Tag: 9

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British Club Tops

Louis Moult

Seeing this Moult having another setback to his career made me want to look back at his time at Motherwell and just remind everyone the damage this guy can do.

Arriving at Motherwell from Wrexham, Moult came with a reputation for goals after bagging 23 goals in 37 games for the red dragons. Bagging 15 league goals in his first season at Fir Park, he would help guide the steelmen to a solid 5th place finish under Mark McGhee. Disappointingly finishing 9th in the league in his second season at Motherwell with McGhee getting sacked not to long into his second tenure at Fir Park. Even though this was a disappointing season, Moult still managed to find the back of the net another 15 times in the league even after playing seven less games.

With the departure of Mark McGhee, former assistant manager Stephen Robinson would take control at the club. Unfortunately we never got to see this combination of Moult playing under Robinson for long as he was always destined to leave for a better club, however we are always left with the fond memories from the start of the 17/18 season.

The road to the league cup final wasn’t easy having topped our group, we narrowly pushed for a result against Ross County in extra time. Easily knocking out Aberdeen 3-0 with a stunning goal from Louis Moult after he flicked the ball up facing away from the goal and making Aberdeen goalie Joe Lewis turn it into his own net. A goal from Hartley and another from Moult would see the well play at Hampden but this time against one of Glasgow’s ugly sisters.

Rangers came up next and I speak for all well fans when I say this is probably one of the best goals I’ve seen in claret and amber. With the first half ending 0-0 someone had to step up in the second and who else but our man Louis. A tidy finish from a scramble in the box followed by an absolute belter of a first time chip over put the nail in the coffin for this once dead club.

Unfortunately the final didn’t go in our favour as we got beat off Celtic but we won’t forget everything you done for the ML1 and thanks for making us believe.

Always believe in your soul
You’ve got the power to know
You’re indestructible
Always believe in…… LOUIS MOULT

Categories
British International Tops

Willie Pettigrew – Scotland 75′

Regular subscribers to The Kit Rail will know that we’ve already covered Willie Pettigrew with his stunning Dundee United 1981 Scottish Cup Final Jersey. For that reason we are covering Willie’s full Scotland international career, from the under 23’s through to his last full cap.

Scotland Under 23’s

He made his international debut for the under 23 side, at the age of 21, in a friendly match in Sweden that was played on the 16th of April 1975. Scotland won this fixture 2-1.

A European Championship clash in Romania would see Willie score his first international goal in another 2-1 win coming on the 31st of May 1975.

Next up would be a double header against Denmark with Scotland securing a crucial 1-0 win away, on the 2nd of September 1975, and adding yet another victory, this time beating the Danish 4-1 on the 28th of October 1975.

Pettigrew ended the international calendar year with another European Championship Victory, grabbing himself a brace in a 4-0 destruction of Romania at Brockville on the 16th of December 1975. This result saw Scotland top their group and continue through the tournament.

Willie’s sixth and penultimate under 23 cap would come against Wales at Wrexhams Racecourse Ground on the 4th of February. During this game, Willie would score another brace to secure a narrow 3-2 victory for the Scots. We covered this match when we featured the Joey Jones jersey not too long ago.

The last cap to come for Willie Pettigrew would be in the second leg of the Under 23 European Championship Quarter Finals as Scotland took on The Netherlands in front of an amazing 32,000 fans at Easter Road, home of Hibernian, on the 24th of March 1976. Scotland lost the first game 2-0 (a game that Willie missed due to injury). Scotland would win the second game 2-0 but would lose on penalties after a 2-2 aggregate score. You can find more details on this match as we covered it during the Jan Everse jersey.

In all Willie started 7 games at under 23 level winning all seven and grabbing himself five goals in the process.

Full International Career

2 weeks after his last under 23 cap, Willie would make his full international debut and what a debut it would be.

A home friendly versus Switzerland on the 7th of April 1976 would see Willie net his first goal after only 2 minutes. This would be the only goal of the game as Scotland would win the game 1-0. This game has also been covered as we featured Rene Hasler earlier this week.

Cap number two would again see Willie find the net, scoring the first goal in a 3-1 win over Wales at Hampden Park on the 6th of May 1976. You can see more of this game and jersey on Terry Yorath’s page on the The Kit Rail.

