Programme Reviews

Key

PP = Total Pages

Net = Total Pages Less Adverts

P = Perfect Bound

S = Stapled

 

Arsenal (v Wigan Athletic 24/11/07)

£3.00 (84 pp / 68 net / S)

 

Aston Villa (v Bolton Wanderers 05/04/08)

£2.50 (60 pp / 47 net / S)

 

Birmingham City (v Everton 12/04/08)

£3.50 (84 pp / 61 net / S)

 

Blackburn Rovers (v Aston Villa 28/11/07)

£3.00 (72 pp / 52 net / S)

 

Bolton Wanderers (v Derby County 02/01/08)

£3.00 (84 pp / 61.5 net / S)

 

Chelsea (v Middlesbrough 30/03/08)

£3.00 (76 pp / 52.5 net / S)

 

Derby County (v Arsenal 28/04/08)

£3.00 (62 pp / 39.5 net / S)

 

Everton (v Chelsea 17/04/08)

£3.00 (84 pp / 58 net / S)

 

Fulham (v Sunderland 05/04/08)

£3.00 (68 pp / 48 net / S)

 

Liverpool (v Portsmouth 22/12/07)

£3.00 (84 pp / 64 net / S)

 

Manchester City (v West Ham United 20/01/08)

£3.00 (84 pp / 56 net / S)

 

Manchester United (v Tottenham Hotspur 26/08/07)

£3.00 (68 pp / 43 net / S)

 

Middlesbrough (v Fulham 09/02/08)

£3.00 (64 pp / 48 net / S)

 

Newcastle United (v Blackburn Rovers 01/03/08)

£3.00 (64 pp / 42 net / S)

 

Portsmouth (v Newcastle United 12/04/08)

£3.00 (84 pp / 57 net / S)

 

Reading (v Manchester United 19/01/08)

£3.00 (84 pp / 67 net / S)

 

Sunderland (v Liverpool 25/08/07)

£3.00 (84 pp / 63 net / S)

 

Tottenham Hotspur (v Birmingham City 02/12/07)

£3.00 (84 pp / 59 net / S)

 

West Ham United (v Reading 26/12/07)

£3.50 (84 pp / 61 net / S)

 

Wigan Athletic (v Manchester City 01/12/07)

£3.00 (84 pp / 57.5 net / S)

Wigan’s programme for the 2007/08 season bore the title ‘Latics’ and was divided into four sections – ‘From the Stadium’; ‘From the Dug Out’; ‘From the Stands’; and ‘The Final Analysis’. These sections grouped together relevant content and provided the programme with a welcome flow and consistency.

‘From the Stadium’ included the thoughts of newly appointed manager Steve Bruce, who was also profiled with a four-page ‘career in pictures’ section, covering both his playing and management careers, to mark his appointment as boss at Wigan. There were also columns from club captain Mario Melchiot and Chief Executive Brenda Spencer.

Coverage of visitors Manchester City was included in ‘From the Dugout’. The City pages made good use of the club’s familiar Sky-Blue colours and were very tidily presented. The content included an opening article that discusses the work of manager Sven-Goran Eriksson in putting together a squad capable of challenging for honours. There were notes on the club’s recent form and the line-up they used in their last match. A club profile recorded City’s landmarks, alongside key headlines from the last decade. The section was completed by detailed pen-pics of the City squad and manager, with midfielders Elano and Stephen Ireland identified as ‘Two to Watch’. In related content, there were two pages of content about history between Wigan and City, including player connections and key moments in previous clashes.

The ‘Dugout’ section of the programme also included some of the best reading material in the Wigan issue. ‘Gone But Not Forgotten’ was a piece that commemorated the 75^th anniversary of the club with a look back at some classic seasons in the Latics’ history. The focus in this issue was the 1998/99 season, when Wigan bade farewell to their old Springfield Park home. Over eight pages the feature recalled memorable moments from 1998/99, including the last game at Springfield Park, against Manchester City in the play-off semi-finals, and a trophy win in the Auto Windscreen Shield final, where Millwall were defeated 1-0. ‘Those We Have Loved’ looked at Colin Greenall and Stuart Barlow, both of whom made more than 40 appearances for Wigan during the season, while ‘Scores on the Doors’ provided a statistical run-down of the campaign. This excellent feature was completed by ‘News in Brief’, which collated snippets of Wigan trivia from 1998/99, and ‘Pictures of the Year’, which remembered news events from the time.

Other content in the section included ‘Latics Confidential’, which featured 12 pages of behind the scenes photographs from Steve Bruce’s appointment as manager, while ‘The Voice of Youth’ turned the spotlight on to Wigan’s youth team, with a player profile alongside facts and figures from the season.

The other two sections of the programme were somewhat shorter. ‘From the Stands’ included a club noticeboard, an article from Wigan Evening Post journalist Dave Seddon, and ‘Springfield Spark’, which took a sideways look at the beautiful game – here explaining how various clubs around the league earned their nicknames. ‘The Final Analysis’ covered the usual stats from the season, with appearance records, league table, first-team results and fixtures, and the respective squads for each club on the back page.

‘Latics’ provided an enjoyable read, with the historical content a notable highlight. The programme provided a refreshingly extensive approach to its main features, with the space allocated helping the writers to go into more depth than seen in many programmes.