Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever - Round 4

Yes it's Round 4 - The Round of 16 - of The Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever!

Round 3 finished yesterday (Thursday) and as usual the results can be viewed here. Coventry finally bowed out to frankly more deserving sponsors, but the greatest shock of the round was Sharp, stalwart of Man U for 12 years, being ousted by QPR's Guinness. Honestly, is this the point we've reached? ;-)

Anyway, this is where it gets really interesting with the final 16 sponsors battling it out. Hitachi may have gone, but Crown Paints and Candy still fly the red flag, but the legendary CP faces seriously stiff competition in the form of Wang...stiff..Wang...is anybody actually reading this anyway?

Once again, our thanks and gratitude go out to John Devlin for kindly allowing us to use his fantastic illustrations. John's work can be found at the True Colours site and he is also on Twitter so pay him a visit and give him a follow.


Rules:

1) You are voting for the SPONSOR, not the team that it adorned.

2) Voting for Round 2 closes at 23:59 on Tuesday 11th December (ignore what I said on twitter)

3) This is a bit of fun... if you don't like the results, take a deep breath, smile and accept that democracy is flawed... ;-)

NB Again, the polls will no longer show the results after you've voted. Results will only be revealed at the end of the round.

Let's get it on!

You have read this article Arsenal / Chelsea / Everton / GreatestShirtSponsorEver / Ipswich / Leeds / Liverpool / Luton / Manchester City / Newcastle United / Oxford / QPR / Spurs / Watford / West Brom / Wimbledon with the title Arsenal. You can bookmark this page URL https://couplesfootballstadium.blogspot.com/2012/12/greatest-shirt-sponsor-ever-round-4.html. Thanks!

Great Tracksuits of Our Time: No.5

Our good friend Rich Nelson from the always excellent 'Escape To Suomi') provides us with this contribution to our 'Great Tracksuits' series:

Arsenal (1989/90):

"With a design most associated with the West German team that were victorious at Italia '90, this top was assumed to be just another standard Adidas template. But amongst fans of Arsenal, it’s a memorable item, a signature Adidas piece, which is amongst the holy grail for Gunners fans of a certain age.

"A recent re-release (minus the cannon) flew off the shelves, and will be associated with the great team of Adams, Rocastle, Merson, Smith and Thomas. P.S. I have the re-issue, and a very, very small original…"

Special thanks to Rich for his suggestion, and to prove Arsenal weren't the only team wearing this tracksuit, here's Got, Not Got with proof of some other teams wearing a similar design...

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Match of the Day - Episode 1 (1964)

The first edition of the BBC’s Match of the Day programme was aired on 22 August 1964. Shown on BBC2, it was the first time people in the UK (albeit only in London at first) were able to watch football highlights on their own TV screens.

Despite initial fears that it might lead to fewer people going along to watch matches in person, it went on to become an institution of British broadcasting and a go-to programme for British football fans everywhere.

Though today’s Match of the Day is a showcase for slick presentation, superior camerawork and great commentary, the first outing for the show was notably lacking in gloss. To begin, there was no theme tune, no opening title sequence and, this being 1964, everything was in black and white. What you’d have seen was a picture board showing the programme’s title, over which a continuity announcer spoke the following words:

“And now we come to ‘Match of the Day’, the highlights of one of today’s Football League matches. Your commentators are Kenneth Wolstenholme and Wally Barnes.”

What happened after that?  Read on to find out....

1. Introduction

The camera cuts straight to the film footage of Liverpool v Arsenal (complete with barely readable caption) where the home side run out onto the pitch to a noisy but cheerful welcome from the crowd. The first thing to note is Liverpool wearing white shorts, such was the case back then. Bill Shankly would eventually have his side wearing all red because he felt a kit of one colour gave an altogether stronger image to the opposing team. Someone somewhere has probably done research into whether a one-colour kit brings greater success, but now’s not the time to discuss it.

