England v Yugoslavia programme, 1986

England's exit from the 1986 World Cup may have been a little earlier than fans would have liked, but everything was going to be alright. Bobby Robson's side were now brimming with confidence and feeling assured that they had all the qualities needed to qualify for Euro 88.

Despite England's 1-0 friendly defeat to Sweden in their first match after Mexico 86, their campaign to reach the 1988 European Championship finals in West Germany had started well. A 3-0 Wembley win over Northern Ireland in October 1986 got things off to the perfect start, but now came Yugoslavia - something of an unknown quantity for Bobby Robson and most of England's fans.

Always the dark horses whenever an international competition came around, Yugoslavia were erratic in their consistency. They'd reached the finals of Euro 84 only to come bottom of their First Round group, and followed that by finishing fourth out of five teams in their qualifying group for World Cup '86.

They undoubtedly had some decent players, yet for some reason they couldn't be relied upon to gel together well when it was really necessary. This, plus the rising profile of Gary Lineker, however, would provide all the motivation England needed.

Lineker found himself on the front cover of the official programme, proudly showing off the Adidas Golden Shoe he received for scoring 30 Everton goals the previous season. Inside, Albert Sewell marked Lineker's entry into England's top 20 goalscorers chart and wondered if he might one day take top spot above Bobby Charlton. Ultimately, he'd fall one goal short of Charlton's 49, whereas both look like they'll soon be overtaken by Wayne Rooney who's currently on 46.

England's starting XI against Yugoslavia at Wembley saw only six players present that faced Argentina at the Azteca five months previously. Chris Woods replaced Peter Shilton in goal, while in midfield, Gary Mabbutt got his first call up in three years to replace Bryan Robson. It turned out to be a memorable night for the Tottenham stalwart as he opened the scoring with his one and only goal in an England shirt.

The other goal on the night came from Viv Anderson, himself a rarity on the England scoresheet. Having seen his appearances for the national team dwindle since the start of the 1980's, Anderson enjoyed a return to the side while Gary Stevens was unfit and scored his second and last international goal to complete the 2-0 win over Yugoslavia.

Bobby Robson spoke of the visitors' thorough preparations for the match and doubted whether the England camp knew just as much about the Yugoslavs. Also weighing on his mind was the paltry attendance for England's previous game against Northern Ireland. "I can't deny I was disappointed at the attendance" said Robson. "I don't consider 30,000 to be a big crowd for an England fixture at Wembley. But let me make it quite clear that I know we have no divine right to large crowds; we have to work to earn the support." No doubt he'd have been more pleased with the 60,000 that eventually turned up on the night for the Yugoslavia match.

Away from the match, the Under-21 squad was under the spotlight in Robert Steen's article 'Catch 22 For The U-21s.' England had done away with the Under-23 team in 1976 to allow greater development of players emerging from the Youth team setup, and the undoubted dividends of doing so were now been reaped. England had won the UEFA Under-21 tournament in 1982 and 1984 and were semi-finalists in 1978 and 1980. Now a new breed of players were hoping for an imminent breakthrough into the full England team under the guidance of Dave Sexton.

Among the squad of 18 named for England's first U21 qualifier of the 1986-88 campaign against Yugoslavia were some familiar names. Tony Dorigo of Aston Villa, Stuart Pearce, Des Walker and Nigel Clough of Nottingham Forest, Tony Adams and David Rocastle of Arsenal, plus Tim Flowers of Southampton in goal... A fine vintage of players, but they were to be the last group to make it to the semi-finals of the UEFA U-21 tournament until 2007 when the likes of James Milner, Anton Ferdinand and Ashley Young were the new names in the frame.

As far as the 1986-88 campaign was concerned, England fell at the final hurdle after a defeat to eventual winners France. Their side featured a couple of nobodies called Eric Cantona and Laurent Blanc, in case you were interested.

Finally, the official match programme gave a warm send-off to Vernon Edwards, the England team doctor who was a familiar sight when giving players urgent treatment on the pitch (and off it). Edwards had suffered a heart attack during the World Cup in Mexico and had reluctantly taken the decision to step down from his duties. Mel Henderson asked Edwards about his England memories and one particular tale stood out for sheer weirdness:

"Sir Alf Ramsey was in charge when Dr Edwards joined the England set-up and in 1971 they accompanied the youth squad to Czechoslovakia for the UEFA Championship more commonly known as the Little World Cup."