A few days later would come cap number three which would see Scotland beat Northern Ireland convincingly in a 3-0 win at Hampden Park with goals from Gemmill, Masson and Dalglish.

Willie would have to wait six months for cap number four which would be a world cup qualifier against Wales. We would see another victory for Scotland and Pettigrew as the Scots would beat Wales 1-0.

Willie’s fifth and final cap would come on the 27th of April 1977 and would see Scotland run out as winners in a 3-1 victory against Sweden with goals coming from Hartford, Dalglish and Joe Crag.

Willie would play five times for his country, scoring two goals in the process and would be in the winning team on all five occasions. If you add Willie’s under 23 appearances, you end up with an impressive 12 games representing Scotland, 12 victories and a highly commendable 7 goals.

Willie Pettigrew, take a bow.

Categories
British International Tops

Terry Yorath – Wales 76′

With Euro 2020 about to begin, we have been holding off sharing this beauty of a top but now we can with Wales’ first game against Switzerland quickly approaching we can finally talk about it.

Making 59 appearances for Wales from 1969 all the way to 1981 while captaining the team for 42 games. Yorath also managing the team for five years guiding them to wins over Brazil and then European champions West Germany while almost qualifying for the 1994 World Cup.

Yorath was also the first Welshman to play in a European Cup final as Leeds were beaten off Bayern Munich in the 73/74 final.

This jersey is from Yorath’s games against Scotland in the Home Championships from the 6th of May 1976 where Scotland got the better of the Welsh 3-1 thanks to an opener from Motherwell favourite Willie Pettigrew.

Yorath seen having a tussle with Scotland number 10 Archie Gemmill. Can be seen around the 7:30 minute mark. 06/05/1976 Scotland v Wales – Bing video

Probably one of Wales most iconic kits, this symmetrical beauty uses the bright red of the dragon as the main colour with the green and yellow coming from the Royal Badge of Wales. The best thing about this kit may be the yellow Admiral branding on the collar matching the stripes down the side. No Wales kit would be complete without the badge and this one is a beauty, showing the dragon off in all its glory surrounded by the green shield with yellow stars.

Categories
Club Tops European

Michael Higdon – NEC Nijmegen 13′

NEC Nijmegen badge

Englishman Michael Higdon started his career at Crewe Alexandra before making his move to Scotland where he would play with Falkirk and St Mirren, scoring 15 and 18 goals respectively before finding his form for with Motherwell.

Higdon (right) celebrating with Humphrey (left). Motherwell Legend Michael Higdon retires from football. : MotherwellFC (reddit.com)

It is with The Steelmen where Higdon would become a cult hero as he would score 13 goals in his first season and then a massive 26 league goals in the 12/13 season, where he would become Motherwell’s top goal scorer in a season since the Second World War. As a result of Higdon being so important to Motherwell’s 2nd place finish in the league, he was voted PFA Scotland’s Player’s Player of the Year.

Higdon with his PFA PPOTY award. Tam Cowan: My hero Higdon had the Mother of all hangovers – Tam Cowan – Daily Record

After leaving the Scottish side on a free, Higdon would move across the English Channel to Dutch side NEC Nijmegen. The Scouser would only play in Holland for one season but he would continue to be as prolific abroad, scoring 14 goals but this was not enough to keep Nijmegen in the Eredivise. After the season, Higdon would get his move back to England with a bid coming in from Sheffield United.

Higdon with NEC Nijmegen. Higdon leads NEC to victory — Nijmegenleeft.nl

As for this beauty, Jako have produced an instantly recognisable kit for NEC Nijmegen as the use of their classic three colours are used through this iconic shirt, with the main torso being split in two with the contrasting red and green while using the last colour, black, as the sleeves. The clubs double headed eagle is replicated from the badge and can be seen spread out over the bottom of the jersey.

At the bottom on the back, there is also a skyline of the city of Nijmegen, which is also the oldest city in Holland. This cityscape features the Nijmegen Railway Bridge, which was demolished twice during the Second World War, once by the Dutch to defend against the attacking German’s which was then rebuilt and destroyed again by the German’s as they fled the American’s. The bridge was nicknamed “Little Omaha” due to the casualties suffered on the bridge.