2. Kenneth Wolstenholme

Our first sight of Kenneth Wolstenholme, commentator supreme and still two years away from his iconic performance at the 1966 World Cup Final. In the background we hear the Anfield crowd singing along in unison to 'She Loves You' and Wolstenholme gives us his opening gambit:

“Welcome to Match of the Day, the first of a weekly series coming to you every Saturday on BBC2. As you can hear we’re in Beatleville for this Liverpool versus Arsenal match.”

3. Liverpool

A caption shows us the Liverpool team line-up. Remember, Liverpool were the reigning league champions at the time but two of their number were missing here - Ian St. John with appendicitis and Alf Arrowsmith with a leg injury. Oh for the days when footballers were called ‘Alf’...

4. Arsenal

And so to the Arsenal team which, Wolstenholme tells us, could be heading for glory in the eyes of many people - especially with new signing Don Howe, the former England right back, in their ranks.

5. Wally Barnes

Wolstenholme is joined pitchside by former Arsenal full back Wally Barnes. To a backing tannoy accompaniment of ‘Hippy Hippy Shake’ by The Swinging Blue Jeans, Barnes explains that the absence of Liverpool’s two strikers due to illness could be an unsettling factor for the defending champions.

6. Kick-off

Liverpool kick off, playing from right to left and wearing the grey shirts. Roger Hunt is ready and poised (see top of picture) and with the blow of the whistle from Mr Howley of Middlesbrough, the 1964/65 season gets underway.

7. Early chaos

Chaos ensues as, after a bright start, Ian Callaghan is fouled near the Arsenal goal, but no-one hears the referee’s whistle amid the Anfield din. Arsenal counter-attack and even when the Liverpool keeper Tommy Lawrence gets to throw the ball back upfield for the free kick, Arsenal defender Billy McCulloch intercepts the ball and tries a shot. “None of this matters” exclaims Wolsteholme, but luckily George Eastham figures it all out and brings the game to a temporary halt.

8. Early chance

Despite an opening seven minutes in which both sides have had their fair share of attacking play, it’s Arsenal that get the first decent chance of the game. A free kick taken by George Eastham from just outside the far corner of the penalty area arrows towards Lawrence’s right-hand post, but the Liverpool keeper dives low to smother the ball.

9. Liverpool open the scoring

GOAL! Liverpool’s oft-used ploy of crossing balls into the Arsenal box from the left wing finally pays dividends as Roger Hunt hooks an Ian Calaghan pull-back over the keeper and into the net. “It’s a goal!” shouts Wolstenholme, and who are we to disagree - 1-0 to Liverpool.

10. Caption issues

Note for future reference - make sure captions are positioned correctly so that any ‘1’s aren’t obscured by the half-way line.

11. Half Time

The referee blows for half time. Liverpool have played the better football and edged the possession, but both sides have had their chances. Don Howe’s certainly seen plenty of the ball in the Arsenal defence and is proving a useful close-season buy from West Brom.

12. Wally's First Half summary

Wally Barnes appears on-screen again to give us his verdict of the first half. He feels Liverpool have dominated the first half (perhaps a bit harsh) and correctly highlights the home side’s strength down the left wing which, coincidentally, is where Arsenal are at their weakest. His explanation is spoken to the musical accompaniment of Ken Dodd singing ‘Happiness’ over the Anfield tannoy system.

13. Second Half

Arsenal kick off, playing from right to left in a kit of white shirts, white socks and red socks. Nike - take note. Purple and black simply will not do.

14. Liverpool double their lead

GOAL!  Liverpool go 2-0 up... Ian Callaghan’s cross finds Gordon Wallace who heads in from close range. Once again, no action replay to watch so if you wanted to see the goal again, you’d need either a photographic memory or both teams randomly re-enacting the goal for you.

15. Arsenal back in the game

GOAL! Arsenal pull one back thanks to Geoff Strong who plays a neat one-two with Eastham before unleashing a low shot past the beaten Lawrence. A rare lapse in concentration for what had been a strong Liverpool defence, but still a goal generously applauded goal by the home fans.

