Saturday 9th September 1978
Southern League Premier Division
Dorchester Town v Margate
Programme Price: 10p
I have selected this programme completely at random from my collection. This issue consists of 16 pages from the front to the back cover and despite there being quite a lot of adverts it is still a decent enough read.
With page 1 being the front cover, page 2 features several adverts, with page 3 providing details about Dorchester Town, a short programme editorial and reserve team notes. Dorchester Town were founded in 1880 and back in September 1978 the club’s chairman was Mr E.H. Ford, whilst the first team manager was David Best. The editorial welcomes all from Margate to the Avenue Ground with the reserve team notes looking back at the team’s recent 6-1 victory against Portland United.
Page 4 sees the thoughts from Best ahead of the game. He looks back at a disappointing performance at Leamington in his team’s last outing, but asks the club’s supporters to be patient.
Page 5 provides news about Dorchester Town’s Magpie Social Club, as well as thanking local business, PARTCO LTD for sponsoring the match ball.
Pages 6 and 7 both feature several adverts whilst the following two pages show the team line up’s with the referee named as Mr P. Jackson from Henstridge.
Pages 10 and 11 are titled ‘Supporters Notes’ and is written by Jack Lambert. This section takes a look at all of the latest goings-on at Dorchester Town as well as asking supporters to think about joining the Supporters Club.
Page 12 provides Margate pen pictures – centre forward John O’Mara had previously played for Brentford and Blackburn Rovers in the football league and experienced defender John Williams had also previously played in the football league for Watford.
Page 13 provides details of the draw for the Second Round of the Southern League Cup, where Dorchester had been given a home tie against Yeovil Town. Meanwhile, the same page also states that Bobby Robson, the then manager of Ipswich Town, had agreed to bring his full first-team squad for a game at the Avenue Ground to mark the official opening of the club’s newly installed floodlights.
Page 14 shows a full fixture list for Dorchester Town for the 1977/1978 season as well as providing previous results in the same campaign. The club opened their league season with a 1-0 away win at Atherstone in front of 447 spectators.
The programme is completed with two pages of adverts. As I previously said this programme is a decent enough read but the only thing missing for me was a brief history of Margate FC.
Another programme review from yours truly this time next week.
