MAGAZINE ARCHIVE : SHOOT – 10.2.1979

Terry Butcher and Frank Worthington are the cover stars of Shoot, in a week that sees England, Scotland and Northern Ireland playing European Championship Qualifiers, with England facing Northern Ireland at Wembley.

That match gets a double page feature as you open the magazine.

Brian Talbot might have just signed for Arsenal, but he says he still supports his former club Ipswich Town.

Ray Clemence uses his column to declare that West Bromwich Albion are Liverpool’s biggest rivals for the title.

Emlyn Hughes of Liverpool tells Shoot that he is at a crossroads in his career, as he looks to recover from injury.

Mick Mills of Ipswich Town has a revolutionary plan for the future of English football – A Winter break and reduction of the top two divisions to 16 clubs each.

Nottingham Forest are the subject of this week’s Club Spotlight, having won the title in 1978. They are described as “History makers”, and the day before the publication date, they signed Trevor Francis from Birmingham City, Britain’s first million pound transfer.

Watford have reached the Semi-Finals of the League Cup, and manager Graham Taylor says this was no shock to him.

In foreign news, Argentina star Rene Houseman tells Shoot of his dismay after a move to Middlesbrough fell through.

Cover star Frank Worthington is being nominated for a place in the England team by his Bolton team-mat Willie Morgan.

The magazine ends with Derek Johnstone’s column, as he gets ready for big European games at club and international level – A European Cup Quarter-Final for Rangers against Koln, and a European Championship Qualifier for Scotland against Belgium.

MAGAZINE ARCHIVE : SHOOT 19.2.1977

Match action from Ipswich Town v Leeds United is on the cover of Shoot, but it is four other clubs – Aston Villa, Bolton Wanderers, Everton and Queens Park Rangers – who are the main focus, as the League Cup reaches the Semi-Final stage.

In news, 16 year old Alan Currie was set to leave Cliftonville for Luton Town, Leeds and Wales would be meeting in a Testimonial for Gary Sprake. Staying in Yorkshire, Sheffield United want to sign Vic Moreland from Glentoran following Peter Dornan’s return to Linfield.

Neil Warnock, a player at Barnsley, has just passed his referee’s exam and is now a qualified official.

Finally, Radio City in Liverpool have signed up Duncan McKenzie and John Toshack for a Sunday afternoon radio show.

The second legs of the League Cup Semi-Finals are preview, both of which are level after the first legs. The first leg of the QPR v Aston Villa game took place too late to have a reaction from both teams, the game was delayed due to postponements.

Bolton had got a draw at Goodison Park. Bolton manager Ian Greaves commented that his side would now have to manage expectations after the draw at Goodison.

Everton won the second leg 1-0 to go through 2-1 on aggregate.

After a 0-0 draw at Loftus Road, QPR and Aston Villa drew 2-2 in the second leg at Villa Park. There were no away goals in those days, so it went to a replay at Highbury, with Villa winning 3-0.

After needing three games to win their Semi-Final, Villa would need three games to beat Everton in the final, winning a Second Replay 3-2 at Old Trafford.

Kevin Keegan uses his column to talk about tackles from behind, which he describes as “The curse of English soccer”

Shoot does a full page article on the goalscoring record of clubs in the history of league football, with Aston Villa the team with the best goals to game ratio, between 1888 and 1977.

In foreign news, Borussia Dortmund’s Westfalon stadium is set to become the second stadium in West Germany (after the Olympic Stadium in Munich) to get undersoil heating.

South American qualifiers for the 1978 World Cup (in South America) are due to get underway, and Shoot gives it a double page, with interviews from players based in Spain from Brazil, Peru, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Shoot dedicates two pages to the issue of sponsorship in football, canvassing Chairman, Managers, Players, including Derek Dougan, who got into a spot of bother for trying to get Kettering Town to wear shirt sponsorship.

