The winners of the 37th season of programme awards and the 29th to be sponsored by ‘Programme Monthly & Football Collectable’ were announced recently and The Co-operative Insurance League Insider went in search of the man with the knowledge of who won what.
John Litster, the Editor of Programme Monthly & Football Collectable, said, “The standard of programmes this season has again been high with much to be admired and some areas for improvement.
“Marking was carried out by the Programme Editors of clubs in each division augmented by experienced programme collectors. The judges vote for every programme in their division. The voting slips go out at the end of January when everyone is scheduled to have had a home and away match against all the teams in their division. The programmes are marked out of a hundred to produce a Divisional winner.”
“It is difficult to make it the highest score wins overall as judges only work in one division so cross comparisons do not happen.”
The overall Scottish winner from the four Scottish Divisional awards is therefore determined by forensically examining the top programme in each division line by line, page by page to assess their merits with Litster advising, “That is the approach I have to use to decide the winner in England as not everyone will have played each other home and away until the end of their season.”
And the winners were……….
It may have been a difficult period for SPL Aberdeen recently on the pitch however, the match programme team at Pittodrie have shown themselves to be winners by producing the best club programme in Scotland for the second time in three years.
The Dons’ Red Matchday Magazine came out tops with Dundee United in second place with Heart of Midlothian in third place ahead of Celtic, who were placed fourth. The other half of the Old Firm, Rangers, just made it into the top six ‘split’.
The SPL Table was:
|
SCOTTISH PREMIER LEAGUE |
|||
|
Position |
Last Year |
Club |
Average Score |
|
1 |
1 |
Aberdeen |
78.67 |
|
2 |
2 |
Dundee United |
66.29 |
|
3 |
3 |
Heart of Midlothian |
66.00 |
|
4 |
5 |
Celtic |
65.90 |
|
5 |
12 |
Hibernian |
64.29 |
|
6 |
4 |
Rangers |
63.29 |
|
7 |
7 |
Falkirk |
58 |
|
8 |
6 |
Motherwell |
55.86 |
|
9 |
8 |
St. Mirren |
55.14 |
|
10 |
10 |
Kilmarnock |
54.40 |
|
11 |
5 (1st Div) |
St. Johnstone |
51.33 |
|
12 |
9 |
Hamilton Academical |
50.86 |
In the First Division, Dunfermline Athletic were voted the best with Partick Thistle in second place and Dundee coming in third with the full table looking like this:
|
FIRST DIVISION |
|||
|
Position |
Last Year |
Club |
Average Score |
|
1 |
2 |
Dunfermline Athletic |
76.25 |
|
2 |
4 |
Partick Thistle |
70.00 |
|
3 |
3 |
Dundee |
67.50 |
|
4 |
11(SPL) |
Inverness Caledonian Th. |
60.00 |
|
5 |
8 |
Queen of the South |
55.75 |
|
6 |
2 (2nd Div) |
Raith Rovers |
50.00 |
|
7 |
8 (8th Div) |
Ayr United |
49.25 |
|
8 |
9 |
Airdrie United |
41.67 |
|
9 |
10 |
Ross County |
41.25 |
|
10 |
7 |
Morton |
38.75 |
Clyde, who had won the overall national award in 13 out of the previous 14 seasons with their matchday production ‘The Clyde View’ did, at least, have the satisfaction of being voted the best programme in the Second Division to add to the recognition they annually earned when they were a First Division side. Cowdenbeath came second and East Fife, the 2008/09 holders of the Second Division award, were placed in third. The full table is:
|
SECOND DIVISION |
|||
|
Position |
Last Year |
Club |
Average Score |
|
1 |
1 (1st Div) |
Clyde |
80.00 |
|
2 |
2 (3rd Div) |
Cowdenbeath |
65.00 |
|
3 |
1 |
East Fife |
64.00 |
|
4 |
5 |
Alloa Athletic |
57.14 |
|
5 |
6 |
Stirling Albion |
56.17 |
|
6 |
4 (3rd Div) |
Dumbarton |
53.00 |
|
7 |
3 |
Brechin City |
50.86 |
|
8 |
9 |
Peterhead |
45.00 |
|
9 |
10 |
Arbroath |
43.86 |
|
10 |
10 (3rd Div) |
Stenhousemuir |
41.29 |
Albion Rovers won the honours in the Third Division with last season’s winners Montrose falling out of the top three with Stranraer second and Livingston third. The full table is as follows:
|
THIRD DIVISION |
|||
|
Position |
Last Year |
Club |
Average Score |
|
1 |
3 |
Albion Rovers |
61.86 |
|
2 |
7 (2nd Div) |
Stranraer |
57.60 |
|
3 |
6 (1st Div) |
Livingston |
57.00 |
|
4 |
4 (2nd Div) |
Queen’s Park |
56.43 |
|
5 |
1 |
Montrose |
54.00 |
|
6 |
5 |
Forfar Athletic |
49.50 |
|
7 |
7 |
Berwick Rangers |
48.14 |
|
8 |
6 |
Annan Athletic |
46.67 |
|
9 |
8 |
Elgin City |
46.33 |
|
10 |
9 |
East Stirlingshire |
37.86 |
The Co-operative Insurance League Insider asked Litster what strengths each SFL club programme had and what areas they needed to work on to climb their respective League table next season.
