Our latest ‘On This Day’ feature takes a look at the Swansea City programme from the 1982/83 season. Read our notes on the programme below and click here to see all of the Division One issues from the season.
‘The Swan’ was one of the smaller Division One programmes in the 1982/83 season, with just 15 pages of content after allowing for those pages taken up by advertising. The programme opened with a page of updates that noted Swansea’s recent Welsh Cup semi-final win over Colwyn Bay, which meant an upcoming North v South Wales clash in the final against Wrexham. This was followed by a page of notes from manager John Toshack, who remarked on the club’s recent victory over Manchester City and praised the locally born young players who were making an impression in the first team. A few pages of club news included information on new contracts for three Swansea players – Jimmy Hadziabdic, Ante Rajkovic, and Bob Latchford, amid speculation linking the latter with a move to Chelsea.
Coverage of the visiting club was provided over two pages. These included a team group picture, brief biographies of the players, some notes on the club’s history, and a look at their season to date, including their full results in all competitions. A separate feature – the most interesting in the programme – looked at the history between Swansea and their opponents, with notes on meetings between the teams down the years.
The centre pages of the programme featured action pictures from recent Swansea matches, which were followed by ‘Swan’s Statistics’ that included first-team appearance and goal records, as well as a chart of the top goalscorers playing in Division One. The programme also included the first team’s season record, with Swansea hovering around the relegation zone ahead of their last ten matches. Youth Team manager Les Chappell also penned a column, in which he commented on the recent form of Swansea’s reserve and youth teams.
The programme included a couple of historical items. ‘How It All Began’ was a continuing feature that provided all the stats from a season in Swansea’s history, including the club’s results, appearance and scorer details, and a league table. Similarly, ‘Swansea A-Z’ offered a summary of the club’s results against each opponent they had faced.
Swansea’s programme was somewhat limited in terms of readable content, but was tidily presented, covering all the basics in a manner typical of many issues of the time.