For today’s ‘On This Day’ feature we look at Notts County’s programme for the 1981/82 season. Read our notes below and see all of the 1981/82 Division One programmes here.
One of only three Division One clubs offering just 16 pages in 1981/82, the Notts County programme was one of the slighter issues in that season. The programme for the visit of Brighton & Hove Albion opened with Jimmy Sirrel’s manager’s notes, entitled ‘In Black & White’. Sirrel praised forward Iain McCulloch for his call-up to the Scotland under-21 squad for their forthcoming fixture against England, hoping that other County players would draw inspiration from the call-up. Sirrel also noted the team’s poor run of form, though that would be righted by a 4-1 win over Brighton that helped secure the club’s status in Division One for another season.
‘Terry Bowles Magpie Collection’ provided various snippets of news from the club, before a brief profile of defender Gary Wood in ‘At Home With’. ‘Action Replay’ provided action pictures from previous games, with the focus in the Brighton issue on the Easter Monday derby clash with local rivals Nottingham Forest. The visitors from the Goldstone Ground were covered across the centre pages of the programme, which contained player profiles, pictures of Mick Robinson and Andy Ritchie, and some commentary that noted Albion were on course for their best league placing. ‘Colin’s Corner’ offered views from the press box with Colin Slater, while there were also two pages of ‘Facts & Figures’. The programme concluded with ‘In Support’, written by Supporters’ Club Secretary Peter Dennis, while the expected line-ups for the day were presented on the back cover.
A somewhat limited programme then, without much in the way of readable material.