Is That The Programme?: Honest Tales From a Crystal Palace Fanzine Editor

When Crystal Palace were relegated from the Premier League on the last day of the 1993 season, Cris Lehmann already knew he wanted to be part of the vibrant fanzine scene that had started in the 1980s. Football as whole and the fans in particular, were tarred with the ‘hooligan brush.’ Fans, so often treated with disdain, needed a voice. The fanzines gave them that outlet. Soon every club in the land had their own titles on the terraces. The humour and raw emotion that had been missing from club programmes for the previous century, now had a platform. What no one could have predicted at the start of the 1993-94 season, was just how wild a ride Cris’s beloved Palace, a team that usually didn’t attract much attention, were about to embark on. This is the story of a crazy run of promotion glory; relegation despair; unlikely Cup runs; being inside Selhurst Park on the night of the most iconic Premiership moment of the decade; run-ins with the police, opposition fans and even Palace’s own players and management!