He said, “The First Division has not had a vintage year however, a high standard was still set by a number of clubs. The Second Division in general did not have a great season, whereas the Third Division clubs did really well. This is said against a backdrop of no club under achieving with their programmes in the current financial climate throughout the UK.”
Litster then explained what the judging panel felt about each SFL club’s matchday programme within each of the three divisions:
|
IRN-BRU SFL FIRST DIVISION |
||
|
Club |
Strengths |
Areas to work on |
|
Dunfermline Athletic |
Very strong batch of contributors for several years and content is extremely readable as a result. |
Cover was not the best however, all teams that play in black and white tend to suffer from the same complaint. |
|
Partick Thistle |
Informative production by an Editor who has his pulse on what is going on. Dedication to the programme shines through and it is a comprehensive read. |
Probably has suffered with a comparison to Dunfermline Athletic’s matchday programme. Content has reduced slightly however, more of the same seems to be the message. |
|
Dundee |
A highly polished production that looks fantastic. Has great historical content. |
More to read would be an advantage. |
|
Inverness Caledonian Thistle |
Have done well to retain SPL standards. |
High in commercial terms versus other content. |
|
Queen of the South |
Good historical content where they work hard to speak to former players. |
Format seems to change frequently and therefore lacks identity. |
|
Raith Rovers |
First class presentation with very attractive printing. |
Too much advertising. |
|
Ayr United |
Duncan Carmichael has been doing this programme for approximately 40 years now and identifies well with the club. |
Not enough material. |
|
Airdrie United |
Thought that this one would have scored higher as it is a bright colourful production. |
Fairly modest production however, it is accepted that this is done out of necessity. |
|
Ross County |
Colourful and quite a polished production. |
Not much to read. |
|
Morton |
Chairman’s comments are usually well worth a read although not quite as acidic as the comments made by Ken Bates at Leeds. However, well worth looking at. |
Not much else in the programme. |
|
IRN-BRU SFL SECOND DIVISION |
||
|
Club |
Strengths |
Areas to work on |
|
Clyde |
What can you say – great programme again this season – nothing to criticise about it. |
They have the hardest job of all to maintain their high standards. |
|
Cowdenbeath |
Pound for Pound, the Cowdenbeath programme is the best in Britain. Fantastic content and information packer. |
Presentation in internal pages is not the best but understandable due to numbers sold. |
|
East Fife |
Impressive production, nicely presented with lots to read. |
Probably marked down as not as big a production as the Clyde one. |
|
Alloa Athletic |
Plenty to read with a lot of good contributors. |
Presentation is a bit basic. |
|
Stirling Albion |
Very informative with lots of statistical information. |
More to read would be useful. |
|
Dumbarton |
Graeme Robertson writes a considerable amount of good material. |
Limited number of pages and a bit light on history which is a surprise for such an old club. |
|
Brechin City |
Could be getting judged on previous season’s high standards. |
Standards have slipped as presentation is poor and with limited content. |
|
Peterhead |
Very colourful production. |
Limited content which could be put down to small number of programmes issued. |
|
Arbroath |
Nice historical items. |
Limited content. |
|
Stenhousemuir |
Prolific at issuing, even for pre-season and rescheduled postponed games. |
Budget production which is a necessity. |
|
IRN-BRU SFL THIRD DIVISION |
||
|
Club |
Strengths |
Areas to work on |
|
Albion Rovers |
Very polished production with good content. First class effort and they will be delighted to win it for the first time since season 1979/80. |
At Third Division level, production is above criticism. |
|
Stranraer |
Plenty to read with a good balance of content. |
Improvements in presentation would cost money and probably not worth investing in. |
|
Livingston |
Production very slick which is to be commended after confusion at the start of the season. |
Could be more to read. |
|
Queen’s Park |
Extremely readable. |
Needs freshened up as format has been same for a few years. |
|
Montrose |
Plenty to read and thought it would have been placed higher. |
Could probably do with a spring clean. |
|
Forfar Athletic |
Nicely presented. |
Not as packed as it used to be – quantity has been cut. |
|
Berwick Rangers |
Very bright, colourful production and again another one that could have finished higher up the table. |
Lacks a substantial article. A good two page story would help. |
|
Annan Athletic |
Glossy, colourful, bulky production. |
Very little by way of original articles. Lot of repetition of content. |
|
Elgin City |
Another one that has scored lower than anticipated. Programme has been re-designed and it is a lovely production. |
Not the greatest of content, there could be more but still a surprise where it was voted. |
|
East Stirlingshire |
Good readable content. |
Not enough of content however, this programme would have finished higher had it been in the Second Division. |
Litster summed things up by saying, “Aberdeen have done well to regain their crown and over the last twenty years, they join Rangers and Clyde in having regained the honour of having Scotland’s best club programme. Rangers won three times in a row before Clyde dominated for twelve consecutive seasons with The Dons having sneaked in twice during the past three seasons.
“Special mention must go to the programme team at Albion Rovers who have been recognised for the first time since season 1979/80 after putting a lot of work into their programme over the years.”
For further information on Programme Monthly and Football Collectable, log on to their website www.pmfc.co.uk
