On todays feature we’re showing off two pretty unique Motherwell tops with one coming from the late 70’s and the other from the early 80’s.
The first being Admiral’s first away kit worn by the well but as you can see there is no badge on this top and instead the Admiral badge is on the white side of the top instead of on the stripe. It wouldn’t be until later in the season when the badge was introduced.
The first time this top was ever worn was in the Scottish Cup Semi Final against Rangers in 1976 where Motherwell would go 2-0 up after an hour into the game before crumbling to the Gers and losing 3-2 with the last coming in the 85th minute. Joe Wark and Willie Pettigrew both played with the latter scoring Motherwell’s second that night.
Motherwell finished a respectable 4th, 3 points off Hibernian who would claim the second UEFA Cup spot that season.
The second top being showcased is an Adidas number from the 81/82 when Motherwell were promoted back into the top division after beating Killie to the title by ten points. They also managed a +56 goal difference after scoring 92 goals. During the season, they eventually changed this top to a darker yellow top with a tighter neck.
This top was worn by Junior Burns who only started a few games for the well but did manage to score a winning goal at Ibrox which resulted in John Greig resigning from the Gers.
Motherwell have been blessed with a number of great full backs such as Stephen McMillan, Jim Griffin, Rab McKinnon, Steven Hammell and most recently Stephen O’Donnell but we’re focusing on the man who came before them and set the standard at the back, Joe Wark.
Signed from junior side Irvine Vics in 1968, Wark would make his claret and amber debut against Tranmere Rovers in what would be a bizarre first game as 3 minutes in goalie Keith MacRae picked up an injury meaning Wark would spend the remaining 87 minutes in goals, keeping a clean sheet and helping the well to a 2-0 victory.
In his first season, Joe would play as an inside forward and would score 8 goals helping Motherwell lift the Second Division title. This season would also include a hat trick against Montrose.
As football began to develop, so did Joe, as he was soon moved to left back to become one of the first of a new breed of overlapping defenders who would bomb up the pitch and whip crosses into the attackers in the box. As much as he was a threat down that left channel, he also possessed great awareness which saw him establish himself as one of the best full backs in the country.
Unfortunately it was tough competition to get into the national team with both Celtic’s Danny McGrain and Rangers’ Sandy Jardine being the preferred full backs to Wark. He did however gain one international honour when he represented the Scottish League XI when they played the Football League XI in 1976. Not only did Joe not get the international recognition his consistency deserved but he never actually won any major honours, not even reaching a final but don’t let that fool you into thinking that he wasn’t brilliant.
A total of 580 appearances over a 16 year career brings him up to third in Motherwell’s post war all time appearances with only George Stevenson and Bobby Ferrier playing more. During his time at Motherwell, he was part of the teams who beat Tottenham Hotspur and Stoke City in the Texaco Cup.
After retiring in 1984, Joe got his coaching badges and spent time at the club as a coach and assistant manager but also took up a role as kitman for a small period of time. Knowing Joe, he would probably have taken on the job of groundsman if Andy Russell hadn’t already claimed it.
As for this top, what a beauty eh? Coming from all the way back in 1976, it got used until 1978 but was later reused as Motherwell weren’t keen on their kits for the next season. Made by Admiral, this top is more of a yellow than an amber but still looks just as good with the (slightly faded) claret MFC embroidery used for the badge. This jersey is a number 2, probably from a brief stint at right back, even though he was most notably known to wear the number 3 but this was given to us and signed by Joe before his death in 2015.
Mr Consistency and an absolute legend for the club.
As the new Motherwell top has just recently been released I thought that there was no better reason for me to fork out mine and the old man’s collection of Well’ tops and talk about a few of my personal favourites.
First up we’ve got one of the oldest from the collection with the away top from the 87-89 seasons. Made by Matchwinner, this Well top looks way ahead of its time with the two thick claret and amber stripes along the shoulders. The collar also looks great as it features a mainly claret collar with a smaller amber trim wrapping round the neck. The one thing that does show this jerseys age is the badge on the centre of the chest that has been embroidered onto the top instead of nowadays where it is usually a patch stuck on. What better sponsor to have on the front than Ian Skelly.