"He recalls: "We won the trophy but the trip was memorable from my point of view for an extraordinary incident that occurred when the entire goal rotted at ground level and collapsed on Trevor Francis."

"He received an horrendous injury and at first I feared he had fractured his leg. We seemed miles from civilisation and had a journey ahead of us to Prague for the next stage of the competition."

"I decided to apply a Plaster of Paris splint and had to do it in my bedroom. You can imagine the mess it made!"

Never mind that... since when did you hear the phrase "Match abandoned due to goalposts rotting at ground level'? What a weird football world we lived in back in 1986...

-- Chris Oakley

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Football League Review, 30 April 1969

The young woman perched on the end of a factory bench may have sent a frisson of excitement through many a male football fan back in 1969. With the greatest of respect, it wasn't so much her as the kit that had the desired effect for this was an early chance to see what the England football team were going to be wearing at the 1970 World Cup Finals.

Further details were provided on the inside pages. "Umbro, who have been making all the new kit in recent years, have produced a new, classical shirt line in specially developed light cellular material. The shorts are in poplin, with single elastic waist, wide vents, and inset cotton cellular panels. It has all been designed to resist the hot climate. Even the stockings are made of light, nylon yarn." We knew the atmosphere at Mexico '70 was electric, but we never knew it was caused by the static charge of England's socks...

This was the cover story from the Football League Review, a 24-page programme produced by the Football League that appeared as an insert in the match-day programmes of many clubs between 1965 and 1975. Created to give supporters a wider awareness of issues from across the league structure, these programmes were a brilliant collection of interesting opinion pieces, factual items, colour pictures and numerous bits of froth and nonsense.

Leeds United team picture

In this issue, the last to be produced for the 1968-69 season, there were many thought-provoking articles that were sure to coax an opinion from even the most passive of fans. In 'Platform', Geoffrey T. Allman noted the success of Third Division teams in the early years of the League Cup and offered some reasons why.

"...Many so-called 'little' clubs have a far greater range of performance than their First Division counterparts. They can reach great heights, hit great depths yet their average performance is often no more than moderate. Division One clubs vary less from week to week; their average performance is usually good, but on days when they raise their game the difference is not so great. It is therefore possible for a good Third Division team to produce an optimum performance which is superior to a First Division team's average performance."

Football League Review's editor, Harry Brown, added fuel to the debate that there was a growing gap in ability between the clubs in England's top two divisions. He noted a comment from Sunday Times writer Brian Glanville that "promoted clubs should put off delusions of grandeur. An ability gap exists; and is likely to grow."

To that end, many observers had noted the plight of Queens Park Rangers, promoted from the Second Division in 1967-68 but ultimately relegated back again just after this issue of the Football League Review was published. Harry Brown concluded that this wasn't necessarily a reflection on the ability of Second Division clubs to survive, and offered evidence that Wolves and Southampton (both promoted in 1966) were still surviving after struggling initially.

"Perhaps Bert Head of Crystal Palace puts the Ability Gap into a nutshell. He says: "It all depends on your players. If they haven't got the ability, they haven't." AND THAT'S A FACT" said Brown, leaning heavily on his Caps Lock key.

Reading team picture

Plans for the 1970 World Cup were uppermost in the minds of organisers and administrators alike, and in 'League View' we find an interesting narrative that could chime with England's preparation for a winter World Cup in 2022.

"At the end of next season, England and, it is to be hoped, some of the other Home Countries, will be wanting to leave not later than May 1 for Mexico" said the editorial piece. "The Football League fixture list for next season has been arranged in consultation with the Home Associations with one object in mind... to get the League competition finished not later than the middle of April."

And so the details were given. The 1970 FA Cup Final would be moved to April 11, the Home International Championship would be played over one week from April 18, and many midweek fixtures were to be crammed into the early part of the 1969-70 season before the bad weather arrived to minimise the number of postponements.

Disagreements and inconvenience for the clubs was foreseen due to the number of matches having to be rearranged or fitted into such a short timeframe, but the Football League were pleading peace and understanding to ensure a happy outcome.

"It has to be done, but it is unlikely to be done without a great deal of heartsearching. Now is the time for everyone - legislators, clubs, players, press and public - to get the record straight."

Another important issue in the game of 1969 was player discipline. Football League Review crunched the numbers and spotted an upward trend in the number of bookings, yet the total number sent off appeared to be remaining steady.

