Our ‘On This Day’ feature today looks at West Bromwich Albion’s programme from the 1968/69 season. Read our notes on the issue below and click here to see all of the Division One programmes from the season.
West Brom’s ‘Albion News’ programme retained the same appearance as the previous season and, with seven and a half pages of content, remained among the smaller issues in Division One. The programme usually incorporated the Football League Review magazine but a note inside this issue for the fixture against Newcastle United stated that, with a large number of home fixtures already played, the club had already used all available issues for the season.
The programme opened with ‘Our Visitors’ which looked at Albion’s opponents from the North-East. The article noted Newcastle’s progress in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, with an upcoming semi-final tie against Glasgow Rangers to look forward to. The feature also remarked on key players in Newcastle’s ranks, including players of the quality of Wyn Davies and Bryan Robson. The following page then provided pen-pics of the Newcastle squad.
‘Club Notes’ was written by youth team captain Lyndon Hughes, who looked ahead to the day’s fixture as well as the upcoming clash with Ipswich Town, who had recently appointed former Baggie Bryan Robson as their manager. Hughes also asked supporters to back the Youth Team in their two-legged Youth Cup Final tie against Sunderland. The second half of the programme was given over to statistical content, with results, fixtures, and tables for the first team and reserves, as well as a record of player appearances and goal scorer records for the season, and line-ups from recent matches.
The absence of the Football League Review from this issue of Albion News highlighted the limited reading within the main programme at the time. Nevertheless, this was a tidy, well-presented issue that covered all the basics.