£1.50 (48 pp / 43.5 net / S)

 

Aston Villa (v Sheffield United 31/03/92)

£1.00 (32 pp / 26.5 net / S)

 

Chelsea (v Nottingham Forest 30/11/91)

£1.30 (40 pp / 33 net / S)

Chelsea’s programme was one of the more substantial for the 1991/92 season, with only London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur offering more pages of content. The standard programme for the season contained 40 pages and cost £1.30, but larger versions with 64 pages, costing £2.00, were produced for some of the bigger matches, such as Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.

For the game against Nottingham Forest, the standard issue was produced. The programme included columns from several senior personnel at the club. Manager Ian Porterfield reflected on recent results and welcomed Forest – declaring that the visitors had “as strong a squad as anyone in the First Division”. Chairman Ken Bates was in typically combative form, outlining the legal position concerning Chelsea’s attempts to secure their future at Stamford Bridge. Meanwhile, Managing Director Colin Hutchinson reflected on the ambitions of many clubs in the non-league game who were looking to achieve league status, warning of the financial risks if attendances did not keep pace with increases in spend. He also argued that it was important for English clubs in European competition to succeed for the league to be allocated more than the four European places then available.

‘What Happened To?’ was a historical column from Albert Sewell, which here profiled goalkeeper Reg Matthews. The player became the most expensive goalkeeper in the game when moving to Chelsea for £20,000 in 1956 and would make 148 appearances for the club before moving to Derby County in 1961. Four pages were allocated to a profile of one Chelsea player, with the subject in the Forest issue being young midfielder Graham Stuart.  The issue included a couple of pages of news from club insider Neil Barnett, while ‘Playback’ featured various action pictures from a recent Chelsea game.

Visitors Nottingham Forest were covered over four pages, which included a team group picture, notes on the club’s form, and profiles of the playing squad. The Forest content included extensive stats, an honours board, and a ‘Did You Know?’ section with ten facts about the club. A further two pages were taken up with an interview with Forest striker, Teddy Sheringham, who had moved to Forest for a club record £2 million in the summer of 1991. In related content, ‘All Our Yesterdays’ gathered various snippets of historical interest from matchups between Chelsea and Forest, including a 7-0 win at the City Ground for the Nottingham club the previous season.

The programme also included a page each for Chelsea’s reserves and youth teams, which provided detailed coverage of the respective sides, with match reports sitting alongside results, tables, and scorer records. The two-page first team statistics section was similarly comprehensive.

This was a fine programme from Chelsea, with the columns from Bates and Hutchinson constituting essential reading for anyone concerned with the Blues’ fortunes. With detailed coverage of the club’s various teams, and an in-depth visitors’ section, the Chelsea issue was one of the stand-out programmes of the season.

 

Coventry City (v Oldham Athletic 21/03/92)

£1.00 (32 pp / 23 net / S)

 

Crystal Palace (v Liverpool 14/03/92)

£1.30 (40 pp / 23 net / S)

 

Everton (v Tottenham Hotspur 05/10/91)

£1.20 (32 pp / 26 net / S)

 

Leeds United (v Sheffield Wednesday 24/08/91)

£1.00 (32 pp / 25 net / S)

Leeds United’s programme for their title-winning season was a 32-page effort, with 25 pages of content – above the average for Division One clubs that year.

The standard for the programme is set by a detailed column from manager Howard Wilkinson – called ‘Howard’s Way’ – where the Leeds boss reflects on his associations with the day’s opponents Sheffield Wednesday and looks ahead to the Yorkshire derby against his old club. The programme also includes ‘On the Park’ and ‘Off the Park’ columns – together providing five pages of news snippets related to all things Leeds, including information on recent signing Steve Hodge and the unfortunate premature retirement of the injured Jim Beglin.

There is an interview with another signing, striker Rodney Wallace, and a two-page interview with midfielder David Batty, who reflects on his burgeoning international career. ‘Topic’ sees club secretary Nigel Pleasants interviewed about ongoing discussions regarding the formation of a ‘Super League’ for the country’s top clubs – an innovation that proved to be less than a year away from being implemented.

Coverage of visitors Sheffield Wednesday is well presented across three pages, with a feature on the club’s squad accompanied by a team group picture, a ‘roll-call’ of the club’s squad, and a profile of Trevor Francis, Wednesday’s new player-manager.

Probably the best feature in the programme is ‘Memory Match’ which looks back to a clash between Leeds and Wednesday from January 1924. As well as a detailed article about the fixture and its context within the season, there is a picture of the Wednesday team from 1923/24 and a box of ‘1924 Headliners’ – which refers to events of the time.