"The amount of violent play is not substantially different from what it was a decade ago, but today there is much more petty argument, much more dissent, much more gamesmanship than there used to be." The inclusion of a picture showing Leeds player Billy Bremner remonstrating with a referee was no doubt coincidental.

Previous assumptions made in the national press were based on the fact that growing indiscipline was a result of 'bonuses' and 'the pursuit of a chance to compete in European competitions.' Football League Review, however, helpfully pointed out the flaw in the argument. "This season the percentage increase in cautions in Divisions Two, Three and Four are higher than in the First Division... If these figures prove anything, they prove that discipline is not related to the frenzy of the Big Game, the chance to compete in Europe, or the effect of cash."

In a lighter vein, 'Soccer's Sound of Music' considered the conflicting views of football fans regarding their choice of pre-match musical entertainment. While some were asking "whatever happened to the brass bands that used to entertain before a game in the old days?" others were clearly favouring the muffled pleasures of 'top ten records' playing out over a tannoy system.

"Stoke City went so far as to provide their fans with classical music, but assistant manager Derek Hodgson admits that the experiment "was not a success" and the idea was dropped after a few games" it said. Now there is a surprise...

Better, no doubt, was Coventry City whose Sky Blues radio provided fans with record requests and pre-match interviews with players and personalities. As for the more traditional types, there was always the old-fashioned brass band playing still at "Arsenal, West Ham and Southampton."

As it was nearly season's end, Football League Review announced the winners of two lesser-known competitions created to provide some silverware for clubs whose trophy cabinets might have been somewhat empty-looking.

Swindon Town, fresh from their League Cup win at Wembley over Arsenal, were also handed the John White Football League Supporters' trophy, having been assessed by a panel headed by League secretary Alan Hardaker. As well as that, they also had the undoubted privilege of being able to fly a special 'Crowd of the Season' pennant at their home ground - surely worth more than silverware every time.

As for QPR, they made off with Football League Review's award for Best Programme. Over a thousand readers sent in their comments and the Loftus Road club came out on top ahead of Manchester United and Wolves.

But the final word has to come from the Post Bag feature which has a wonderful correspondence from M. Ronsley of Potters Bar in Hertfordshire. We're filing this one under 'Never in this day and age'...

The reader says:

"I wonder whether any other supporters of teams who play in white shirts have noticed the confusion that sometimes arises.

"In two recent Second Division games, I have seen the team playing in white shirts accidentally passing the ball to programme sellers in white overalls who walk round the pitch while the game is in progress.

"It may sound an amusing situation, but I don't think it's funny. Can't something be done to end this possible confusion?"

Football League Review - tackling the tough issues of modern football since 1965.

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Six of the Best: Arsenal

Perhaps we've said it before, but we often find it all too easy to overlook the wonderful world of match-day programmes here at The Football Attic, and for that we can only apologise. Few things provide a lasting, tangible snapshot of the football world like the humble programme, let alone its undoubted ability to liven up the most miserable of visits to watch the team of your choice.

So let's celebrate the match-day programme and, more specifically, the work of the graphic designers and printers that created so many wonderful and memorable covers.

In this feature, we'll pick a club at random, then choose our favourite programme cover design from each of the last six decades for that club. We'll explain why we like our choices and invite you to give us your choices too, but that's all we're doing - simply admiring the artwork.

So as if to suggest an alphabetical approach to all this, let's begin with the match-day programmes of Arsenal...

Arsenal programme,
1968-71

The 1960's

I love this design. The first thing you notice about it is the big white circle (a ball, if you will) showing the match details and so on, but then you notice the red background which is actually a tinted selection of Arsenal-related photos. Finish the whole thing off with the club name running around the circle and you have a very nice eye-catching composition.

This cover was first seen during the 1968/69 season and, save for a different selection of background pictures, continued right through to 1970/71. As a bridge between the 1960's and the 1970's, this worked really well as it didn't use a typeface or imagery that associated itself with one decade or the other. Nice work.

Arsenal programme,
1975-76

The 1970's

Though it only lasted for one season, this was my favourite Arsenal programme design of the 1970's. The contrast between black-and-white action shot and plain red upper section is dramatic and works really well, while the seriffed header font is dignified and clear.

