Our ‘On This Day feature for 18th April looks back to 1987 and Tottenham’s programme for the visit of Charlton Athletic. Read our notes on the issue below and see all of the other top-flight programmes from 1986/87 here.
Tottenham’s programme boasted the joint-highest number of pages of any issue in the league, with 28 pages of content, the same number as offered by Everton and Luton Town. The programme for the match against Charlton Athletic followed Tottenham’s FA Cup Semi-Final win over Watford, a picture from which appeared on the cover, with goal-scorer Steve Hodge congratulated by Glenn Hoddle. There were further pictures from the day inside the programme in ‘Action Replay’.
The day’s fixture was previewed in ‘Welcome to White Hart Lane’. The column noted Charlton’s need for points as well as congratulating goalkeeper Ray Clemence on his breaking the British first-class appearances record that afternoon. That achievement was further marked with a page containing details of Clemence’s career and words from the man himself, as well as details of his 1,098 previous appearances. Another Spurs player receiving acknowledgement was striker Clive Allen, who was shown receiving the PFA Players Player of the Year Award. Allen had recently broken Jimmy Greaves’ long-standing record for most goals in a season by a Tottenham player.
There was extensive coverage of the day’s visitors to White Hart Lane. There was a well laid out double-page spread that included a colour team group picture, as well as player pen-pics and a profile of the manager. ‘Star of Old’ offered a brief profile of a key name from the visiting club’s past, with the Charlton programme covering former Addicks’ inside-left Don Welsh. In addition, ‘Diary’ provided a blow-by-blow account of Charlton’s season to date, while ‘Opposition View’ offered insights into the visiting club from former Spurs player Paul Miller. ‘Encounters’ meanwhile included a statistical summary of previous meetings between Tottenham and Charlton.
Coverage of Tottenham’s other sides was impressively handled, with match reports and other news for the Reserves and Youths. Those teams were also well covered in the programme’s two-page statistical section, which offered results, fixtures, and tables for each of Tottenham’s teams. The programme also included supporters’ letters in ‘Off the Post’, a ‘Junior Spurs’ page, and ‘A to Z’, which was a recurring series that contained statistical records of the players who had represented the club down the years. There was also a preview of Tottenham’s next match, ‘Flash Back’, which recalled matches from 5, 10, and 20 years ago, and a column from manager David Pleat.
This was certainly an excellent issue from Spurs, offering a range of interesting content and especially impressive coverage of their matchday opponents.