of Peter Sayer and John Buchanan as City knocked out First Division Spurs and Welsh rivals Wrexham before losing narrowly to Everton.

The surprise is that Saturday sports papers lasted into the 21st century. A generation has grown used to Sky Sports and the internet. Fanzines are going online. But millions of fans will look back on them with nostalgia. And thousands of journalists will recall racing to an icy GPO box to phone in their copy.

The next generation of 40 somethings won’t have an album of fading cuttings to remind them of their teenage days following their team. But they’ll still have the memories. And that’s what counts.