The two stripes look good too, although it is a little misleading in making you think that the stripes featured on Arsenal's kit somewhere. As all you kit aficionados will know, Arsenal's kit remained constant right the way through the 1970's and certainly didn't have anything as garish as a double stripe anywhere on it.

In summary, then, this wasn't the most eye-catching design from the decade, but it was smart and reflected the end of the post-glam era in a suitably understated way.

Arsenal programme,
1981-83

The 1980's

If any decade is guilty of fashion crimes, it's the 1980's, and some of Arsenal's programmes at this time simply look a bit too 80's, frankly. This one, on the other hand, looks cool and vibrant.

Thanks to the introduction of full colour printing only a few years earlier, this programme design uses a photo from a recent match as the dominating element. No bad thing, either - it brings the excitement of the game sharply into focus. With a modern headline font that's not too quirky and all the important details down near the bottom, everything's neatly compartmentalised and easy on the eye. What's not to like?

Arsenal programme,
1998-99

The 1990's

To be honest, it's unclear what the background is on this cover. It's a sort of navy blue/burgundy/gunmetal mish-mash of a pattern, and yet it's not really important in the grand scheme of things. What's important is that it provides an interesting backdrop to the action photo that appears on top of it.

It's also a great contrast to the very nice gold 'Arsenal' lettering that features near the bottom of the cover. The lettering itself is taken straight from the club badge of that era, and it would subsequently be coloured silver on the official programmes during the following three seasons.

The fact that it was coloured gold here might have something to do with the fact that this was the season after The Gunners had won the League and FA Cup double. Further proof of that incredible achievement can be found in the trophy images that appear in both of the bottom corners. To complete the ensemble, a computer-style typeface indicates the match details and price (by now a whopping £2). Money well spent, however, given the lavish production values of this late-20th Century design.

Arsenal programme,
2008-09

The 2000's

Fast-forward ten years and you find all the intricate detail stripped away to leave a very nice, simple, clean composition. By this stage, Arsenal had updated their badge (which now appeared in the top-right hand corner) and the typeface from it was used, as before, for the main title.

The ever-present match photo filled the full width here and would have taken up the full height too were it not for the red bar across the bottom. If you can pick out any negative from this design, it's the fact that the commercial age was now demanding three corporate logos be displayed - one each for Emirates, Nike and the Barclays Premier League - but at least they were tucked away nice and small in the bottom-left corner where they wouldn't be too distracting.

In many ways, this is as neat and stylish as you could ever ask for... but when the second decade of the 21st Century arrived, it was all change again...

The 2010's

OK, so the decade is still in progress and has barely started, but out of the four seasons that have begun up to now, this design is the pick of what we've seen so far.

Looking more like a brochure than a programme, there was now a thick white border around the front cover providing a pleasant contrast from the colour overload of previous efforts. There was also no mistaking the title of the programme as it was now appearing top-left, as is somewhat traditional for magazines of all kinds.

A squat sans-serif font displays the match details in an unambiguous fashion, including a four point bullet strap below the main title. Then there's those all-important logos which have been parked neatly along the bottom edge - perhaps the result of some over-clinical styling. At least you can't argue with the clarity of detail on the cover, and it's interesting to note that this season's design takes this concept and gives it a more complicated appearance. Bit of a shame that...

Anyway, there it is - our choice of the best Arsenal programmes from six decades. We'd be interested to hear your views about which ones you like or dislike, and as ever we invite you to leave us a comment below or contact us via Twitter, Facebook or via email at admin [at] thefootballattic [dot] com.

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Football League v Football League of Ireland programme (1965)

There was once a time when the term ‘international football’ meant one of two things. More often than not, it applied to matches where eleven men representing the peak of their country’s footballing ability were pitted against eleven more from a rival country. Sometimes, however, it could be applied to the long forgotten concept of inter-league football.

When national teams had such a wealth of talent that it couldn't all be picked for the same side, it wasn't uncommon for a match to be arranged featuring a selection of players from, say, the English Football League and those playing in a nearby league, often Scotland, Wales or Ireland. Here, the national team managers could assess players who might be considered suitable for a place in a future squad line-up or those players returning from injury that needed match practice as part of their rehabilitation.

The practice of organising inter-league matches began as early as the 1890’s and were in some instances just as popular as the full international games we know and love today. It wasn't uncommon for tens of thousands of people to pass through the turnstiles to see what was in essence an international match of sorts.

