Your Matchday Programme Thread

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

Would the C Rabjohn be the one who played for Rotherham and Doncaster ?

What a good spot! Chris Rabjohn, born 1945, played over 200 games in midfield, for Rotherham and Doncaster. In his first season, he apparently had a great game in the Cup v ManU, in a drawn game. Glad to add him to the list of future footballers I saw before they were famous... Now if you could tell me who Pedro Loco is...

 

[MobileBlade]

Thanks for posting this, I believe JB Holland was my dad's Uncle Jimmy, the first time I've seen his name printed in something Blades related so I really appreciate it mate. I think he worked in the steel industry but the familes were so big I get all the stories of the 20 odd great uncles all mixed up!

UTB

First time I have seen this thread. Your Uncle Jimmy had a cup named after him (the JB Holland Cup believe it or not) - each of the Sheffield & Hallamshire branches of the Referees Association played for each year (11 a side games). Not sure if it is still going.

 

[peniblade]

Unfortunately HBT it doesn’t have the value you’d like it to have but it is worth a single bottle of your favourite run of the mill tipple!
However if anyone has a copy of this single sheet hiding away then you are quids in
View attachment 75385
Sadly mine and many others is just a photocopy as this single sheet for the 1946/7 FA Cup 4th round replay v Wolves is thought to have been handed out to the directors box only. The pitch was covered in ice and snow and United had used bales of straw to try and protect it which were stacked up around the perimeter. 42,000 saw us win 2-0. No United collector I know has this (I’ve never set eyes on it or seen it at auction in 25 years of collecting). It’s the only home league or cup programme post war I’m missing but I’m not the only one. It’s the “Holy Grail” of United programmes and if a copy ever surfaced you would be looking in excess of
...... £3000

Agree with your comments regarding the programme as the "Holy Grail" but I did see at an auction of Chris Williams Sportingold which took place at Sixfields Stadium Northampton & I managed to get a copy of the programme similar to the one you've shown.

The programme which I am desperately trying to obtain as I have never seen a copy is the SUFC v Liverpool 26 August 1939 the only league game played at Bramall Lane that season due to World War 2. If anybody has a copy please post accordingly.

 

[Greenwich Blade]

What a good spot! Chris Rabjohn, born 1945, played over 200 games in midfield, for Rotherham and Doncaster. In his first season, he apparently had a great game in the Cup v ManU, in a drawn game. Glad to add him to the list of future footballers I saw before they were famous... Now if you could tell me who Pedro Loco is...

His Discogs entry isn't exactly estensive.

 

[spongebobblade]

The 39/40 Liverpool programme is another I’ve never set eyes on. The only ones I have are for the East Midlands football league and War cup games like the one below

 

[spongebobblade]

3 of the 5 home games we played at Hillsborough after the Sheffield blitz. The attendances were understandably poor during the war with a combined total attendance figure of less than 9000 for the 3 above with just 1,644 at the Hull game..... or was it just the reluctance to step over to the blue half? Excuse my feet in the picture!

 

[MobileBlade]

View attachment 75499

3 of the 5 home games we played at Hillsborough after the Sheffield blitz. The attendances were understandably poor during the war with a combined total attendance figure of less than 9000 for the 3 above with just 1,644 at the Hull game..... or was it just the reluctance to step over to the blue half? Excuse my feet in the picture!

Sure you didn't take a photo selling a kettle at the same time?

 

[1973Blade]

Not a happy memory. The Blades v Scunthorpe programme from 14th September 2010. We lost the game 4-0 in our relegation season. I was fortunate enough to miss this one, I was flying home from holiday. I asked my sister to text me the final score, when I got off the plane and read it was 4-0 I thought she was joking.
Martyn Woolford a familiar name in the Scunthorpe squad.

 

[ShockingBadBuy]

Not a happy memory. The Blades v Scunthorpe programme from 14th September 2010. We lost the game 4-0 in our relegation season. I was fortunate enough to miss this one, I was flying home from holiday. I asked my sister to text me the final score, when I got off the plane and read it was 4-0 I thought she was joking.
Martyn Woolford a familiar name in the Scunthorpe squad. View attachment 75505
View attachment 75506

In recent memory, anyhow, this is still the most bizarre game I’ve attended. We pretty much mullered them for 90 minutes, and were the better side by miles. Scunthorpe had very little of the ball, looked powder puff when they did, and, as the cliche has it, would have been lucky to finish third best that day. But we lost 0-4. Bonkers.

