For today’s On This Day feature we look at Leeds United’s programme for the 1968/69 season, when they finished as champions of England under Don Revie. Read our review of the issue for the fixture against Burnley below and click here to take a look at all the top-flight programmes from the season. For more details of the match itself, this Leeds history website offers an interesting read and press cuttings from the time.
This Leeds United programme was one of the less interesting issues of the time, containing only six and a half pages of content. Bulked out with the inclusion of the Football League Review magazine, the programme contained limited original material.
The front cover featured the traditional Leeds club crest, which was based on the city’s coat of arms, together with the match details and information on forthcoming home fixtures. An introductory article then looked at visitors Burnley – described here as “a small town club with a big reputation”. The feature remarked on how Burnley had maintained their top-flight status due to replacing players sold for good money with a team of “brilliant youngsters”. This view of Burnley was due, at least in part, to the reverse suffered by Leeds at Turf Moor a few months earlier, when the defending league champions were beaten 5-1. The issue also included Burnley’s squad list.
A separate column reported on Leeds’ recent fixtures, noting the concession of late goals away to Chelsea and West Ham, which had resulted in the team picking up only one point rather than two. The article also referred to transfer requests having been received from Peter Lorimer and David Harvey, both of whom were in search of regular first-team action. The programme included the league table, which showed Leeds three point behind leaders Liverpool (though Leeds would ultimately take the title by six points ahead of the Merseysiders). The team line-ups were included on the centre-pages of the programme, which also featured the first team’s results and fixtures for the season.
The Leeds issue was certainly limited by the amount of advertising content included, with no Division One club providing fewer pages of content in 1968/69. The two main articles within the programme did at least offer some original content.