Welcome to my final post of 'After You've Gone' in 2021. As in the past several years, for this Seasonal theme, here is another match day programme from a Christmas Day football match. This time it's an old First Division encounter between Arsenal and Derby County which was played at Highbury on 25th December 1948.
As was the tradition in those days, the opposing teams would play the home and away fixtures on Xmas Day and then usually on Boxing Day or the day after. In this case, the first match took place in London on the 25th - and then at Derby's Baseball Ground two days later on 27th December.
Arsenal Football Club treated the fans to a special festive programme printed in red and green, accompanied by an illustration of holly leaves and berries on the cover. The game itself must have been a wonderful slice of Christmas entertainment, as 43,000 fans witnessed a 3-3 draw. For the record, Derby won their home match 2-1 with 33,378 in attendance.
Much of this slim eight page programme was dedicated to nostalgic stories with a Christmas theme, though there was clearly much excitement in the air with the prospect of an upcoming FA Cup 3rd Round home tie versus North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, who were then playing in the old Second Division. It was a game that the Gunners would win 3-0, but coincidentally they met up with Derby again in the 4th Round draw, who would go on to win the match 1-0 at the Baseball Ground.
Besides this unique Christmas edition, Arsenal's 1948/49 season programmes were identical in format to the issues of the previous season. These clearly reflected the post-war austerity measures. However, in 1949/50, the Arsenal programme underwent a transformation as both page count and page size increased - as the availability of paper must have increased dramatically after years of rationing. On the pitch, the club failed to hold on to the First Division trophy they'd won in 1947/48, ending the season in 5th place. Derby finished up 3rd in the table.
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