1977/78

Programme Reviews

Key

PP = Total Pages

Net = Total Pages Less Adverts

P = Perfect Bound

S = Stapled

Arsenal (v West Ham United 01/10/77)

£0.15 (16 pp / 15.5 net / S)

Aston Villa (v Manchester United 29/10/77)

£0.20 (20 pp / 16.5 net / S)

For the 1977/78 season Aston Villa produced an expanded A4-size programme with 20 pages packed full of reading.

The cover of the issue for the club’s game against Manchester United showed an external shot of Villa Park that showed the new North Stand looming behind the older parts of the ground. The new stand had just been opened following a million-pound development of the old Witton End of the ground and the programme included four further pages that featured several colour images of the new stand, an extensive write-up on the development work, and information about the two levels of Executive Boxes within the stand.

The programme also featured plenty of other content. There was a brief column from manager Ron Saunders, which was accompanied by various action shots from Villa’s recent trip to West Ham, while ‘Press Call’ featured an interview with Midlands-based Daily Express reporter Alan Williams. There was a two-page interview with Villa winger Frank Carrodus, in which he reflected on his time with Manchester City, as well as Villa’s UEFA Cup form and their upcoming trip to Poland to face Gornik Zabrze.

‘Nationwide’ gathered news and information from around the leagues, while ‘Club Scene’ did the same for Villa. The latter section noted the form of the club’s youth team, noting that among the scorers in a recent cup game was Gary Shaw, who would feature so prominently in Villa’s Division One and European Cup successes in the early 1980s. There was also a comprehensive stats page that included information on the first team, reserves, and youth team.

Two pages of the programme were given over to visitors Manchester United. The first of these provided a focus on United boss Dave Sexton, who had recently replaced Tommy Docherty as manager. The article looked back at Sexton’s successes with Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers and the early steps he had taken in charge of United. The second page included notes on United’s form and featured notes on the club’s players, alongside pictures of Stuart Pearson, Brian Greenhoff, and Jimmy Nicholl. The two detailed articles offered an excellent level of depth to the visitor’s coverage.

The Villa programme was one of the most consistently impressive of its time and this issue was typically notable, with a range of detailed articles that made full use of the space afforded by the page-size.

Birmingham City (v Derby County 22/10/77)

£0.20 (24 pp / 20.5 net / S)

Bristol City (v Everton 11/03/78)

£0.15 (16 pp / 13 net / S)

Chelsea (v Newcastle United 18/03/78)

£0.20 (20 pp / 15.5 net / S)

The Blues’ programme for their return to the top-flight, following two seasons spent in Division Two, was a 20-page affair. The programme used predominantly dark blue and black text against white backgrounds, with a striking cover that showed the lion from Chelsea’s crest on a football against a dark blue backing.

The programme opened with ‘Chelsea View’, which featured various news items from around the club. In the Newcastle United issue, one of these items noted that, in the recent game at Derby County, both Peter Bonetti and Ron Harris had made their 700^th first-team appearances for the Blues. Each Chelsea issue for 1977/78 contained a wealth of stats, including a page showing the tables for Division One, the Football Combination, and South-East Counties league, with corresponding appearance and scorer details for Chelsea’s first-team, reserves, and youth team respectively. Two further pages of stats included results and fixtures for each of these teams, while ‘Match Summaries’ provided full stats from recent games, including brief write-ups of first team matches.

The programme included a couple of pages of pictures from recent matches. The Newcastle issue contained several images from Chelsea’s recent league victory over defending champions Liverpool at Stamford Bridge, just a few months after having knocked them out of the FA Cup. The team line-ups for the day were included on the centre pages, while ‘In Off the Post’ featured letters from supporters. The programme also included notes from Chelsea’s official supporters club and ‘Blue Spotlight’, which featured the thoughts of one of the Blues’ players on his time at the club and his career prospects. Meanwhile, the visitors were covered across two pages, which included a team group picture, brief pen-pics, a history of results from matches between the two sides, and notes on the club’s form.

A tidy programme then from Chelsea, albeit one that focused more on statistical content than readable features.

Coventry City (v Bristol City 03/12/77)