THE Echo’s Cherries coverage will return this weekend following a successful meeting between the paper and the football club yesterday.

Reporting ceased in March when the club removed the paper’s media access to games at Dean Court, after having previously blocked our reporters from interviewing players and former manager Lee Bradbury.

In response to that stance, the Echo halted all coverage of the club on its sports pages, bringing to an end more than 100 years of unbroken reporting on the area’s only Football League club.

But, following a positive meeting between Echo editor Toby Granville, sports editor Neil Meldrum, Cherries media and communications executive Max Fitzgerald and chairman Eddie Mitchell yesterday, the club agreed to reinstate our reporters’ match access as before.

A joint statement from both the Echo and the club said: “AFC Bournemouth and the Daily Echo are delighted to announce that, after a positive meeting on Friday, April 27, both parties have decided to draw a line under recent differences.

“Both the club and the paper look forward to a new and improved relationship.”

Yesterday’s meeting was set up by Cherries supporter Andrew Lloyd Williams, who got in touch with the paper and club late last week.

He told the Echo: “I am thrilled that two institutions I hold in high regard – my local newspaper and my beloved football team – have put their differences behind them.

“It is only natural for the relationship between a football club and its local newspaper to become strained at certain times. Both parties accepted that and pledged that in the future they would talk problems through rather than pulling up the drawbridge.

“It is great that supporters who struggled to keep up with events at AFC Bournemouth, which for the previous month had only been available in any real depth online, will once again regularly read about the club in their local newspaper. Long may that continue.”

Meanwhile, Mr Granville said: “We are delighted to have resolved our differences so we are able to start covering the football club again.

“We now look forward to once again providing our readers |with the coverage of AFC Bournemouth they have |come to expect.”

Mr Mitchell added: “We agreed to meet with the Echo and I am happy that together we were able to find a resolution.

“We can now look forward to a bright future for AFC Bournemouth and I am pleased the paper will be there to cover the action for our supporters.”

For full match coverage and reaction from today’s clash at Scunthorpe, see Monday’s Echo.