It’s Christmas 1982 and Match celebrates with a cover image of a sketch of various football stars such as Gordon Strachan, Graeme Souness, Steve Coppell and Paul Mariner.
There’s not much Christmas cheer for the FA, as they come in for criticism for arranging a full top flight fixture list just four days before a European Championship Qualifier.
A series of top flight stars are asked for their Christmas wishes, with Lou Macari wish he could spend Christmas Day with either Russ Abbot or Benny Hill.
Graeme Souness uses his column to state that Scotland haven’t given up on qualifying for Euro 84 despite a poor start which means they have to win the remainder of their games to have a chance of qualifying.
John Gregory of QPR is this “Focus On …” subject, claiming that The Jam, Robert Palmer and Japan is his favourite music.
Moving from Scotland to England, as Graham Rix uses his column to state that he has a battle for his England place after missing out on the recent 9-0 win over Luxembourg.
David Cross has only one wish for Christmas, three points from Manchester City’s visit to Anfield, something that City managed the previous season when they won 3-1 at Anfield.
As well as sketching the front cover, Steve McGarry can be found again near the end of the magazine sketching Murdo MacLeod’s winner for Celtic against Rangers in the recent Scottish League Cup Final.
The magazine can’t end without another rant about the scheduling of England’s match against Luxembourg, this time Tony Morley of Aston Villa who had to miss the game as he was playing for Villa in the World Club Cup Final in Japan the weekend before.
Analogue Boy In A Digital World 