Programme Review: 2021/22 Garforth Town

Fixture: Toolstation  Northern Counties East League (NCEL) Premier Division Division

Date: Saturday 06 November 2021

Teams: Garforth Town v Athersley Recreation

Venue: Bannister Prentice Stadium

Result: Garforth Town 4 (3) – (0) 0 Athersley Recreation

Programme cost: £1.50

Pages: 28

As the season enters the last couple of months of 2021, and with clubs moving towards having completed nearly half of their league fixtures, the tables definitely start to take shape. Take for instance the NCEL Premier Division, where ahead of this fixture Garforth Town sat in third spot, with 28 points from their fifteen games and visitors Athersley Recreation bottom of the table with just 8 points from their sixteen games. On paper a classic, ‘top v bottom’ clash which went with the form book as ‘The Miners’ raced into a two-goal lead within the opening ten minutes. When Garforth got their third after twenty-five minutes with the wind at their backs, it was game over and a heavy beating looked on the cards for ‘The Penguins’. However, thanks to the exploits of the visitors ‘keeper and some missed opportunities, Garforth were only able to add a fourth goal in the second-half to keep up their promotion challenge. All in all a professional job which provided the 216 crowd, who had braved the awful wind and rain of this autumnal Saturday with some decent entertainment.

Garforth’s programme remains fairly much unchanged since the 2019/20 season with an in-house produced edition, which whilst it is colour, it is not on glossy paper. The cover is dominated by ‘The Miners’ club badge, with the club sponsor and league logo and league sponsor’s logo also added, along with the standard match details – date, competition and visitors. Inside, page 2 is given over to the Club Sponsor, Bannister Prentice, who not only have the Stadium naming rights, but are the shirt sponsor as well. This is followed by details of the Club Honours and a ‘Who’s Who’ of Club Officials and Management. The ‘welcome’ to the game is on page 4 and comes from the Chairman and features a nice touch (and one that is always included in the programme) in acknowledging the match officials, with the following: “respect to today’s referee…and his assistant’s…we can’t do this without you guys. Remember no ref no game!”. The notes also detail that Town ‘keeper Toby Wells was due to make his 100th appearance for the club, and before kick-off the Garforth No:1 was presented with a memento to make the occasion.

Page 5 is given over to league sponsor Toolstation, with a double page spread following giving a brief history of ‘The Miners’, useful to any neutral or visiting fans. Pages 8 and 9 feature Garforth’s own fundraising and match sponsorship opportunities, with another two-page spread given over to more of Town’s sponsors. Pages 12 and 13 provide more focused matchday information, with features on ‘Haven’t we met before’ and ‘Previous Results’, always handy to jog memories of previous clashes between the teams. There follows five pages given over to pens-pics of the Garforth playing squad and management team, and then three pages given over to Club sponsors.

Pages 22 and 23 are about the opponents, Athersley Recreation, however, rather than any pen-pics, it details the social projects that the Club is undertaking within that part of Barnsley. And whilst that is to be commended, it would have been good to read about the visitors squad. The NCEL Premier Division table follows on page 24 with another page of Club Sponsors on page 25 followed by page 26 with the fixtures and results, a must in any programme. Strangely the inside cover (page 27) is blank, which either could have been a mistake, or down to a lack of contact. The programme is completed with the back page listed both squads, the details of the match officials and the respective club badges.

This is an example of where in order to keep work to a minimum, which could be down to resources or cost, as much content as possible remains unchanged from fixture to fixture. That is not a criticism, but a reality that makes sense for many clubs at this level. As mentioned earlier, on the day the addition of the visitors pen-pics would have been a good to have included and the blank page was a strange one, but overall it provided fans attending with some content to mull over pre-match.

Website: Garforth Town AFC (pitchero.com)

 

 

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Programme Review: 2021/22 FC Halifax Town

Fixture: Emirates FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round Replay

Date: Tuesday 19 October 2021 

Teams: FC Halifax Town v Pontefract Collieries

Venue: The Shay Stadium

Result: FC Halifax Town (1) – (0) Pontefract Collieries

Programme cost: Complimentary

Pages: 36

The FA Cup has taken a battering over the last few years with its importance to clubs clouded by the riches of the UEFA Champions League, and the money earned as members of the Premier League. But it has also been eroded in other ways. What traditionally has been the closing fixture of a domestic season has seen it shifted to before the end of season, and also kick-off time moved from its 3pm slot. Replays too have been deemed surplus to requirements from certain rounds in order to reduce the number of games played by the ‘stars’ of the Premier League, although there is a certain irony as invariably Premier League clubs generally don’t field a full strength side and resting the aforementioned ‘stars’.

