Wales – THE KIT RAIL

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.

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.

Credit –
https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/announcements/264257-rome-1977-through-the-eyes-of-the-11-reds-heroes

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.

Credit – https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/669347563348263422/

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.