Gordon Hill uses his column to write about his love of hunting, accompanied by a picture of him and Steve Coppell jokingly pointing a shotgun at Tommy Docherty.

Kenny Dalglish talks about celebrity fans in his column, and namedropping famous faces he has met at matches, such as Jackie Stewart and Rod Stewart.

On the back cover, there is a poster of Graeme Souness of Middlesbrough. In it, he has facial hair, but it is of the beard variety, rather than his trademark moustache.

MAGAZINE ARCHIVE : SHOOT – 17.5.1997

Juninho and Gianfranco Zola are the covers of this edition of Shoot, previewing the 1997 FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Middlesbrough, with the headline ‘Battle Of The Mighty Midgets’

Italians Gianfranco Zola and Fabrizio Ravenelli get double page spreads previewing the game, as do Juninho and Mark Hughes, as well as player profiles of the two line-ups.

Shoot’s pull-out results magazine rounds up the 1996-1997 league season. It was a season when the top five titles were all won by clubs from the North West of England. Manchester United won their 4th title in 5 years, Bolton Wanderers marked their last season at Burnden Park with an instant return to the Premier League, Bury pipped League Cup Semi-finalists Stockport County to win Division Two, Wigan won Division Three on Goal difference from Fulham, while Macclesfield Town won promotion to the Football League, where they remained before relegation in 2012.

For Fulham, it took four years, and Wigan, it took eight years for them to get promoted to the Premier League, where they have been ever since. Swansea City, now in the Premier League, lost the Play-Off Final to Northampton Town. Hull City finished 17th in Division Three, before getting promoted to the Premier League in 2008.

There was an advert for a magazine called Babe Hound, with a tagline of ‘More Big Girls Than Juventus v Dortmund’ (Those two sides were to contest that season’s European Cup Final)

The cover star for the current edition was Jo Guest, which featured posters of Dannii Minogue, Gina G, Victoria Adams (you may know her now under her married name of Beckham), Jennifer Aniston and Gillian Anderson.

You couldn’t have a more 1997 lad mag if you tried.

MAGAZINE ARCHIVE : SHOOT – 22nd MAY 1993

This edition focuses on Shoot’s 1993 FA Cup Final review edition, which unfortunately for them, required a replay to be played on the date of publishing.

The cover stars are Paul Warhurst and Ian Wright battling for possession in the original game.

A report of the FA Cup Final gets a double page spread.

In rumours which look silly now : Barnsley want Gordon Strachan to be their manager, and Manchester United are going to sign David Platt, Stuart Pearce, David Hirst and Roy Keane.

Aston Villa apparantly want to sign Stan Collymore. They did, four years later, after he had spells at Nottingham Forest and Liverpool.

Brian Clough marks his retirement with an exclusive interview, which gets a page dedicated to it.

Aldershot Town get a page dedicated to them. Founded in 1992 from the ashes of Aldershot FC, they were started again in the bottom tier of English football.

Manager Steve Wignall said the club have a realistic ambition of being a Football League club again by 2003. They did make it back to the Football League, but not until 2008.

Jimmy Greaves letters page is as crazy as ever.

Ashley Ballhatchet from Farnham Common cheerleads for Julian Dicks getting into the England squad.

John Richards from Sunderland is unimpressed by the idea of Sunderland leaving Roker Park to a new 40,000 all seater stadium.

Meanwhile, with qualification for the 1994 World Cup looking unlikely, the plight of Scottish football gets a double page spread.

Scotland ended up qualifying for Euro 96 and France 98, but nothing since.

With Manchester United winning their first title in 26 years, long serving captain Bryan Robson gets a double page spread about his delight at this.

It was a good year for Welsh football. With the national team making a serious bid for World Cup qualification (they eventually lost out in the final game), Cardiff City and Wrexham were promoted from Division and Swansea City reached the Division Two play-offs.

In Division Two in 1992/1993 were current Premier League clubs Stoke City, Bolton, West Bromwich Albion (all three promoted), Fulham, Wigan Athletic