Two Southampton sports journalism students flew all the way to Austria to cover a game, only for it to be called off.

Olly Howard and Lilly Arthur, third-year students at Solent University, were set to report on Red Bull Salzburg's game against Wolfsberg as part of their university's news broadcast.

However, their plans were dashed when they discovered that the game had been called off due to the Red Bull Arena turf being covered with snow.

"We had really been looking forward to it," Howard told the Daily Echo. 

"We got more excited when we heard there was going to be snow.

"But as we boarded the plane in Bristol we discovered that Salzburg had announced the game had been cancelled.

"We graduate this year so we thought why not go all out? The show was being broadcast at the university during their open day so there was potential to have thousands of eyes on our work.

"I was really looking forward to live reporting because I thought this would be a chance to show what I can do and spread my wings beyond covering AFC Totton.

"It wasn't meant to be, unfortunately, but we have still been able to visit the Christmas market, which is one of the best in Europe."

Despite the game being called off, the duo were still able to gain valuable experience reporting on a high-profile occasion.

They beamed audio and video reports back to the production base at Solent University detailing the reasons why the game had been postponed.

Red Bull Salzburg also took note of their reporting and reached out to the disappointed students to offer some compensation.

"That was a really nice surprise. I'd seen in the past that fans of Premier League clubs would get something in return if they'd flown in from South America and the game had been cancelled.

"I wasn't expecting anything, but within about half an hour they had reached out to us offering us tickets for the next day - but we couldn't attend due to our flights.

"So instead they are going to send us some merchandise which is a really nice touch from them that has made a difficult situation much better."