Saturday 7th May 1988
The FA Challenge Trophy Final
Enfield v Telford United
Programme Price: £1
I have several FA Trophy Final programmes in my collection and today I have opted to review this one, mainly because as I am a Salopian, and this final involved the Shropshire club, Telford United. Interestingly enough, even though Telford United went out of business in 2004 (replaced by Phoenix club AFC Telford United) they are still joint record holders (3 wins) alongside Scarborough and Woking for the most FA Trophy wins.
The programme for the 1987/1988 FA Trophy Final consists of 24 pages from the front to back cover and is a pretty good read.
With page 1 being the front cover, page 2 features a full-page advert, whilst page 3 provides a timetable of events leading up to the 3 pm kick off. The same page also welcomes the great Gordon Banks, who was the chief guest of the Football Association for the final. As well as being a World Cup winner, Banks was also the manager of Telford United in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Pages 4 and 5 provide an in depth look at the non-league game. Amongst other things, the article talks about the England Semi-Pro national team, and how the team fared in the most recent Four Nation Semi-Professional Tournament that took place in Scotland, with games taking place at Dunfermline Athletic and Raith Rovers. As well as England, the tournament also included Semi-Pro teams from Scotland, Italy, and Holland. At the end of the tournament, England had finished in second place behind the eventual winners, Italy.
Pages 6 and 7 look at Enfield FC – The start of the article looks at the clubs’ exploits in both the FA Trophy and FA Cup in the early 1980s. In the 1980/1981 season, Enfield reached the Fourth Round of the FA Cup, eventually being knocked out by Barnsley in a replay 3-0. The first game at Oakwell had finished 1-1- and such was the interest in the replay, it had to be switched to Tottenham Hotspur’s White Hart Lane which attracted an attendance of just over 35,000. The piece also looks at the then Enfield manager, Eddie McClusky who joined the club in 1980 after a ten-year spell at Barking.
Page 8 provides a photograph of the Enfield squad, a squad that included Paul Furlong who was to go on and play at the highest level of English football for both Coventry City and Chelsea. The following page provides Enfield Pen Profiles – central defender Nigel Keen was in his second season with the club, having previously been with Manchester United and Preston North End, where he had first team experience. Before joining Enfield, he had also had a spell playing in South Africa. Meanwhile, the left winger, Steve King was at that time the club’s longest serving player and was fast approaching his 600th appearance.
Page 10 is a full-page advert which is followed on page 11 with two action photographs from Enfield’s Semi-Final 2nd Replay win against Barrow.
Pages 12 and 13 provide the team line ups for Enfield and Telford United, whilst the referee is named as Roger Dilkes from Manchester. The same page also shows the paths the two clubs took to reach the 1987/1988 FA Trophy Final.
Page 14 advertises forthcoming events happening at Wembley Stadium – the FA Cup Final between Liverpool and Wimbledon would be taking place on Saturday 14th May, followed by England v Scotland seven days later. There would be a Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Concert in early June and in July, four concerts by Michael Jackson. The following page provides match reports from the semi-final ties for both Enfield and Telford United. As previously mentioned, Enfield beat Barrow after a second replay whilst Telford overcome Wokingham Town by an aggregate score of 3-0.
Pages 16 and 17 are all about Telford United – the piece first looks at the 1982/1983 season when the club beat Northwich Victoria 2-1 in the final of the FA Trophy. Shortly afterwards the piece goes on to talk about their brilliant 1984/1984 FA Cup run when they made it all the way to Round 5, losing 3-0 to Everton at Goodison Park. We then see information about the then Telford United manager, Stan Storton who took over the manager’s position in 1981.
Page 18 provides a photograph of the Telford United squad, a squad that had some excellent players, some of which I can remember watching myself when I was a child. Players like Steve Nelson, Kevin Charlton, and Antone Joseph to name but a few. The following page provides Telford United Player Pen Profiles – Mark Cunningham was a forward and had joined the club from Bath City having previously played for Nuneaton Borough and Redditch. Meanwhile, the 30-year-old winger, John Alcock was at the time the club’s longest serving player having joined the club from his previous club, Eastwood in 1978.
Page 20 is a full-page advert which is followed by two action photographs from Telford’s Semi-Final triumph over Wokingham Town.
Page 22 gives a full round by round list of results from the Second Round Proper up to and including the Semi-Finals for the 1987/1988 FA Trophy competition. This is followed by a map showing routes home from Wembley Stadium with the programme finishing with an advert on the back cover.
This was a more than decent programme to read and review, for the record, Enfield won the 1987/1988 FA Trophy Final 3-2 in a replay, after the first game finished 0-0.