16. Arsenal equalise

GOAL! LIVERPOOL 2 ARSENAL 2... Strong plays the ball down the right wing where it’s picked up by Armstrong. He crosses for Baker whose brilliantly angled diving header beats Lawrence again on his left post. It’s two goals in two minutes for The Gunners and they’re right back in it.

17. Lucky omen... but for who?

Another swift flowing move almost results in Armstrong putting Arsenal in front, but Kenneth Wolstenholme has other things on his mind. “A black cat is running on the far side... there it is! A black cat... I wonder which side it supports? Arsenal or Liverpool?” The poor distressed animal runs almost an entire circuit of the pitch, even evading a fan who dives onto the pitch to try and catch it. A reminder to anyone younger than 15: this was an era when animals were regularly seen making random appearances in the middle of top-flight football matches. Nowadays you’ll be lucky if you see so much as a beach ball.

16 Liverpool's late winner

GOAL! Despite being under the cosh from a series of constant Arsenal attacks in the second half, it’s Liverpool who grab the winner in the dying seconds of the match. Receiving a cross-field pass from Ian Callaghan, Gordon Wallace cuts in from the left wing and from yards out lets rip with a storming shot that leaves Furnell floundering. It’s his second and Liverpool’s third.

17. Final whistle

Arsenal throw everything into one last desperate attack but it comes to nought as the referee blows his whistle to end the game. Wolstenholme quickly reappears on-screen, puffing out his cheeks at the exciting climax to a great game. “Well I call it the Match of the Century, I don’t know about the Match of the Day!” he says and, wrong though he probably is, who are we to deny the great man his moment of elation.

Before the end, KW just has time to bring us the other results involving clubs from London. Crystal Palace had “a bad start to Division Two” losing 3-2 at home to Derby, while Fulham lost 2-1 at home to West Ham, “but then one London club had to lose then” explains Wolstenholme helpfully.

18. Closing titles

With that, Kenneth Wolstenholme invites us to watch Match of the Day again next week and we finally get some Newsreel-style music by way of a closing theme.

Nearly 50 years on, it’s fair to say the presentation couldn’t be any more different to that which we know today, but at least the football itself remains the central focus of the programme. While that’s the case, we’ll always look to Match of the Day for our weekly fix of football escapism.

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Arsenal - Barclays League Division One review (VHS), 1989

A warm welcome to Rich Nelson, the man behind the wonderful Nelson's Column and designer of Kits 5 and 6 on our League of Blogs 2012 wallchart. He's discovered a VHS tape that covers one of the major high points in Arsenal's history...

Not quite from the Football Attic, this is a treasure from the Football Garage (aka Nelson’s Column). The video was a present for being so brave…

My first experience of travel sickness on the way to a school trip to Suffolk in July 1989, the nine-year-old Rich N survived, and returned home to be greeted by happy parents and a shiny shrink-wrapped purchase from the Islington Woolworths. I couldn't claim to be any sort of connoisseur of production values with my collection, mostly of Transformers and various editions of The Big Match (unknowingly recorded over with Coronation Street), but just pressing 'Play' on the video player was like I'd become a true sophisticate. Flowing titles, a saxophone-heavy soundtrack and the dulcet tones of Jim Rosenthal were in place, and it was time to remember the finest end to a season ever, far closer than its poor relation, May 2012.

The video opens like all good stories - with the ending. We see the glorious champions deep in the bowels at Anfield, drowning in champagne and enjoying their new found trophies (in the days when the sponsors had their own cup). Do we even need to sit and watch the rest? Of course we do. Like a shiny Ceefax, we're provided with the pre-season odds of 16-1, and a review of the transfers in and out. The games themselves are commentated on by a young Martin Tyler, summing up the goals with his usual excitement, despite the fact that he clearly was doing it from the comfort of a studio. We're treated to a jazzy solo to tell us about Paul Davis breaking the jaw of Glenn Cockerill, with a slow mo replay of Davis getting to his feat prior to the incident (which isn't included - the video is rated E, after all).

