“Programmes, programmes, get your programme. Three pounds a programme.” It’s an hour before kick-off at Pride Park in Derby and fans are making their way to the stadium for a third-tier fixture against Cheltenham Town. The cry of programme seller Anthony Carter is all part of the normal build-up to a game, but this is no ordinary fixture. After 59 years selling the Derby County matchday programme, Ant is retiring. I purchase a copy and ask how he feels. “It’s very emotional,” he says. “It’s been a hard decision to make, but it’s the right time.”

A special edition has been printed for Ant with his face on the cover, and there is a story inside marking his final game. A banner on his stall reads “The legend has retired”. It’s clear the emotions run both ways as fans stop to chat, shake hands and wish him well. Some he has known since they were kids.

“In the Baseball Ground days at our old stadium, parents would bring their children up for a programme. Now, here at Pride Park, those kids are all grown up and bringing their own children and sometimes grandchildren.”

Ant’s stall is set up under the statue of two other Derby legends, Brian Clough and Peter Taylor. They are holding up the championship trophy after leading Derby to their first league title in 1971/72. Anthony provides a link back to the glory days when this industrial East Midlands city was home to the champions of England.

“I was born in Shaftesbury Crescent, with the Baseball Ground just down the road. I went to Pear Tree School. It was all in that one area. It was all terraced houses, a closely knit community.”

He started selling programmes as a teenager in 1965 in exchange for tickets to games, and it was during those Clough and Taylor years that trade was best. “The success they brought to the club… Every programme seller sold out by half past two for a three o’clock kick-off and then we were in the ground. You couldn’t get enough programmes in them days. It was just brilliant.”