Thankfully replays still survive in the earlier rounds although only one is permitted and so fans will never again witness the type of marathon that occurred in the 1971/72 FA Cup. Back then, the Fourth Qualifying Round game between Alvechurch and Oxford City became the longest FA Cup tie ever, lasting a total of eleven hours before Alvechurch won the fifth replay 1–0. The six matches were played at five different grounds – Alvechurch’s Lye Meadow (2-2), Oxford City’s White House ground (1-1), St Andrew’s, Birmingham (1-1), Oxford United’s Manor Ground (0-0 and 0-0) and finally, Villa Park, Birmingham (1-0 to Alvechurch). Sadly, a piece of Cup tradition and magic lost and never to be repeated.

So to the programme for this game coming about after Northern Premier League East Division Pontefract Collieries held National North side FC Halifax Town to a 0-0 draw. Good planning by Halifax will have seen their media team prepared for a replay in terms of programme content. On the night and with a short turnaround the 36-pager is impressive.

In terms of size it is the commonly used A5, with a thicker paper (especially the cover) and a colour matt finish, different to many clubs who print with a thinner paper and gloss colour finish. The cover proudly gives the title of the programme, the Shaymen Shout, (the club play at The Shay Stadium with the club nicknamed The Shaymen) and carries a wonderful image of Jordan Slew in the game at Pontefract. Standard details include, issue number, teams, competition, date and kick-off time, as well as the logos of the FA Cup, and the club’s three main sponsors, Core, nuie and Adidas.

The inside cover (page 2) is an advert for the Kick It Out campaign, although it is last season’s version. Contents are listed on page 3, with  a list of club officials. Pages 4 and 5 are Boardroom Notes, which provide a reflection on the game at Pontefract, a general overview on the Fourth Qualifying Round results and update on the injuries within the club, accompanied by an action shot from the game against The Colls. This is followed by another double-page spread, this time given over to manager Pete Wild with the background a cracking image of the Shaymen’s gaffer. It is a short piece with the usual welcome to the visitors, thoughts on the tie at Pontefract and a thank-you to the fans for their continued support. Captain’s Column from Niall Maher can be found on pages 8 and 9 with a full page picture of the skipper training and his views on the draw at Ponte, his disappointment at the draw for the First Round and a look ahead to the next league fixture at Solihull Motors.

The next four pages are given over to a feature article titled Meynell’s Memories, 100 Years of The Shay, which is an interesting read. It opens with a reminder that the last time Pontefract were at The Shay, they were beaten 14-3 in a West Riding County Cup match. What is not mentioned though is that Halifax were thrown out of the competition for fielding an ineligible player Instead the focus of the piece is a look at the FA Cup Second Round Replay from January 1967 when Halifax beat Bishop Auckland 7-0 and a profile on one of the scorers that day, Bill Atkins.

Page 14 is the FA’s advert for its Player app, with page 15 an advert for the club’s home shirt and on-line shop. There follows a double-spread given over to the Travellers’ Tales and their description of the day out at Ponte in the tie from a fans perspective. This brings us to the centre-fold which has a picture of the current FC Halifax Town squad. There is no title to say as such or indeed details of the squad line-up and it would have been useful to have included them.

Page 20 is an advert for one of the club’s sponsors, Core, with page 21 a slightly strange image given it shows a part of the home end terrace with no text to provide any context – maybe just a page filler given the tight deadline for production. The next four pages are for the Shaymen’s club fundraising and commercial efforts with Play the Square and Goal O’ Meter on pages 22 and 23 respectively and a double-page spread for player sponsorships.

The visitors Pontefract Collieries are afforded the next four pages, with In Brief, (manager) Craig Rouse and Club Connections featured on page 27 against a great backdrop picture of Pontefract’s Regional Electrical Service Stadium, with 10 things about The Colls on the next page. The shame about the 10 things list, is that some are repeated from the content on page 27. Page 29 provides a match report from the Last Time Out, which could have benefitted from the addition of the team-line-ups. The one thing that leaps out in respect of the visitors content and which may have been useful for home fans to read would have been the pen-pics for Ponte.

