Sadly Gillingham’s season goes from bad to worse. This Saturday it was the turn of Notts County to take all three points. Incredibly when we won at Meadow Lane in October, we were top of the table! Automatic promotion is now almost definitely out of the question, the play-offs look like a dream and relegation a distinct possibility! A season that started with such promise is turning into a living nightmare.
Fortunately, all was not lost as FC Deportivo Galicia got a last minute goal against a Bedstone team who had controlled much of the previous 90 minutes. Football, what’s not to love?

Yesterday was the bi-monthly programme fair which as usual was a very interesting and professional affair. Today the organiser, Barry Dixey mailed me, “Announcing a SOUTH LONDON Programme and Memorabilia Fair at TOOTING & MITCHAM FC on SUNDAY, 4th MAY 2025.

Please email me at barry@dixey.net if you are interested in having a stall at the fair. I announced this event at the West London Fair yesterday and several dealers have already expressed an interest in attending.

Tooting & Mitcham FC are running an exhibition in an adjacent part of the clubhouse and it has the potential of being an excellent day with lots of dealers attending covering all aspects of football memorabilia including programmes, tickets, badges, shirts, cards & stickers, shirts, books, autographs, photos and lots more.”

This is a great venue and will give Barry and his team room to expand. It’s in my diary. The next West London event is 6th April. Again if you want details of a stand, Barry will advise.

Talking about programmes, I am making huge progress with O-M on his major project to collect one programme per club per season going back to 1968! If you can help him fill the gaps he will be delighted to swap for Finnish programmes or maybe we can do a three-way as I have 20,000+ programmes I am slowly reducing. “Slowly reducing” is probably politicians’ speak as it really means and the number of duplicates is increasing exponentially!

Have a look at O-M’s project and shout out if you can help. A couple of clubs we are struggling with are Salford and Fleetwood so I was delighted to pick up a 1969 Fleetwood home programme at the fair yesterday….a real needle in the haystack so thanks to Steve Harding at FPC who had a very impressive display of big match programmes. Shout if you want his details.

Rude not to note that the QPR Fair is fast approaching (below). I fear my bank manager will not be happy – four fairs in four months!

Share