Programmes

& fanzines

Pile them up in the spare bedroom

Season 1999-2000 (so far)

Preston (25 Mar) by Daniel Jennings

Cost: £2

Pages: 52 (including cover)

Good things: The away team section is fairly detailed, the head-to-head between Brett Angell and Karl Connolly, the ticket and travel section, the Division Two Round Up, the interviews.

Bad things: The squads are in the centre pages, no match reports (just pictures), 15 pages of adverts, the same stats as every other programme in the land, the women’s football section.

Bizarre things: An interview with Brian Flynn!!!!!!! Jake Edwards was still in the squad.

Great one-liner: “Preston played really well that day and we didn’t play well at all”. From the Brian Flynn interview.

Verdict: Fairly basic but a decent read. 8/10. 

FANZINE
Raising the Coffin
Issue 16, on sale when Wrexham visited Deepdale, cost £1.50 and is extremely well designed and produced. But there again, you’d expect to be as RTC is one of the few - maybe the only - ‘official’ fanzine in Britain. The back cover gives it all away: “Cheques payable to ‘Preston North End’” In addition, there only seem to three writers on the magazine and RTC appears to have such fantastic access to the Preston players that you begin to wonder whether it is a ‘fanzine’ in the strict sense of the word at all. So, all in all, a very neat and professional publication - but where exactly are the ‘fans’? 
Peter Davies

Bristol City (8 Apr) by Dean Domerecki

Cost: £2

Pages: 48

Good things: Very reader-friendly layout, and genuinely interesting articles from many diverse sources. Good profile on the visiting team, and an informative second division news page. Absolutely hilarious player profile.

Bad things: Only the front cover, which is a complete mess. Otherwise none.

Bizarre things: Our match at Ashton Gate in 1996 is reviewed in precise detail - except for the heading, which reads ‘Bristol City 3 Brentford 1’. In the useless Carling Opta head-to-head, Phil Hardy is shown as having been on the pitch for ‘2,795 minutes’ - no wonder he looks tired sometimes.

Great one-liner: Of Brian Flynn: “There can’t be many football managers who are regarded as ‘part of the furniture’”. Lines are now open for suggestions as to which item of furniture is most appropriate.

Verdict: Entertaining, one of the best in the division.

FANZINE
Come in No.7
No fanzine-sellers evident on April 8th, so let’s have a look at a recent issue of Come in No.7. 40 pages for 80p sounds pretty reasonable and the magazine’s slogan, ‘The Only Way is Up’ seems to set the tone. It’s a well-produced magazine and seems to have a healthy squad of contributors. I would sum up the general message of the fanzine as this: City will be lucky to stay in Division 1. They were right. 
Peter Davies

Wales v Finland by Peter Davies

Cost: £2

Pages: 46 plus the cover.

Good things: Glossy, colourful and a nice warm tone to everything in it. Also a fantastic feature called ’10 Things You Didn’t Know About Finnish Football’.

Bad things: The ultra-corny headline on p.15: ‘AND HERE’S TO YOU, MR ROBINSON’. Charlton’s John is singled out for praise.

Bizarre things: FAW Premier Cup goal charts - showing Andy Morrell 8 (yes, EIGHT) goals ahead of his nearest rival, Tony Bird of Swansea.

Great one-liner: “What are the key ingredients for any competition’s success? Try remarkable feats and surprising twists of fate, then add a dash of controversy. By these standards, the FAW Premier Cup may be the newest event in the Welsh football calendar, but it has already demonstrated a feeling for the game’s traditions and a grip on the public’s attention.” (p.42). Oh, yeah…

Verdict: Akin to Wales’s second-half performance at the Millennium Stadium.