On This Day today looks back to the 1988/89 season with a review of the Newcastle United programme from that year. The full review is shown below and you can see all the other top-flight programmes from 1988/89 here.
The Magpies ‘Match Magazine’ for the 1988/89 season was a 32-page A5 issue. The programme offered just over 20 pages of content and was one of the cheaper editions in the league, costing just 75p. The cover of the issue featured a picture from a recent game, with Brazilian forward Mirandinha shown in action against Coventry defender Brian Kilcline (who would move to St James’ Park a few years later).
In a turbulent season for Newcastle the club had three managers, with Colin Suggett in charge of writing the programme notes for the fixture against Arsenal. Suggett had been handed caretaker boss duties following the sacking of Willie McFaul and was clear in his notes about the size of the task facing the team with the visit of the Gunners – then second in the table.
Coverage of Arsenal was made up of a full-page colour team group picture and notes on the club’s squad, and manager George Graham. A more detailed profile was provided of striker Alan Smith who, at the time of writing, had already scored 14 goals for the season.
‘Action Special’ was another action shot from the recent fixture against Coventry, with John Cornwell competing against Sky Blues forward David Speedie, while ‘Inside View’ featured behind the scenes comments from Newcastle’s Darren Jackson. ‘Memory Match’ offered one former Newcastle player the chance to reminisce about a moment from his Magpies career. For this issue, former Scottish international John Brownlie reflected on a memorable televised goal against Oldham from a fixture in March 1982.
‘In the Spotlight’ was an interview with one Magpies player, with Michael O’Neill the subject in the Arsenal issue. The Northern Ireland midfielder had been Newcastle’s joint top scorer the previous season but had struggled for form in line with the team’s decline in 1988/89. A picture of O’Neill was used across the centre pages of the programme.
‘Flashback’ recalled events from 5, 10, and 15 years ago, while ‘In Reserve’ featured news and updates from Newcastle’s reserve and junior teams. The column noted the goalscoring form of a young Steve Howey, who would of course later establish himself as a central defender for Newcastle and later Manchester City. The statistics section at the back of the programme included the first team’s season record with league tables and appearance details for the club’s various teams.
The Newcastle programme included a decent number of features but, with the page size and the amount of advertising content, there was not the space for the type of more in-depth articles that were seen in the better programmes of the time.