They were definitely our Walsall for a spell, before our Walsall became Walsall. If you get my drift.

That said, just look at our squad on the back of that programme

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

Not a happy memory. The Blades v Scunthorpe programme from 14th September 2010. We lost the game 4-0 in our relegation season.
Martyn Woolford a familiar name in the Scunthorpe squad.

And everyone said he's just the type of player we should sign...

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

First time I have seen this thread. Your Uncle Jimmy had a cup named after him (the JB Holland Cup believe it or not) - each of the Sheffield & Hallamshire branches of the Referees Association played for each year (11 a side games). Not sure if it is still going.

I wonder how many red cards they dish out in those games...

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

Coming up to modern times (for me), one of my favourite programmes was the centenary programme for the Reading match in March 1989. Amongst other things it contained a good reproduction of the first ever Utd programme, for the match v Derby at the beginning of the 1897-98 season. The ambition is '... to gain the Championship of the League, to win the English Cup, and to be at peace and to work in concord with everyone'. We won the league that season, and the Cup the year after, so that wasn't just PR guff. Our Cup defeat at Port Vale in 97-98 was as a result of an error by Foulkes in goal; I trust we got rid of him quickly!
The cover for the Reading programme has an iconic figure for each decade. Who would we have for the 3 subsequent decades? I would go with Deane, Morgan, and Wilder.

 

[1973Blade]

Picked up a random programme and it was a match played exactly ten years ago today. A chance to see a rare photo of Paul Connolly in a United shirt.

 

[1973Blade]

This is a special 'four quid' match day programme for the Swansea Citygame on April 24th 2010, to mark our 120th anniversary (my maths say we must be 130 years old now!) A great front and back cover and plenty of old photos, including the 1915 cup winning team in the sea and a photo of the 1950s side, how many do people recognise?

 

[spongebobblade]

This is a special 'four quid' match day programme for the Swansea Citygame on April 24th 2010, to mark our 120th anniversary (my maths say we must be 130 years old now!) A great front and back cover and plenty of old photos, including the 1915 cup winning team in the sea and a photo of the 1950s side, how many do people recognise?
View attachment 78146View attachment 78147View attachment 78148

What’s with Brian Deane lagging behind in training? Lazy git. Lad will go nowhere

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

Thanks for posting this, I believe JB Holland was my dad's Uncle Jimmy, the first time I've seen his name printed in something Blades related so I really appreciate it mate. I think he worked in the steel industry but the familes were so big I get all the stories of the 20 odd great uncles all mixed up!

UTB

I came across this today. Not a lot of information about your uncle, but I thought it would interest you.

 

[1973Blade]

Two programmes with covers depicting match day scenes, excellent drawings by Luke Prest. The programmes are for Crawley Town (9th April 2013, Danny Wilson's last match in charge) and Brentford (16th April 2013, Chris Morgan the caretaker manager).

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

I mainly enjoy looking at old programmes for the little details, and for the sense that the game has changed hugely, but remained basically the same. But I recently noticed what seemed to be a change in the United programme itself in the early 80s, and I wonder if anyone knows if it was part of a general trend. The programmes from that period have lots of general material written by people with no United connection, and relatively little about United. Totally at random, here are the contents of the programme v Gillingham, Oct 2, 1982, 32 pages, 40 pence.

Front cover - 1 page
Adverts- 10 pages
3rd Division news -1
English clubs in Europe - 1
1st Division news - 2
1982 World Cup - 4
Article on professional foul - 1
Soccer A-Z (letter B) - 1
Quiz - 1

Gillingham - 2 pages
Commercial info (sponsorship, etc) - 2
Manager's page - 1
Photos of last home game - 2
League table, lineups -1
Appearances, fixtures - 1
Utd 30/20/10 years ago - 1

Was this a deliberate policy to educate crowds, when crowd trouble was rife? It seems strange now that there was so little on United. Were the other items syndicated to clubs throughout the leagues? I know we were not great at the time, but the absence of focus on United seems very strange.

