As with our award for League One, our Merit Award for League Two goes to the same club as last season – in this case, Exeter City. The Grecians have produced another high-quality issue, featuring 84 stylishly designed, perfect-bound pages. Exeter just pipped Southend United to the award, with the Shrimpers also producing a beautifully presented programme, while Port Vale and Colchester United came in third and fourth, respectively.
Exeter’s programme makes good use of the club colours and features recurring motifs throughout that help produce a consistent feel. As we have come to expect from ‘The Grecian’ there is plenty of readable material in each issue, including various historical features. ‘One Of Our Own’ looks at those players who have come up through the club’s youth system, while ‘Exeter City Centurions’ profiles a player who has turned out for the club on at least 100 occasions. The ‘ECFC Museum’ column meanwhile looks back in time to historic kits worn by the club, remarking on notable players along the way.
There are columns from Tony Morris, who gives his thoughts on a broad range of topics, while local journalist Matt Bamsey also pens a column that considers current issues within the game, and Rob Casey, the club’s “poet in residence”, contributes ‘The Bard of ECFC’. A player Q&A feature runs to six pages, while ‘League Two Review’ covers all the latest news from around the division. There is also a three-page junior section for younger fans.
Opposition coverage runs to nine pages, opening with a full-page picture of one member of the visiting team. This is followed by a ‘Scouting Report’ that includes notes on the club’s form and a record of its last five games. As well as a brief manager profile, there are pen-pics for the visiting squad, with expanded notes on a couple of key players. There is a two-page feature on ‘Homegrown Heroes’ – featuring those players who have come through the ranks at the club – as well as a look at the last meeting between Exeter and their opponents. Given this section of the programme is the one most commonly reduced by clubs that have trimmed their issues for the 2020/21 season, it is pleasing to see Exeter retaining such in-depth coverage.
The programme also includes an impressive level of detail about different aspects of the club, with several pages of content devoted to covering both the women’s team, including their development squad, and the club’s academy, with match update and words from the under-18s Head Coach Chad Gribble. As well as columns from the manager and the Supporters’ Trust (which is the majority stakeholder in the club) there are a couple of pages for the City Community Trust and a wealth of stats for the first team.
The quality of several of the programmes from League Two would not look out of place at a higher level, and Exeter’s issue is the pick of the bunch once again. Our congratulations go to programme editor Will Barrett and the team behind ‘The Grecian’ for their continued high standards.