Our ‘On This Day’ feature today looks at Bristol City’s programme for the 1979/80 season. Read our review of this excellent issue from The Robins below and see all the 1979/80 Division One issues here.
Bristol City’s ‘The Robin’ billed itself as “The Big Match Companion for City Supporters”. This was an excellent 32-page programme, containing the second largest number of pages of content of any programme in the division. Inside the programme were details of subscriptions to this “new-style match day magazine”, with prices starting at £9.75, including a free binder!
Visitors Nottingham Forest were introduced in ‘Brief Encounter’, which remarked on Forest’s recent transition from a mid-table Division Two side to European champions, under the guidance of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor. The feature then profiled the Forest squad, with a focus on £1 million striker Trevor Francis. A separate feature expanded on the remarkable turnaround in Forest’s fortunes, noting the many trophies won and the club’s then record run of 42 league matches unbeaten. In addition to the usual content afforded the visiting club, ‘The Robin’ included additional columns, with a ‘Form’ feature noting the club’s recent results and transfer activity, while ‘Dangerman’ profiled Forest goalkeeper Peter Shilton. ‘Flashback’ recalled a meeting between City and Forest in October 1972, which had ended in a 1-1 draw.
In terms of City related content, the programme included an in-depth ‘Team Talk’ column from City manager Alan Dicks, while ‘Robins Day-to-Day’ was a diary feature of recent developments at the club. ‘Between You, Me, and the Goalpost’ was another detailed article, which considered the early season form of various City players, with ‘Seen at City’ taking the form of an interview with City’s commercial manager Tony Rance. ‘Robins Nest’ was a feature looking at one City player off the field – here taking striker Tom Ritchie as its subject.
‘Topic’ was an in interesting two-page feature that looks at the international caps achieved by English players at top-flight clubs over the previous five years. The article noted City’s lack of recent representation at international level and examined the link between call ups for a country and the success of a player’s club. Bristol City’s stats section was suitably detailed, including results, line-ups, and tables for the first team and reserves. There was also a page devoted to City’s youth team that featured a couple of articles, while there were also several other pages of news and updates from around the club, completing an impressively comprehensive offering for Robins fans.
‘The Robin’ was a gem of a programme, outshining most others in the league, and proving to be somewhat ahead of its time in terms of the depth of coverage it provided.