For today’s On This Day feature we go back to 1992 – the first season of the Premier League – and look at Aston Villa’s programme from their match against Manchester United. Read the full review below and click here to go to the 1992/93 page to see all the top-flight issues from that season.
Villa’s ‘News and Record’ for 1992/93 was a very well-designed programme, managing to pack in a lot of content without pages appearing too crowded. A consistent design was used throughout, with nice use of club colours and page headers. The issue also presented images well, with these being nicely laid out with the relevant text.
The best original feature was ‘Memory Match’, in which a former Villa player looked back at a memorable game from the past. This issue featured Johnny Dixon recalling past clashes against Manchester United in the 1950s, including the 1957 FA Cup Final. The column also reflected on a Christmas double-header in 1954, when Villa won 1-0 at Old Trafford on December 27th as well as winning the return fixture 2-1 the next day – Dixon scoring in both games. The feature provided match facts for that game at Villa Park, as well as an excerpt from the Villa programme from 1st January 1955 that reported on the match.
In other original content, ‘Nationwide’ looked at football news from around the country, while ‘Team Talk’ was a two-page player interview that featured Villa midfielder Dave Farrell. The youngster, who had been playing Sunday football the previous year, had made his debut for Villa against Queens Park Rangers the previous week. ‘Scene Setter’ meanwhile took the opportunity to compare Ron Atkinson’s Villa of 1992 with Graham Taylor’s team of 1989, which had narrowly missed out on winning the league.
Club information included the manager’s column; several pages of Villa news on and off the field; and a detailed first-team stats section over two pages, including a squad roll-call and league table. Previous matches were covered with pictures and brief text, whilst line-ups for those matches were provided in the ‘record’ section of the programme. The issue also featured write-ups for the reserves and youth teams.
Opposition content was rather limited, with an introductory article followed by a detailed diary of the opposition’s season to date and a ten-year record. Only a couple of player pics were provided, together with basic biographical information of each member of the United squad and the club’s results to date for the season. There was also a collection of pictures from United’s visit to Villa Park in the League Cup ten days earlier, where the home side had triumphed courtesy of a Dean Saunders goal.
Overall this was a very tidy issue from Villa. Whilst the emphasis was on the ‘news and record’ items suggested by the title, there was also plenty to read in the programme with ‘Memory Match’ being a real highlight and one of the best articles from any issue in that inaugural Premier League season.