Next up we’ve got another away top but this time it’s from the 99/00 season and is made by Xara who now unfortunately don’t produce football kits as they made a few memorable Motherwell kits such as this one. This was the second time ‘The Steelmen’ had ever had a black away kit and definitely one of the first in recent memory not to feature either claret or amber throughout. A black kit with tiny tramlines running up and down the top that included the Xara ‘X’ every so often. Similar thin black lines were used at the edge of the white collar to give the shirt that bit more detail. You also can’t beat an embroidered MFC badge on an away kit.
Taking the third spot on our list is the only home top to feature and it’s Admiral’s first Well top coming in the 91/92 season although the second season it was played in as it is the same top as the famous 90/91 Scottish Cup winners top with the difference being instead of Ian Skelly as the sponsor, it’s phone company Motorola. You can read more on this when I covered the 91′ semi final top not too long ago.
One of my favourite tops that is a bit love or hate for some Motherwell fans but I think it is stunning. The only Hummel top to feature on this list but its a cracker. Being used in the 92/93 and 93/94, Hummel only made the home and away for these seasons before moving on. Keeping the Motorola in black along the front, it’s behind the brand that is the unusual part with the white and claret diagonal broken stripes makes this jersey unmissable. The claret collar with amber trim really completes this top along with the proper Well badge.
Last but not least and my personal favourite Motherwell FC jersey has to be the black away kit from 05/06 that features a Zoom Airlines sponsor along the thick claret sash. Fitted with a thick claret collar with a black and claret trim to match the shirt and a pretty deep V-neck makes this recent design feel old school along with the claret and amber trim around the baggy sleeves.
This is my favourite top as I was the mascot at the time this jersey came out and it’s always nice to look back at pictures of my younger self kicking a ball about the famous carpet of Fir Park. Here is a pic of a young specky me modelling the jersey and a fan.
Trevor Cherry was an English full back that could be played anywhere along the back line. Starting his career with Huddersfield Town, Cherry would make the move to Leeds for £100,000 where he would play 399 games and go onto captain the club.
Winning his first cap in 1976 against Wales with this jersey coming from his game against Scotland the same year in the Home Championship.
Cherry would go down as the first England player to be sent off in an international friendly as England played Argentina in 1977 with Cherry getting two teeth knocked out after the rash challenge on Daniel Bertoni who then decided to punch Cherry in the mouth.
Cherry was part of the England squad for the 1980 European Championships in Italy but was restricted to a single substitute appearance against Spain which would be his last international cap.
This top comes from the 1976 Home Championships where Scotland Hosted England at Hampden. Scotland would win the game with goals coming from centre half Gordon McQueen and clinical striker Kenny Dalglish with a penalty from Mick Channon giving England a goal back in the 87th minute.
Admiral only produced two England home kits with this being the first and the last being the 1982 jersey that also features on The Kit Rail under Terry Butcher.
As for this top, it’s a classic England home top using the main three colour red, white and blue with red and blue stripes travelling down the sleeve and also around the collar.
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.
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.
On the 3rd of April 1991, Motherwell would play Celtic in front of 41,000 fans at Hampden Park. The result of this match would end disappointingly for both teams as none of them would manage a single goal the closest effort being a 90th minute free kick by Ian Ferguson which crashed off the post.
This would mean a replay would have to take place on the 9th of April. The second leg would be a lot more entertaining for the 31,000 fans that made the trip back to Hampden on a very wet and windy evening, as they got to witness a six-goal thriller, as Motherwell overcame the Bhoys 4-2.
Celtic would take the lead due to an unfortunate own goal by Tom Boyd as a corner played into the box caused havoc and eventually bounced off Boyd and ended up in the back of the net. A quick reply from Dougie Arnott would see the Steelmen bounce back level but it would not be for long as another set piece error would give Anton Rogan his second goal of the season while leaving Motherwell 2-1 down going into the second half.
(Cusack, right, celebrating after the game)
At the start of the second half, a ball forward from Luc Nijholt found Dougie Arnott in the box and his perfectly executed header found the back of the net for his second goal of the game to get Motherwell back on level terms. Things would soon get better for The Well as an unbelievable thunderbolt from Colin O’Neill would see Motherwell take the lead for the first time in the tie. To rub salt into the wounds of the Celtic players, Stevie Kirk would score an audacious chip that would land perfectly into the top right-hand corner.
Dougie Arnott would be named man of the match as only one game would separate Motherwell from a much-needed trophy and as many Motherwell fans would tell you, the rest is history.
