West Scotland Match Worn Goalkeeper Shirt

Another interesting addition and the very first goalkeeper shirt on the blog!

The shirt was used by the West Scotland team in the UEFA Regions Cup way back in 2003. For those who aren’t aware, the UEFA Regions Cup is a competition for amateur teams in Europe. Some teams represent a whole country (Andorra, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Northern Ireland etc) while others represent a region such as West Scotland, the Algarve or Kent for example.

For England’s entry, there is a competition called the FA Inter League Cup with all Step 7 leagues entering and the winner then represents England in Europe. The Isle of Man league won this year’s tournament and will play for England next year.

This particular shirt was used, and apparently match worn, during the 2002-03 tournament in which West Scotland participated. The sponsor gives away who the team is with J & R Tennent being one of Scotland’s famous lager exports. The only time I have tried one was from an ice cream truck next to the leaning tower of Pisa. Yeah…

Unfortunately, whoever wore this shirt probably ended the tournament with a bad back as they would have spent most of their time picking the ball out of the net. West Scotland kicked off with a good 1-1 draw with Latvia before 4-0 defeats to Gothenburg and the Republic of Ireland to finish bottom of their group. Piedmont from Italy went on to win it, beating France’s Maine 2-1 in the final in Germany.

It is a very basic shirt and not a fantastic one to look at but it’s another match worn shirt added to the collection and has a pretty interesting back story.