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FA Cup Final Programmes (1946-2012)

Continuing FA Cup Final Week here at The Football Attic, we present a video montage showing the front covers of all of the FA Cup Final match-day programmes from 1946 onwards.

Pick your favourites, pick your worst, then tell us what they are - we look forward to hearing from you!

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England v Scotland programme, 1969

The final crucial game in the 1969 Home International Championship saw the holders and world champions England facing the only team that could top the table in their stead - Scotland.

The match was played at Wembley and for the first time in decades the Home International competition was played at the end of the season. Rather than having all matches scattered from October to February, the Home Internationals were now played over the course of one week in early May. It was physically more demanding for all the players involved and also less significant than the previous tournament that had acted as a qualifying contest for the 1968 European Championships.

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England v Spain programme, 1968

You can tell how old this match-day programme is because on page 2 there’s an explanation of what the European Championships is all about and how it came to be formed. Your average English football fan actually had to be told what the competition was all about.

This somewhat thin pamphlet commemorating the occasion of England’s quarter-final against Spain in April 1968 may not contain much, but it gently informs and educates the reader about a tournament that was still only eight years old at the time. Of the two previous occasions when it was held, England hadn't taken part in the first and had been eliminated in the Preliminary Round during the second.

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Official Programme of the 1970 World Cup

A cheery red cover invites you to thumb through the 66 pages of this souvenir programme created as a guide to the 1970 World Cup. Priced at just six shillings (or 30p for any Brits harbouring decimal thoughts a year ahead of their time), this was the official handbook guaranteed to help you get the most out of the FIFA’s ninth global tournament.

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Attic Kits Feature in Coventry City Matchday Programme

Today is a very proud day for The Football Attic and in particular, the Rich (@sofa_soccer) shaped half.

In today's Coventry City Matchday Programme for the game against Bury, 3 of my fantasy kit designs are showcased to all who buy a copy. As someone who, like Chris, spent hours of his teenage years designing kits, to have them in your home team's programme is just fantastic!

Before I go into how this came about, I want to say a big thank you to Derek and Gary of the brilliant Got, Not Got, for it is they who made this all possible. For those of you who may have missed it, we interviewed the Godfathers of Retro back in February.

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FA Cup Final Programme, 1980

A quick skim through the Official Souvenir Programme of the 1980 FA Cup Final shows that it was a mixed bag of trivia, some of it dry, some of it brilliantly evocative.

Inside, we first see the Timetable and Programme of Events for May 10th 1980. The running order for the biggest afternoon in English football had a familiar feel; marching regimental bands at 1.10pm, the marching band of Kansas State University at 1.35, more from the regimental bands of the Guards' Division at 2.30 and again at half time, Abide With Me at 2.45 and The Duke of Duchess of Kent shaking hands with the players at 2.50. So far, so regimented.

On page 5, we get a word from Ted Croker, FA Secretary, who speaks of the growing trend for Second Division clubs to do well in the FA Cup Final (Sunderland and Southampton being recent examples at the time). This was a good omen for West Ham although, as Croker said, Arsenal "seemed to have reserved a permanent place at Wembley. This will be the club's third Wembley Final in succession – a record…" He signed off by telling readers that the Final would "be seen on TV in over 60 countries" and by hundreds of millions of people. It would probably have been more were it not for all those regimental marching bands showing up every five minutes.

Further inside the programme, there are detailed club profiles on Arsenal and West Ham along with full colour pictures of the two teams, in case you'd forgotten what they looked like. Furthermore, there are double-page profiles of the two teams to give some detail on the playing staff in each case. We're told that "in August 1977, [Pat Jennings] joined Arsenal from neighbours Tottenham Hotspur. Would Spurs have let him go for £45,000 if they had known he would play for their greatest rivals at Wembley in 1978, 1979 and 1980?" Probably not, but there again if my aunt had balls, would she be my uncle? The answer to both questions is likely to be the same.

The FA Cup Final programme of 1980 serves as much as a condensed reference book as any kind of souvenir. There are pages devoted to previous Cup Final results, Cup Facts ('compiled by Jack Rollin') and Goals Galore ('Scoring feats from past FA Cup Finals') but aside from the statistics and the plentiful colour action photos of both teams, the real charm can found in the filler material. Here, we get a perfect snapshot of the era through the adverts dotted willy-nilly throughout.