The first match of the 1988/89 season kicked off on Saturday 27 August. Who says players didn't get a huge rest after the exertions of England in West Germany that summer?  It included the only pre-match amble, and there was no time to acquaint ourselves with the surroundings. You'll have to be happy with a quick pan of the car park in Plough Lane and be done with it. We weren't even lucky to get any highlights of the Mercantile Credit Centenary Trophy which Arsenal would win; not a single goal from the three matches played. There are also no highlights from the FA Cup, and only one goal from the Littlewoods Cup, a stunner from Rocastle at Anfield. Even then, the cups weren't even considered filler material. Try telling that to Arsenal in 1993 and 1994, or even today...

Tyler takes us along at a steady pace, marvelling at the goalscoring exploits of Alan Smith, and then to the biggest travesty of all. You know someone's made a big enough error that they own up straight away, drawing attention to the mistake. The front cover of the video says ALL THE GOALS in a rather large font. The small print on the back says differently: "Due to technical difficulties, we are unable to include highlights of Gary Megson's goal for Sheffield Wednesday".

They also didn't include a saved penalty, or even mention who the culprit was. Would we stand for it today? No! There isn't a clip of the goal on YouTube, and I can only imagine Gary Megson today trying to prove his worth by talking about that goal, one of twenty-five in over two hundred matches for The Owls. The goal was missed and the boast on the cover was wrong – a big dropping of the ball there.

We were even treated to the occasional Big Match commentary by Brian Moore - complete with ITV graphics, impending advert break box in the corner, and numerous mentions of a camera in the back of the goal. In a game at Nottingham Forest, the camera was perfectly positioned to see Forest keeper Steve Sutton save a penalty. Unfortunately the camera position didn't allow the viewing of the kick being taken in the first place... We got the same treatment of Liverpool's visit to Highbury, along with some extreme close ups of John Barnes slapping his own thighs after hitting the bar with a free kick.

With Arsenal flying into February at the top of the league, we're met with a slightly strange caption. The next five games are listed - Coventry (a), Luton (h), Millwall (h), Nottingham Forest (h) and Charlton (h), yet the title is for Winter Wobbles, yet the Charlton game was on March 21st - hardly winter. Spring Stutter? Balls-ups against teams that aren't in the top division anymore? By this time the title odds are revisited and Arsenal are evens! No mention of which bookies were giving these odds, and certainly no mention if any were paying out yet.

The final few matches are treated as a pure head-to-head, albeit with Liverpool's games in hand after Hillsborough. The table is cut to two teams, and only shown prior to the Arsenal matches. We even come across a young(er) Alan Parry, declaring almost every goal as a Goal of the Season contender.

But we're left with the title decider - Liverpool v Arsenal, 26 May 1989, immortalised in print and film. Extended highlights are featured, but we don't need to go into them too much. The coverage was ITV's, Brian Moore was the commentator. They include the famous shot of Steve McMahon saying "one minute left" to everyone in earshot, the occasional backpass… The clock in the corner counting past ninety minutes, before the regular on-screen graphics were used as a matter of course. The famous goal was scored, the trophy was lifted, and Jim described it as the greatest finish to a season of all time.

The tape has finished, it needs rewinding… I fancy watching it again!

Our grateful thanks to Rich Nelson for writing this wonderful guest post. If you love football nostalgia and have something you'd like to write for us, get in touch - email admin [at] thefootballattic [dot] com and tell us all about it...

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Football Parade (1950)

Rob Langham from The Two Unfortunates has given us yet another fantastic article for the site:


One aspect of a football obsession that is perhaps under recognised is the impact of heirlooms. Sure, my formative years were stock full of Panini, Subbuteo and The Big Match, but it was items bequeathed to me by my father that played just as important a role – especially in forging a keen sense of the game’s history.

Among an assortment of annuals and notebooks, Football Parade, sold exclusively by Marks & Spencer and constituting something of a retrospective on the 1949-50 season was one such artefact. Presented with a foreword by a yet to be knighted Stanley Matthews, the aim, in the Tangerine man’s own words was to produce ‘the finest book on Soccer ever published’.

Simon Inglis’s Football Grounds of Europe, soon to be reviewed on these pages, may have subsequently snatched away that accolade by a whisker, but Football Parade remains a mine of information.