 

[Dutch]

I came across this today. Not a lot of information about your uncle, but I thought it would interest you.
View attachment 78513View attachment 78514

Fantastic, thanks so much for this, I can't wait to share it with my family.

 

[Linz]

Surprised Foxy hasn't posted more in here.

This is an idea of what we're sorting through at the moment.



And a few bound seasons...





None particularly valuable. I think the earliest are from the 1950s.

 

[Bert]

A small selection from the Bert garage.

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

Surprised Foxy hasn't posted more in here.

This is an idea of what we're sorting through at the moment.

View attachment 78983

And a few bound seasons...

View attachment 78984

View attachment 78985

None particularly valuable. I think the earliest are from the 1950s.

Don’t think he’d be allowed to post on here. You have to go out to a garage or a shed, or up to an attic, and search through chaotic heaps of stuff in search of what you are looking for. You don’t find what you went to look for, but come across something else you’d totally forgotten about...

 

[1973Blade]

A small selection from the Bert garage.

View attachment 78988View attachment 78989

If ever you're interviewed on Sky News during lockdown you will have to be stood in front of that. Very impressive!

 

[1973Blade]

A small selection from the Bert garage.

View attachment 78988View attachment 78989

I don't want to sound OCD, but I'm bothered by your programmes on the third bottom shelf right hand side. If you had them in order they would show the United badge!

 

[1973Blade]

Two United legends remembered on the front cover of United programmes.

 

[Knackered Blade]

I've been meaning to show these images for a while.



Watford v Grimsby Town
Division Three
Saturday 2nd December 1967

Watford's team included three future Blades ie Stewart Scullion, Tony Currie and Terry Garbett. Garbett was playing at centre-forward, not in midfield as he played for us. Watford's manager was Ken Furphy, who later managed us to one point from qualifying for Europe in 1975.

Grimsby had Graham Taylor at full-back, who would later go on to manage Watford on two occasions.

The result was Watford 7 Grimsby Town 1, with a Tony Currie hat-trick and a double from Terry Garbett. TC had played in the Junior Team, the Reserve Team and the First Team that season.

 

[Aganarama]

I've been meaning to show these images for a while.

View attachment 79368View attachment 79369View attachment 79370

Watford v Grimsby Town
Division Three
Saturday 2nd December 1967

Watford's team included three future Blades ie Stewart Scullion, Tony Currie and Terry Garbett. Garbett was playing at centre-forward, not in midfield as he played for us. Watford's manager was Ken Furphy, who later managed us to one point from qualifying for Europe in 1975.

Grimsby had Graham Taylor at full-back, who would later go on to manage Watford on two occasions.

The result was Watford 7 Grimsby Town 1, with a Tony Currie hat-trick and a double from Terry Garbett. TC had played in the Junior Team, the Reserve Team and the First Team that season.

There's another future Blade in that programme too...Keith Eddy is in the 'roll call'.

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

I've been meaning to show these images for a while.

View attachment 79368View attachment 79369View attachment 79370

Watford v Grimsby Town
Division Three
Saturday 2nd December 1967

Watford's team included three future Blades ie Stewart Scullion, Tony Currie and Terry Garbett. Garbett was playing at centre-forward, not in midfield as he played for us. Watford's manager was Ken Furphy, who later managed us to one point from qualifying for Europe in 1975.

Grimsby had Graham Taylor at full-back, who would later go on to manage Watford on two occasions.

The result was Watford 7 Grimsby Town 1, with a Tony Currie hat-trick and a double from Terry Garbett. TC had played in the Junior Team, the Reserve Team and the First Team that season.

What a great programme. An apparently insignificant match, but so many links to United. It is amazing how often a programme has surprises - who would have thought that a player on the losing side that day would go on to manage England? I can't resist following it with one of my favourites - the Utd v Watford programme for the promotion game in 1971. So many links between the 2 clubs, and another player to add, Colin Franks, who does not appear here.

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

Another page from the 1971 Watford programme, which might interest the would-be song-writers who post on here. I guess the song reproduced below never got sung:

 

[Silent Blade]

Another page from the 1971 Watford programme, which might interest the would-be song-writers who post on here. I guess the song reproduced below never got sung:
View attachment 79449

Who is Jason (Laughing Ted)?