Today’s ‘On This Day’ features the Manchester United programme from the 1976/77 season. Read the review below and click here to see all the Division One issues from that season.
The ‘Manchester United Review’ for 1976/77 was a 20-page issue, which featured 17 pages of content for the 12p cover price. The programme began with a page of club information, including an honours board, followed by a column from manager Tommy Docherty. The United boss reflected on his team’s indifferent home form in the early part of the season, as well as the challenges of competing in the UEFA Cup on top of the domestic schedule.
The programme included a letters page that, alongside correspondence from supporters, contained a table of average attendances for the season to date. United sat proudly on top of this table, with an average attendance figure of 57,672. This was a subject also touched on by David Meek of the Manchester Evening News in his ‘Club Topics’ column, in which he also reflected on the club’s upcoming trip to face Juventus in the UEFA Cup.
‘Players Profile’ provided brief career notes and a photo of one United player (featuring European Cup winning goalkeeper Alex Stepney in this issue) as well as two pages of extensive appearance records, including his time with Millwall and Chelsea as well as United. The issue also included a couple of half-page pictures from United’s recent game against Norwich City, including Gerry Daly converting a penalty and a shot of Steve Coppell in action. ‘Meet the Referee’ meanwhile provided a detailed profile of Jack Taylor – then in his 22nd year in the Football League – noting that he had taken charge of the 1966 FA Cup Final and the 1974 World Cup Final.
A very busy stats section covered the centre-pages, including results and tables for the first team and reserves. The spread also included ‘Down the Years with the Reds’, which offered a statistical summary of a year from United’s history. In this issue, the focus was on 1907/08, when United won the league by nine points ahead of Aston Villa and Manchester City. There were separate half-page columns on both the juniors and reserves, with write-ups on recent matches and line-up details.
Coverage of visitors Ipswich Town was quite limited, although tidily presented, with a team group picture on one page accompanied by pen-pics of the club’s players.
There was a heavy statistical slant to this United programme. Although it was certainly well put together, the issue lacked much in the way of the kind of written content that would make it stand out from the crowd.