Running through the volume is a series of ‘Success Stories’ tracking the careers of a host of stars – almost all of whom continue to be household names – Matthews himself rounds off the book, but elsewhere, ‘Wor’ Jackie Milburn, Billy Wright, Tommy Lawton and Alf Ramsey are all featured, with a clear eye on the impressionable ten year old – my Dad was that age at the time.

One such entry features Arsenal centre back Leslie Compton and as the Matthews says, ‘it is not easy to be the elder brother of a popular genius – especially if the brother is the gay cavalier of Sport, Denis’ – you’ll recall the now extraordinary fact that both played football and cricket professionally – a feat of all roundership that would challenge even the feats of Jessica Ennis.

An overview of that season’s 1949-50 Home International Championships reveals a torrid campaign for ‘Ireland’ – still labelled thus in denial of an Anglo-Irish Treaty three decades before – the Ulstermen losing 8-2 against Scotland at Windsor Park and 9-2 at Maine Road – while a section on football tactics is curated by Matt Busby; the future nurser of babes warning us that ‘a player ‘running loose’ can cause consternation’.

At the time, Pompey were champions and Tottenham had climbed out of Division Two, an episode chronicled by Olly Cooper in our 'Great Football League Teams' series over at The Two Unfortunates. Wolves feature heavily while perhaps the most fascinating piece deals with Moscow Dynamos’ (sic) famous tour of the UK.

Gold shirts, striped socks...
who else, but Arsenal!

Landing at Northolt aerodrome, we are told that the mysterious Soviets insisted on their own referee for a match against an Arsenal side depleted by RAF call ups and other handicaps. Matthews himself guested for The Gunners in a 4-3 defeat while elsewhere that season’s FA Cup winners are portrayed in gold shirts at Highbury, having received special dispensation from the Football League to sport their triumphant colours in the subsequent league fixture.

The volume contains a range of illustrations – photographs and technicolour illustrations that recall Hollywood movies of the time including Don Revie and Raich Carter resplendent in Hull City amber as well as Roy Bentley, my Dad’s hero, and a man I was to meet myself 30 years later during his time as club secretary at Reading. A cartoon strip depicting scenes from football history contains a particularly dramatic illustration of the theft of the FA Cup from a Birmingham shop window in 1895.

Through the lens of time, the whole is fascinating although one can perhaps imagine how turgid a modern day equivalent would be – not for me a series of profiles of Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand and company – perhaps our rose-tinted spectacles will become keener in time.

Our thanks once again go to Rob Langham for writing this great article for The Football Attic. If you'd like to do so too, drop us a line to admin [at] thefootballattic [dot] com.

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Radio Times: 1971 FA Cup Final preview

For many people, the iconic image of the 1971 FA Cup Final is that of Charlie George slamming the ball past Ray Clemence in the Liverpool goal before celebrating horizontally on the Wembley turf. All that was still to come when the Radio Times was published for the week of 8-14 May 1971, but the big day was still looked forward to with the traditional customary air of excitement and anticipation.

On the front cover, Steve Heighway and John Radford added a splash of colour (the latter cut out and superimposed as if running in a trench) while the headline informed us that all the action from Wembley would be 'Live on Grandstand' and BBC Radio 2.

And what a schedule lay in store for us on BBC1. Cup Final Grandstand began at 11.45am (following The Perils of Penelope Pitstop and Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?) and was introduced by David Coleman 'direct from Wembley.' Providing capable punditry and gobbits of relevant anecdotage were Manchester City manager Joe Mercer, Leeds United manager Don Revie and Manchester United captain Bobby Charlton.

'Who'll win the Cup?'
Arsenal, but we didn't
know it yet...

The opening sequence of the programme was referred to as 'The Wembley Scene' and featured Frank Bough and Barry Davies profiling the two sets of players from their respective team headquarters (typically a hotel in Borehamwood or some such). After that at 12.30, it was time to meet 'The Cup Final Managers' where Bertie Mee and Bill Shankly conveyed their hopes and concerns ahead of kick-off.

