Programmes
Red Passion flicks through the best and worst of this season's away match programmes
Reading
(9 Jan)
Cost:
£.2.00
Pages:
54
Good things:
Lots of imaginative features and items eg. ‘Who’s missing?’, ‘Who’s
this?’, ‘Which clubs?’, ‘Odd one out?, ‘Ultimate challenge’.
As befits a club with a stupendously nice new stadium, there’s a lot of invention and
kiddies-orientated stuff (including a pic of the cult phenomenon that is RR)
Bad things:
The price – programmes are getting expensive
Bizarre things:
A picture of boss man Tommy Burns looking like he’s just finished putting his coat on
(p.2) and a picture of King Karl looking mean (p.12)
Great
one-liner: Chris Casper (Reading player – ‘Question Time’): ‘Q.
If you won £10m on the Lottery, what would you do with it? A. If I won £10m I think my
girlfriend would try to spend it all for me! But if I could get my hands on any of it, I’d
spend it on my family and make sure they had lots of nice things’
Verdict:
Very professional and very much in the same style as Man City’s
Colchester
(15 Jan)
Cost:
£.1.80
Pages:
46
Good things:
‘Noticeboard’ feature where fans can advertise things or express their views
about current Colchester goings-on; also an excellent feature called ‘Colchester
Connections’ – lots of stuff on United-Wrexham links
Bad things:
Sponsor-a-player’s kit overkill; as a result several boxes on pp.20-21 remain empty
Bizarre things:
Nicky Haydon Profile p.40: ‘Favourite Author: Slaven Bilic’. Is that the Everton
centre-half?
Great
one-liner: ‘Brian has my total respect for the job he’s done at Wrexham’
(Manager Steve Wignall)
Verdict:
Good
Huddersfield
Town (3 Feb)
Cost:
£1.80
Pages:
48
Good things:
Colour, lots of variety, lots of different features, lots of stuff on Town fans (lovely)
Bad things:
The bad alliteration implicit in the ‘Yorath’s Yarns’ title (Terry’s
pre-match thoughts)
Bizarre things:
A crazy, but impressive, poem about the Huddersfield-Wrexham draw: ‘Then I remembered
Arsenal, Going to North Wales, And how expected cup runs, Can soon come off the rails, But
I knew that in our midfield, We had the lads to vex’em, And thought, ‘Let’s
hope our strike force, Goes over there and wrecks’ em’’. Predictably bad
last line. On page 33 it is revealed that King Karl was joint leading FA Cup goalscorer in
Season 1997-8 (with Cole and Shearer – 5 goals each)
Great
one-liner: ‘In life, as in work, we aspire to be the best we can be. It is
my heartfelt wish to bring this philosophy to Huddersfield Town Football Football Club
‘THE BEST WE CAN BE’. The firework display you will witness tonight will be the
largest ever seen in a football stadium. It will mark the start of a new era. Thanks and
regards, Barry Rubery’ (p.15)
Verdict:
Bright and lively
Macclesfield
(6 Feb)
Cost:
£1.80
Pages:
38
Good things:
Quite homely and inoffensive – as you’d expect perhaps from a club so recently
in the Conference; there’s also a particularly title for the manager’s notes:
‘Mac on Macc’. We liked that a lot; as we did the ‘Diary of a Macc Fan’
feature – very good
Bad things:
Mascot Roary the Lion – he’s got his own column but, to be frank, he’s not
very charismatic; on page 19 there’s also a picture of a young Macc fan called Ashley
Stewart – he’s looking very odd and strange and surprised to be being
photographed
Bizarre things:
A Macc fan standing by the side of a signpost, in a field in the middle of South
Australia, saying: ‘Welcome to Macclesfield’ - tremendous
Great
one-liner: ‘So after a week of constant moaning and nagging, the girls put
in one of their best performances against Hartford Moss Farm.’
Verdict:
OK
Luton
(13 Feb)
Cost:
£1.80
Pages:
48
Good
things: Clear, unfussy layout; lots of contributions (apparently) from back-room
staff; usual mindless Football Information Services statistics pages
Bad
things: two pictures of Lennie Lawrence; very uniform, homogenised feel to the
programme - not enough visual variety; general tone of whining self-justification in the
featured comments pages up front; poor visitors coverage (limited to pen pix and stats for
the season)
Bizarre things:
Chairman and MD David Kohler is sponsored by Critical Research Ltd - surely a message
there; photography by Gareth Owen, obviously looking ahead to a career change; 20% off all
Animal Adoptions, which is, sadly, not individual player sponsorship but a fund-raising
scheme at Whipsnade; full colour ‘action’ photo of a giraffe chewing (advert for
Whipsnade Zoo)
Great
one-liner: “Interestingly, our nickname is given as ‘The Straw Hatters’,
with Stockport County being dubbed as the plain ‘Hatters’.” Thus writes the
retentive Alan Robinson on Ogden’s Cigarette cards; also: “In the three years
since I have been here Luton have never beaten Wrexham and last season’s home game
against them was an embarrasment.” (Lennie Lawrence)
Verdict:
Yawn-inducing
Lincoln
(16 Feb)
Cost:
£1.70
Pages:
22 (it was an AWS game…)
Good things:
Nice ‘red’ feel to it; quite smart and slick
Bad things:
Manager/Chairman John Reames’ column (p.5): brash, arrogant, stupid (he jokes that he
got offered the England job before Keegan); also it’s too imp-dominated. What are
imps? Why are Lincoln called ‘The Imps’?, Why is every page dominated by imps?
Bizarre things:
Mark Sertori scores twice in the ‘Down Memory Lane’ match – Wrexham 0
Lincoln City 2 (Saturday 23 September 1989, Division 4); also the unloveable John
Reames’ hat – on its own – is sponsored by the Newark Branch Supporters
Club (p.20)
Great
one-liner: ‘Can I put certain rumours to bed? First, I have not, repeat not,
been approached for the England job’
Verdict:
Fairly middling
Newtown
(23 Feb)
Cost: £1.00
Pages: 46
Good things: Useful pen pics of
home team
Bad things: 27 pages of adverts
Bizarre things: The clubs
delusions of grandeur - see below
Great one liner: ‘The club
now has a ground and social facility to equal any in non league soccer’
Verdict: Typically League of
Wales
