On This Day today takes a look at Liverpool’s programme from the 1978/79 season. Read our review of their issue from the game against Coventry City below and see all the 1978/79 Division One issues here.
The front cover of Liverpool’s 1978/79 issue showed Kenny Dalglish scoring the winner in the European Cup Final at Wembley the previous May – the goal that gave the Reds their second successive European Cup. Dalglish was the subject of ‘Career Story’, having recently notched his 200th career goal, averaging a goal every other game for Liverpool since his move from Celtic in August 1977.
The programme paid tribute to midfielder Ian Callaghan, who had moved to the USA on a loan deal following the European Cup success a few months earlier, having made 857 appearances for Liverpool – a club record that stands to this day. ‘Take a Tip’, written by Liverpool’s Youth Development Officer Tom Saunders, was aimed at younger supporters, here covering the essential points of the laws of the game, while Jim Kennefick outlined Liverpool’s plans to deal with the ‘spoilers’ who caused problems on the train back from a recent league cup tie.
Reference was made in another column to the number of high value transfers that had taken place that summer, noting that First and Second Division clubs were “speculating hundreds of thousands of pounds”. Manager Bob Paisley in his ‘Team Talk’ expanded on the subject, commenting that he foresaw a time when a player would move between British clubs in a million pound deal – something that would come to pass just months later when Trevor Francis joined Nottingham Forest from Birmingham City.
The programme provided extensive coverage of visitors Coventry City, kicked off by an introductory piece that assessed the club’s progress since winning the Third Division in 1963/64, fighting numerous successful battles against the drop from the top-flight during the 1970s. Five pages of the programme were given to profiles of the Coventry squad, with a spotlight piece on captain Terry Yorath. There were also pictures and recollections of the previous season’s Anfield meetings with the Sky Blues, which took place in Division One and the League Cup.
This was a high-quality Liverpool issue, having more pages of content than any other programme in Division One that season. With several articles and opinion pieces, as well as detailed opposition coverage, this was a programme befitting of such a successful era for the club.