The 'Goal of the Season' was announced at 12.45 along with the lucky competition winner who scribbled it down on his/her postcard. A £300 cheque was the prize for choosing Ernie Hunt's donkey kick volley in correspondence with Grandstand's panel of experts - a staggering amount that in today's money is equivalent to more than £3,600.

At 12.55 it was time for 'It's a Cup Final Knockout' featuring two teams representing Arsenal and Liverpool, led by disc jockey Pete Murray and actor Anthony Booth respectively. The show was hosted by David Vine who, let it be remembered, was the presenter in the early days of It's A Knockout before Stuart Hall made the programme his own.

By 2.25, kick-off was within tantalising reach and all the pre-match protocol was in full swing. The Band of the Coldstream Guards were doing their thing, the crowd was in full voice and the Duke of Kent was busy shaking the hands of the players out on the pitch. In the blink of an eye, the match would be played, won and reflected upon as David Coleman rounded up the best of the action and interviewed the key players - all in time for tea.

'Are goalkeepers crazy?' Who better
to provide an answer than Bob
Wilson...

Towards the back of this issue of the Radio Times, there's a lengthy interview with both goalkeepers - Bob Wilson for Arsenal and Ray Clemence for Liverpool. Wilson comes across as a man who thought about every  moment of every possible game; a worrier to some extent, but with good reason. He was a man that clearly took his job of goalkeeper seriously and his analysis of the team he faced in the Final was detailed and thorough.

Clemence, by contrast, was younger and seemed merely happy with his achievement of breaking through the talented ranks at Anfield to earn a regular spot in the team. He refers to his close friendship with Larry Lloyd and their scrupulous adherence to the same pre-match rituals ("We always order breakfast at exactly the same time, Larry always gets up, makes the tea and brings in the papers... Then we go out for a ten-minute walk.")

Taking superstition to the extreme, Clemence was happily cosseted in his own footballing world, however his comments about Charlie George bordered on the flippant: "...From what you see on television, he seems to be a bit erratic. He must have been booked two or three times and he hasn't played for all of the season. I've never faced his shooting, but he certainly hit that goal against Newcastle pretty well, didn't he?" Probably best to keep that in mind for the Final, Ray...

Of course the main purpose of the Radio Times was (and still is) to inform us of all the top programmes appearing on BBC TV during the coming week. In this issue you might have singled out The Andy Williams Show and The Good Old Days as special highlights to look forward to, or perhaps an attempt at brand diversification in the form of A Question of News. Presented by Richard Baker, this was a short-lived attempt at replicating the success of A Question of Sport which, at that point, had been running for just over a year.

Green Cross Code: Stop,
Look, Listen, Think.

Elsewhere, there was the chance to catch up on England's Euro '72 campaign with highlights of the match against Malta in Sportsnight, while on Radio 1 there were the audible delights of Tony Blackburn, Terry Wogan and Anne Nightingale to pass the time away.

Finally, to round off this issue, there's the customary saunter through the many pages of adverts, and what better way to teach our kids road safety skills than with a relatively new campaign called 'The Green Cross Code'. Dave Prowse in a green-and-white superhero suit was still four years away at this point, but like Gerry Francis looking from side to side in all his interviews, there was more than one way to tell kids how to cross the road.

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Evening Standard London 5-a-Sides, 1983

You don't see much indoor football on TV these days, and when you do, it's usually the Masters series in which one-time great players shake off their walking frames and career-threatening injuries to entertain a provincial crowd of a few hundred people.

Once upon a time, however, people in the Thames TV area could look forward to the annual treat of the Evening Standard London 5-a-Side tournament at Wembley Arena. Here, the other end of the football spectrum fell under the spotlight, namely those players trying to break into the first team at any number of clubs around the capital.

Here's a chance to see some of the action from the 1983 tournament featuring eventual winners Millwall. Keep your eye open for a future England team physio in goal for Arsenal, a legendary England striker in the making for The Lions and the scorer of the opening goal for The Gunners who, little did we know it, had a glittering future in club management ahead of him...

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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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