A very special matchday programme for Everton

The Saturday matchday programme this week is pretty special as we remember our fallen dead on the Remembrance Day fixture against Everton.

The cover is a modern take on a Football League Regional Competition programme produced for fixtures during the 1939/40 season.

In addition to the retro programme cover, inside readers will find other war-time content:

·         Club historian John Helliar’s War-Time Football history, charting the Hammers’ fortunes during the two World Wars, including stories of a German V-1 Flying Bomb landing on the Boleyn Ground and the Football League War Cup victory at Wembley in 1940

·         The story of the West Ham Pals – the 13^th (Service) Battalion, The Essex Regiment – local volunteers including West Ham players and Thames Ironworks employees who went off to fight for their country in the First World War

·         War-time photography, including images of soldiers watching the final Football League game played at the Boleyn Ground before the outbreak of the Second World War v Leicester City on 2 September 1939, and another of German POWs attending a match during the conflict

A minute’s silence and wreath-laying ceremony will take place before kick-off involving David Gold and Everton chairman Bill Kenwright, with a guard of honour provided by the the 7th Battalion The Rifles, who are based at the Territorial Army Centre in West Ham.

Both teams will wear shirts sporting the poppy emblem of the Royal British Legion, which will be auctioned off after the match to raise funds for the charity.

Collectors from the Royal British Legion will be selling poppies outside the Boleyn Ground.

In addition, the programme also contains plenty of modern-day content, including:

·         Feature interview with rising star Manuel Lanzini

·         Blog written by EastEnders star and lifelong Hammer Danny Dyer

·         Latest news updates on the Club’s move to the new Stadium in Stratford

·         Praise for the Club’s West Ham United Foundation, which celebrated its 25^th anniversary at the Houses of Parliament this week

·         Exclusive columns penned by Slaven Bilic, Mark Noble and David Gold