Today’s ‘On This Day’ feature looks back just a couple of years, at the programme produced by Brighton & Hove Albion for the 2017/18 season. We awarded this programme our Bronze Award in our first Programme of the Season awards. Read our full review below and click here to see all of the 2017/18 Premier League issues.
For Brighton’s first top-flight appearance in the Premier League era, the club have issued an impressive 100-page programme, the most noticeable feature of which is the amount of highly-readable original content included.
The best feature is ‘History Repeating’, which looks back at the 1979/80 season – Brighton’s first in the top flight – and examines home matches in chronological order during the season. This excellent feature is spread across ten pages and includes a match report, an interview with then manager Alan Mullery, a player profile, and ‘Goldstone Gallery’, which has images and related text from the game. Finally, ‘Get with the Programme’ looks at the issue for the match in question, including reproductions of various pages. ‘History Repeating’ is one of the leading features produced by any club in this or any other season.
There are several well-written interviews within the programme. The best of these is an extensive four-page interview with a player who connects the Seagulls and their matchday opponents, which offers more than the usual ‘run of the mill’ interview content. Two more lengthy interviews follow, this time with current players, looking at their career and season to date. There is also a four-page feature on various improvements the club has made to their ground to comply with Premier League regulations. This provides a worthwhile insight into the work that goes on behind the scenes at a top-flight club.
As well as the usual manager column, this Brighton issue includes a detailed two-page column from Chief Executive Paul Barber, together with an extensive letter sent to local press following crowd trouble at a recent fixture against rivals Crystal Palace. This serves as a good example of how a matchday programme can provide the space for a club to communicate with its fans.
The section devoted to the visiting club starts with an introductory article that includes words from the opposition manager and one of his players. The programme highlights ‘Four to Follow’ featuring key opposition players, with basic information on the other squad members running along the foot of five pages. There is also an interview with one of the opposition players and a match report from their last away trip, as well as a page of stats for the season to date.
Coverage of previous matches is well handled, with a brief match report and lots of pictures from the games, as well as a separate page of match stats, although full line-up details are not provided. There are double-page spreads on the Under-23s, Under-18s, and Ladies team, which are full of news and information on recent games. These pages could have been improved further with results and league tables for each of the sides. The first-team stats section includes the usual season record grid, together with the league table, appearances and goal-scorers, and the weekend’s other fixtures. The programme is completed with ‘Talking Tactics’, which looks ahead to Brighton’s next match and the tactics that the opposition are expected to employ, with notes on potential areas for the Seagulls to exploit.
This is a quality effort from Brighton, which clearly reflects a great deal of effort having been put into its production. It offers an impressive mix of historical and contemporary content, with the latter often providing a revealing insight into the running of a Premier League club.