Page 30 is an advert for club sponsor nuie, with the next a guide to the forthcoming away game at Solihull Moors, including details of the nearest Wetherspoons to the venue! Pages 32-33 are the Fixtures and Results, with all the associated annotation required to understand competition, goal-scorers and team line-ups. Page 34 is an advert for the next home game v Dagenham & Redbridge and 35 (the inside cover) a picture of club skipper Maher applauding the home crowd. Finally, the back cover provides the team badges and squad lists with details of the match officials. It also handily includes a QR code which links to the club website.

Overall this a decent effort, which has good clean design and some great images which are not just the run-of-the-mill actions shots but enhance and complement the text. There are some typos and areas where content could be improved, but given the turnaround time for production, they can be forgiven.

Website: fchalifaxtown.com

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Programme Review: 2021/22 York City

Teams: York City v Morpeth Town

Venue: LNER Community Stadium

Result: York City 1 (1) – (0) 1 Morpeth Town

Programme cost: £1.50

Pages: 16

The debate about digital v physical programmes has featured in our opening two reviews (Selby Town and Chadderton) and continues here with York City producing both a digital and physical version for their FA Cup tie v Morpeth Town. Looking at the Club’s on-line store, it seems that ‘The Minstermen’ have done this all season, for both their National North and FA Cup games to date, for which they should be applauded since it gives fans the option of which to purchase. One thing to notice though, is that for league fixtures the programme is £2.50, so is presumably a more substantial production than the 16 page version costing £1.50 for the FA Cup.

So what of this offering in the FA Cup, which celebrates 150 years in the 2021/22 season? Well, seven pages are given over to adverts (44%), with club/ground sponsors jmp, LNER, York Gin, DWA, and go store accounting for five of these. The remaining two are for The FA Player app and Kick it Out, although this is advert from the 2020/21 campaign. Since the Club will undoubtedly be contractually obliged to these companies and organisations to carry these in the programme, it will mean York have no option, but given that, couldn’t the programme be at least 20 pages?

The programme cover leaves you in no doubt that this is a FA Cup tie with an image of the famous trophy dominating and is a template used in the previous home ties. It is titled. “The Citizen” a nod to the founding of the city by the Romans. Colour-wise it is in the red club colours with the club badges of York and Morpeth and the standard match information – venue, date, competition and price. Additionally, the logo of shirt sponsor jmp features as does the Emirates 150 Years FA Cup logo. A nice little feature is at the bottom right hand corner, where a print effect looks to reveal that this is No: 9 of the programmes this season.

In terms of content this is where it feels a little strange. Page 3 is the first non-advert material of this edition and rather than being a welcome or game scene-set from the Chairman or manager, there is an article from youth team player Kyle Lancaster who was an unused substitute in the previous round v Whitby Town. Whilst an interesting article about the youngsters recent game against Notts County and thrill at being involved with the senior squad, it just doesn’t feel that this is a introduction to the game ahead. Incidentally, came on for the last ten minutes to mark his senior debut.

The programme is generous in the pages given over to visitors, NPL Premier Division, Morpeth Town with pen-pics and head-shots of the squad featuring on pages 4 and 7, and a club history on page 12, all very useful to fans on the day. However, the history for ‘The Highwaymen’ is curious in that it cuts off at the end of the 2014/15 season, with no details after that date. Pages 8 and 9 are the centre-fold of this edition and detail the ‘classic’ fixtures, results and line-ups common to all programmes. Additionally there is the National North League table as well as the current seasons appearances and goalscorers. The space on page 9 (games yet to be played), is used to provide a profile of a York volunteer, details of the other FA Cup fixtures involving National North teams and a picture of Olly Dyson the ‘Man of the Match’ from the last home game v Southport. That fixture provides the content for page 10, titles “Action Replay” with six images from the game as well as a brief match summary including the York line-up. All that leaves is the back page, which contains the common squad lists, with respective clubs badges and details of the match officials and the forthcoming games at the LNER Community Stadium.

Overall, whilst this is a tidily produced programme, however, the overriding feeling is that with the addition of four more pages it would have been improved in having a better flow and more bang for your buck. These could easily have been provided through the addition of some of the following – a welcome from the Chairman, a preview of the game from the York manager, a full list of the other ties taking place rather than just those involving National North teams, a look at both sides game played in getting to the Fourth Qualifying Round or indeed a summary of the record of ‘The Minstermen’ over the 150 Years of the FA Cup.

Website: Home | York City Football Club

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