Our ‘On This Day’ feature for 22nd December looks back to 1973 and the programme issued by Wolverhampton Wanderers for their match against Chelsea. Read our review of the issue below and click here to view all the Division One programmes for the 1973/74 season.
Wolves’ ‘Molinews’ programme had, by 1973, lost some of the distinctiveness that marked it out as one of the best issues around in the late 1960s. The amount of advertising content had increased to eight pages – fully one-third of the programme – resulting in 16 pages of content for the eight pence cost – down from 21 pages in the 1968/69 season.
The pre-Christmas issue for the match against Chelsea included a Wolves team-group picture with Christmas wishes from all at Molineux. There followed a column from Alan Williams of the Daily Express, in which he reflected on attendances since England’s exit from the World Cup qualifiers a few weeks earlier. Whilst some had predicted that fans would stay away from grounds, the figures did not bear that out.
The section on visitors Chelsea included two-pages of player biographies, including a picture of defender David Webb, as well as a team group picture of the Blues. ‘For the Record’ detailed the head to head record of Wolves and Chelsea with results and scorer details for each match up since the 1946/47 season.
Coverage of previous matches was well presented, with a two-page spread containing action pictures alongside brief commentary and the match results. The centre-pages featured more photographs from a recent Midlands derby against Coventry City, while ‘Follow the Wolves’ provided travel information for those Wolves fans planning to make the upcoming trips to Leicester City and Burnley. A three-page statistics section included the usual results, fixtures, tables, and appearance details, including records for Wolves’ reserve team.
Whilst the Wolves programme remained one of the larger issues in Division One, the content offered had become far more limited than in previous seasons. For a 24-page issue there was a surprisingly limited amount of reading, with photographic and statistical content to the fore.