Now onto the jersey. Admiral have produced a fans favourite jersey here as not only is it memorable for being a Scottish cup winning jersey but it is also an instant classic due to the pattern moving around the collar to the white and claret stripes breaking up the torso from the sleeves. The darker amber pattern running through the top gives the top depth and helps it shine in the sun which makes it a stunning top.
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One thing that makes Motherwell tops so unique is the colours, claret and amber, which they have been using since 1913 as only a handful of teams surprisingly use, with AS Roma and Bradford City AFC being the most notable few.
This warm up top was first showcased as Motherwell lifted the Scottish Cup at the end of the 90-91 season and would be used throughout the well’s 91-92 campaign featuring the S.F.A. Cup Winners embroidery along with Admiral branding on the front, back and zip.
Winner of the English First Division, a UEFA Cup and two European Cups, Welsh full back Joey Jones won it all at club level over a three-year spell with Liverpool but that is not where it started for Jones. At the age of seventeen Joey would start his career in Wales with Wrexham AFC where he would play just under one hundred games during his first spell at the club. It was also at Wrexham where Jones would win his first piece of silverware, the Welsh Cup in 1974-75.
After becoming a success at Liverpool, Jones would return to Wrexham for a second stint and later would retire at Wrexham after a third spell at the club. In between his second and third spell in Wales, Joey would play for Chelsea from 1982-85, where he would win the English Second division in 1983-84, and played for Huddersfield Town from 1985-87.
Joey Jones would play for the Wales first team for over a decade, winning a total of seventy-two caps and scoring just the one goal which would come in 1982 in a 4-4 draw with Yugoslavia. The jersey we are looking at here is from a Wales versus Scotland Under 23’s game in Wrexham where Joey would be placed up against Liverpool teammate and Scotland international Alan Hansen. This jersey was swapped with Willie Pettigrew after the match which Scotland won by 3 goals to 2, with the Scotland goals coming from Willie Pettigrew (2) and Tommy Craig.
The top is all red to match the colour of the Welsh Dragon on the badge which uses a green border to follow the colours in the national flag. The yellow number on the back also matches the Admiral brand sponsor. This top is identical to Wales previous two home kits apart from the brand changing from Umbro to Bukta and then to Admiral, where the top was only worn twice with Admiral wanting to hold off the release of their new home kit until the Wales first team were playing. Admiral would move from this jersey to the famous Wales tramline Admiral top with the branding on the collar, as shown above.
Terry Butcher began his career in 1976 as a promising centre half for Ipswich Town, with his first England call up coming on the 31st of May 1980 in a win against Australia. He would play a total of seventy-seven games for the three lions over the course of his ten-year international career, with his final England game coming against West Germany where he was in the losing side of a penalty shootout in the semi-final of the 1990 World Cup. Butcher managed to gain seventy-seven caps for England with sixty-nine of those coming under legendary manager Sir Bobby Robson and would captain England on seven outings with three coming at the 1990 World Cup.
While playing for England, Butcher played for Ipswich Town and Glasgow Rangers. During his time at Ipswich, he won the UEFA Cup in 1980/81 also under Sir Bobby Robson’s guidance. After moving to Rangers he then won three league titles in four seasons with two Scottish Cups. After the 1990 World Cup, Butcher would leave Rangers and land his first managerial role as a player manager at Coventry City where he would become the youngest manager in the football league at 32. Coventry would narrowly avoid relegation, finishing sixteenth and after playing six times that season Butcher would announce his retirement as a player. He would later be inducted into the Rangers Hall of Fame, Ipswich Town Hall of Fame and and Scottish Football Hall of Fame.
The top we have here was worn against Wales on the 27th of April in 1982, in Cardiff, where England won 1-0 after a goal from Trevor Francis in the 74th minute. Butcher managed to keep a clean sheet against a Wales team with the likes of Liverpool’s Ian Rush and former Liverpool player Joey Jones while England had stars such as Glenn Hoddle and Ray Wilkins on the pitch that day. This is one of only three occasions where Butcher would wear the number 5 jersey for England, preferring to wear the number 6 jersey once he was firmly established in the England set-up.
Admiral uses England’s iconic blue and red on a plain white jersey using varying sizes of the stripes on the shoulders. The collar and cuffs follow this same colour scheme but uses much thinner stripes. The large red number stitched on to the back takes up a lot of space. Names were not used regularly on the back of English jerseys until the 1992 European Championships. When you think of England and football this is one of the iconic kits that should come straight to mind.
THE KIT RAIL 