Wednesday 16th December 1987
FA Cup Second Round (Third Replay)
Maidstone United v Kidderminster Harriers
Programme Price: 50p
It’s Friday, so that means only one thing, another programme review from yours truly. After having a look through my collection last night, I came across this programme and when I saw that it was a FA Cup Second Round, THIRD REPLAY I just had to take a closer look and write a review.
Before I start, I thought it would be quite useful to provide a background to the games leading up to this third replay between Maidstone United and Kidderminster Harriers. Maidstone entered the competition at the 4th qualifying round stage and overcome Dartford at home 2-0. Meanwhile, Kidderminster Harriers had been given a bye into the First Round Proper. In that first round, Maidstone were drawn away at Dagenham and beat their opponents 2-0. Kidderminster on the other hand drew 2-2 at near neighbours, Halesowen Town and beat them by 4 goals to 0 in the replay at Aggborough.
So, onto an amazing run of matches in the second round between Maidstone United and Kidderminster Harriers. The first game at Watling Street, the home of Dartford FC who were sharing their ground at the time with Maidstone United saw the two teams draw 1-1. Just two days later, the replay at Aggborough saw a 2-2 draw with the second replay, also at Aggborough ending in a 0-0 stalemate. The third replay at Watling Street which of course relates to this programme, saw Maidstone eventually running out 2-1 winner.! It is worth noting that all of these games took place in an eleven day period, with both clubs being in the GM Vauxhall Conference, it would mean they would meet each other six times during the 1987/1988 season.
Let’s now get into the programme – this issue consists of 32 pages from the front to back cover and whilst there are lots of adverts, there is still plenty of football related information to keep the reader occupied.
With page 1 being the front cover showing an action shot from Maidstone’s 3-1 defeat at Watford in the third round of the previous season’s competition (note a young John Barnes in the picture) page 2 is the club’s News Desk. As you would expect, this page provides details of various bits of news regarding Maidstone United. One piece that caught my eye was titled ‘Allner’s Marathon’ and goes on to say “If you think that our fourth game tonight is a marathon, Kidderminster manager, Graham Allner holds the distinguished record of playing in all SIX games in the epic FA Cup tie between Alvechurch and Oxford United”
Page 3 is titled ‘Williams Writes’ and is penned by the then General Manager of Maidstone United FC, W.T. Williams. He writes about his own experiences as a player in the FA Cup during his time with Gillingham when they reached the fifth round of the competition.
Page 4 features Kidderminster Harriers player profiles – midfielder Graham Mackenzie had previously played for the likes of Wycombe Wanderers, Hungerford Town, Cheltenham Town and AP Leamington respectively as well as winning two caps at under 18’s level for England.
Pages 5 to 8 all feature adverts whilst page 9 takes a look a back at various games played over the years in the month of December by Maidstone United. The three games that are featured are Hastings United 2-0 Maidstone United in 1977, Tilbury 2-0 Maidstone United in 1967 and Maidstone United 2-1 Chatham in 1925.
Pages 10 and 11 show all of Maidstone’s previous results and forthcoming fixtures for the 1987/1988 season. The club started their league campaign with a 1-0 defeat against Macclesfield Town in front of 850 spectators. The following page shows the standings as of 5th December 1987 in the GM Vauxhall Conference League. At the time of writing, Maidstone were in 7th position whilst Kidderminster were in 11th place in the 22 club league table.
Pages 13 to 20 all feature adverts, with page 21 titled ‘The Non-League Scene’Â which takes a look at all of the latest news in the non-league game. Some of the headlines in this feature were Lincoln City signing the Wycombe Wanderers midfielder Graham Bressington, Welling United having a record attendance of 2,237 for their recent home FA Cup tie against Carshalton and Oswestry Town sacking their manager John Rogers following a 7-1 home defeat against Marine.
Pages 22 and 23 show photographs of the previous games between Maidstone United and Kidderminster Harriers, whilst page 24 provides Supporters Club News. The following four pages all feature adverts.
Page 29 gives details for the second round draw of the Facit Kent Senior Cup, Maidstone had been given a home tie against Tonbridge Angels. The same page shows the standings at the time of writing in the Essex & Herts Border Combination where Maidstone United reserves were in fourth position.
Page 30 shows a player profile on Maidstone United central defender, Tony Pamphlett with the following page featuring an article written by John Still who was the first team manager of Maidstone back in 1987. In his piece, he writes that he has a lot of respect for Kidderminster’s efforts in the previous games but was hopeful of a win for his side.
This programme ends on page 32 with the team line ups and the referee being named as A. Gunn from Chailey in Sussex.
As previously mentioned, Maidstone went on to win this game by 2 goals to 1 and met Sheffield United in the Third round at Bramall Lane. The Blades won that encounter 1-0 to end Maidstone’s 1987/1988 FA Cup run.