First-team statistics are suitably detailed and there are pictures of recent games in ‘United Action’. Coverage of United’s reserve and youth teams also goes into some depth, with full details of recent matches, including results and line-ups alongside fixtures for the new season for both teams.

This is a high-quality programme from Leeds, providing plenty of content and making use of often quite small text to pack in lots of worthwhile reading. This is an issue that is among the pick of the programmes for 1991/92.

 

Liverpool (v Luton Town 11/01/92)

£1.00 (32 pp / 24 net / S)

 

Luton Town (v Notts County 28/09/91)

£1.50 (40 pp / 30 net / S)

 

Manchester City (v Everton 17/09/91)

£1.20 (32 pp / 25 net / S)

 

Manchester United (v Coventry City 07/12/91)

£1.00 (36 pp / 22.5 net / S)

 

Norwich City (v Leeds United 28/09/91)

£1.20 (36 pp / 29.5 net / S)

 

Nottingham Forest (v Wimbledon 14/09/91)

£1.00 (32 pp / 24 net / S)

 

Notts County (v Crystal Palace 28/03/92)

£1.20 (36 pp / 19 net / S)

 

Oldham Athletic (v West Ham United 19/10/91)

£1.20 (40 pp / 23.5 net / S)

Oldham’s programme for the 1991/92 season was a 40-page effort – only Arsenal and Tottenham offered more pages that season – but a high advert count meant only 23.5 pages of content. Nevertheless, there was some worthwhile reading included within the programme, with some historical features catching the eye.

‘Where Are They Now?’ provided a profile of former Oldham goalkeeper John Fitton, who appeared briefly for the club in the late 1960s, making his debut for the club as an 18-year-old, before spending most of his career playing non-league football for Mossley.

‘Flashback – This Day in History’ offered recollections of Latics matches from 19^th October down the years, with notes also included on opponents West Ham’s fortunes on those days. Among the latter was an 8-0 win against Sunderland from 1968, when Geoff Hurst equalling a club-record with six goals.

There were also a couple of decent opinion pieces in the Oldham issue. ‘Talking Sport’ with Tony Bugby asked whether away fans were getting a raw deal, often being charged higher admission prices for matches than home fans. The writer asked whether beam-backs to home grounds would prove to be the way forward, with 3,000 Oldham fans having watched a recent game at Manchester United back at Boundary Park.

‘From the Touchline’ with Tony Pullein asked whether the Football League was really the best in the world. It was noted that the Football League provided more players for international duty than any other league, with the bulk of the home nations’ squads made up of England-based players. At the time, 60 players from 27 English clubs were representing 10 different countries at international level.

The programme also offered all the usual content. Manager Joe Royle had a brief column; there was coverage of recent matches in the shape of ‘Latics in Action’; ‘Club Gossip’ provided two and a half pages of news; and ‘Reserves and Youths’ covered Oldham’s other teams. The centre pages of the programme were devoted to ‘Personal View’, which featured an interview with Latics striker Andy Ritchie, while ‘North of the Border’ covered developments in the Scottish game.

West Ham United were given the best part of four pages worth of coverage, with an introductory article covering the club’s squad and recent transfer activity alongside a team group picture. There were also profiles of Hammers’ boss Billy Bonds and ‘Danger Man’ Stuart Slater, together with a fact-file and squad list. The visitors section also included an article on ‘Star Player’ Tony Gale and a ‘Thanks for the Memory’ feature on the legendary Bobby Moore.

Despite the high proportion of the programme given over to advertising content, the Oldham issue contained several decent features. Covering all the basics and offering historical articles and plenty of visitors’ content, this was a commendable effort from the Latics.

 

Queens Park Rangers (v Manchester City 07/03/92)

£1.30 (36 pp / 27 net / S)

 

Sheffield United (v Chelsea 03/09/91)

£1.20 (36 pp / 23 net / S)

 

Sheffield Wednesday (v Queen’s Park Rangers 31/08/91)

£1.20 (36 pp / 22 net / S)

 

Southampton (v Aston Villa 31/08/91)

£1.00 (32 pp / 22.5 net / S)

 

Tottenham Hotspur (v Southampton 18/01/92)

£1.50 (48 pp / 36.5 net / S)

 

West Ham United (v Manchester United 22/04/92)

£1.50 (40 pp / 29.5 net / S)

 

Wimbledon (v Arsenal 28/03/92)

£1.00 (32 pp / 24.5 net / S)