There's one for the Sunday Mirror featuring "Kevin Keegan of England and Hamburg – soon Southampton" who was writing a column for the weekend tabloid at the time. Keegan also cropped up in a small advert for Mitre Sports, alongside another for Adidas bearing a tiny caption telling us that Umbro International (Footwear) Ltd were "the sole UK distributors of Adidas products." Quite a sporting gesture on the part of the future England kit suppliers in more ways than one.

Elsewhere, there's an advert for the Victor range of men's toiletries - a useful reference for anyone wondering whether Brut 33 was the low point in male grooming products at the start of the 1980's. Another advertises Skol, surely as ubiquitous in pubs back then as pictures of topless models on Big D peanut dispensers and a predilection for cirrhosis of the liver and lung cancer among the regulars.

But for those wanting a lasting memory of a wonderful day at the FA Cup Final, page 48 of the programme was where it was all happening. There it was possible to choose your commemorative gift to remind you of the big day from a range of Wembley branded products. Blue and white wrist band? Certainly – that'll be 90p. How about a "slide card" as a pocket size-record of all FA Cup Final matches since 1872? No problem – 55p.

And if the 'Italian-made sports bag' didn't take your fancy (despite being made from 'durable nylon - £4.99') there was always the opposite page featuring 8mm soccer home movies. Two hundred feet of celluloid bliss – some even with sound – from just £8.30. What more could a football fan want? Perhaps a ticket to the upcoming Harlem Globetrotters game, but for that you'd need to contact the Wembley Box Office.

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England v USSR (Match-Day Programme, 1984)

We're delighted to bring you our very first guest post courtesy of Rob Langham, a member of the team behind the brilliant blogsite The Two Unfortunates. Here, Rob takes us back 28 years to an international game he attended at Wembley and the match-day programme that accompanied it...

The programme for England’s international against the USSR, a match that took place on 2 June 1984, is a fascinating time capsule, not least due to the advertising strategies of the time - more of which later.

Unbeknownst to all of us at the time, the Soviet Union only had another seven years to run. Mikhail Gorbachev was still a year away from assuming office and our relationship with the USSR was filtered through the prism of the late Cold War period - tit for tat Olympic boycotts and Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s video for Two Tribes perhaps the most memorable manifestations of international relations.

That was a polyglot Soviet side. Having performed solidly at the 1982 World Cup in Spain, they, like England, had failed to reach that Summer’s European Championships in France. Far from Russian-dominated, the various republics of the union were well represented with captain Aleksandr Chivadze and Tengiz Sulakvelidze representing Georgia, Sergei Aleinikov and Sergei Stukachov hailing from Belarus and Kazakhstan respectively, and the Armenian Khoren Oganesyan acting as the XI’s primary creative force.

All of that was to be swept away two years later of course - as incoming manager Valeriy Lobanovskiy made a better fist of what Ron Greenwood had tried to do with Liverpool players for England the previous decade by jettisoning much of the existing squad (including Oganesyan - dropped for developing a ‘star complex’) and packing the team with the Ukrainians of Dynamo Kyiv.

But for now, it was an effective and unspectacular unit that cantered to a 2-0 victory against an England led by Bobby Robson.

In his programme notes, Robson opined about the lack of availability of players on a consistent basis and it was a weakened team that eventually took the field here - Mike Duxbury’s horrendous error allowing for the first goal and provoking a chorus of boos in a sparsely populated Wembley.

The old guard - Peter Shilton, Terry Butcher, Bryan Robson, Ray Wilkins and Trevor Francis was supplemented by a number of newcomers with perhaps the most significant being Gary Lineker - appearing in the squad for the first time in the 1-0 defeat to Wales that Spring.

But the number of unlikely names betrays a team in transition after the failure to overcome Denmark in European Championship qualifying. Former NASL man Steve Hunt, David Armstrong, Mike Hazard and John Gregory all made it to Bisham Abbey.

The most intriguing of the inclusions was winger Mark Chamberlain, Dad of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and a man who performed spiritedly on the afternoon - overshadowing the man on the opposite flank, John Barnes (the latter was to have the last laugh a few days later when he scored after a mazy run against Brazil).



There was also a Watford inflection to things - as reigning European under-21 Champions, Robson had seen fit to promote a number of that set up to the full team and Nigel Callaghan was one to benefit. Add to that Luther Blissett, at the time a Milan player but forged at Vicarage Road nonetheless.

But the theme didn’t end there. In a year that saw the Hertfordshire club reach an FA Cup Final, the programme advertised ‘The Summer of 84 Concert’ for later that month, with chairman Elton John headlining, supported by Nik Kershaw, Paul Young, Kool & The Gang and Wang Chung plus DJ appearances from Steve Wright and Simon Bates among others. Dull and dreary England’s 2-0 defeat may have been but presumably considerably less horrific than the entertainment offered by that shower.

Elsewhere in the publicity sections, the prospect of gridiron action involving the Tampa Bay Bandits and Philadelphia Stars was offered (no, I haven’t heard of them either) and a typically oblique Benson and Hedges adorned the back page - MIDDLE TAR.

Our thanks go to Rob for that wonderful trip down memory lane, and don't forget you can catch more of Rob's writing (together with that of many other fine folk) at www.thetwounfortunates.com. We also urge you to follow TheTwoUnfortunates on Twitter, too.

If you'd like to contribute an article of your own, please do so - simply contact @COakleyFtbl or @sofa_soccer on Twitter or leave us a comment on one of our blog posts and let us know all the details. Cheers!

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Steve Earl's Football Programmes

Since I first bought a copy of Shoot! for 42p (a price rise of 2 pence on the previous week’s issue I found out later...scandalous!), I have always been drawn to the adverts section near the back of football magazines. The promise of football-related goodies, often in full colour, tempting me all these years. 

Looking back on 25 years' worth of ads, it’s funny how some things have changed and others not. The ads aimed at kids have changed dramatically, moving with the times, as one would expect. Pastel shaded drawings of rosy faced children in England pyjamas (the ad was for football pyjamas, I'd like to point out) replaced with the headache inducing ‘LOOK AT MY AWESOME STUFF IT’S SO AWESOME AAAAAAAARGH!!!!!’ style adverts prevalent in today’s brain mush kids’ football rags.

Adverts aimed at the older end of the age spectrum have changed little; their sober, informative format giving the consumer just what they want – information about what the product is, what it does, how you can obtain it and, in the ‘olden’ days, the standard line about allowing 28 days for delivery.

One specific advert that never seems to have changed is the one that always caught my eye as a lad and still does now.  That of Steve Earl’s Football Programmes.

Advert from Shoot!, July 1986

 

When Saturday Comes, January 2012

The same goofy, child-bearing-hipped football fan – arm still raised aloft, still giving that curious thumbs up, possibly referring to the FREE programmes (NB: in these hard economic times, this is now just a free programme catalogue) the ad’s strapline has always carried and still clutching a handful of programmes. This figure has been invading my conscious mind for over 21 years and yet, despite this apparently excellent marketing device, the crucial piece of info missing from my memory when I came to research this was... who the hell is this advert for? For as much as I could remember the cartoon, that it was for football programmes and that it offered FREE programmes, I had no idea who was selling / giving them away.

In truth this is probably down to me not really being into football programmes, so I never felt the need to read past the first few lines. I did consider sending off for some free ones back in the day, the offer of free things by post having a very strong allure to a child whose only real post up until that point had been the limited edition Star Wars figures (send 3 names / proof of purchases from the backing cards).

Upon further research (reading my old copies of Shoot! after a trip to the garage), I discovered it was for the aforementioned Steve Earl.  I also discovered, to my disappointment and mild horror as it almost torpedoed the whole angle of this post, that in the copies of Shoot! from 1990, the advert had shrunk to only a few lines and more importantly, Mr GoofyProgrammeMan wasn’t there!!!  Rising costs and an imminent recession obviously took their toll and poor old GPM was laid off. It also now cost a whopping 50p, albeit in unused stamps, to obtain the desired free, sorry, FREE programmes. 

 

1990 - FREE Football Programmes still available, but no Goofy Programme Man?

Thankfully, despite worldwide economic meltdown, Steve seems to have fully embraced the value of solid branding and restored good ol' Goofy to his rightful place...just to the left of the title.

One more thing I love about this advert is that, through all the years, the font may have changed, GPM may have taken a sabbatical, colour may have arrived, but one thing that has remained constant is the address.  Broad Street, Bungay, Suffolk NR35 1AH.  I can just picture it now...actually, with Google Maps and street view I can do just that...so here it is...

The Promised Land!

Steve Earl's Football Programmes, I may never have sent off for your enticing offer, but you have been a steady rock in my turbulent life for two and a half decades and for that, I salute you!

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