80s Watford Jackets....

So I went out for lunch for dad's birthday today, he's 79 and suffering from dementia. So we went back to the olde family house and blasted out some 50s rock and roll, so he (and myself) could sing along. Anyways.....look what I found whilst I was on 'poo' watch, it caused much piss taking when I was at school...

 

It might be early 90s, 1991?

 

Think it is early 1990s. By the looks of it, it's got the Football League badge on the sleeve and I think they were first used on player shirts for the 1989-90 season.

 

It's glorious.

 

I think it's great. I suspect it would burst into flames if you rubbed the sleeves together though

 

Would look better without the hornets text.

It's still absolutely abhorrent either way, like.

 

Absolutely fantastic. Imagine striding into the bedroom only wearing that.

 

Enduring image, isn't it?

 

Never seen such a thing of beauty before and likely never will again. Thanks for sharing.

My vote would be FA Cup final year 1984 as it looks like the shirt I had as a kid.

 

I had one. Used to wear it on my paper round in the 70's so it's much older than thought.

One dreary morning I was cycling along Northolt Road in South Harrow with that very jacket on and a huge sack of papers over my shoulder. The roads were dead so it must have been a Sunday morning and a very large / expensive car came alongside me, wound down the rear window and shouted out something along the lines of "Up the Hornets". I swear to god it was Elton, but I only really heard the voice.

 

That would explain it, I was expecting something a lot more garish like so much 1980s stuff, I like it actually.

 

It's an early example of a classic, circa 1980's, possible early 90's?

In perfect condition, and in it's original packaging and with Mazzareths name written inside the collar, at auction it could fetch a fortune. But this one, is part of a small faulty batch that was two inches too long on one side, and has an extra press stud at the bottom - well, it could be priceless.

 

That is the optional dew drop extention in case you had a slight accident when rushing back for the second half. Top of the range had a strip of gusset on the inside with L*ton woven into it, to absorb any spillage.

 

As I said before, the best 80’s one was Kenny.

 

Great player of that era for us. Equally comfortable at full-back or centre-back as midfield.

 

This showed up at a car boot around somewhere around fifteen, maybe twenty years ago. In a random bundle of clothes, the shoulder trim shouted out to me, and couldn't believe my luck to see it was player issue/matchworn. Paid the grand total of £1 for it too !

 

It generally lives neatly folded up in one of those self-seal bags, I certainly have no intention of parting company with it. I have approaching 100 matchworn/player issue shirts from various clubs up & down the country, League, Non-League, Scottish (also have a late 1980's Scotland matchworn shirt), have some absolute beauties. Did go through a phase in the early 2000's where you could pick gems up on ebay for around £25-£30 before people sussed they are worth decent sums. This was an ebay find yonks ago too.

 

Great memories associated with that kit, but what a truly horrible un-Watfordy shirt it was.

 

After you mentioned other clubs, I thought at first that was a Brighton shirt! I’m not a fan of any of the away kits apart from the black one, but that looks quite nice with a good trim. So was the other one you posted from the era between our two short stints in the Prem?

 

The home is 1995-96 (specifically that, the same shirt used in '96-97 but then had the CTX logo), while the away is that late 90's double promotion away. (I DO have a Brighton shirt in the collection, it's a red/black striped away shirt made by Errea from 1999-2000).

I picked this one up about five years when the shop was having one of their clearance weekends. Have pinpointed it to Gilmartin being on the bench away at Ipswich from November 2014.

 

And issued for same match.....

 

Match shirts these days are sized to suit the individual player requirements. Unlike 1999-2000 when Mr. Mooney was lumbered with a size 50-52" Le Coq shirt. And that's it - five WFC player/matchworn shirts in my collection. (Apologies for hijacking the thread !)

 

Just wonderful. This is what our shirt should be. Yellow. No stupid stripes or any other nonsense.

 

Thanks for you kind words about the shirts. Oh, and more thing. If you have a scout around ebay, you can find a few sellers doing iron-on logos to suit retro shirts. Hence, I've managed to add finishing touches to these. (In fact I had was wearing the white away shirt on Sat and had a guy ask if it was an orgin al).

 

These books are well worth a look if you can find them. The author of these John Devlin (who I have the pleasure of knowing) featured in 'Get Shirty', the documentary about Admiral Sportswear which was made a few years ago and still gets the occasional showing on ITV. The first issue (red) covered the PL for 2005-06, while the second one came out a couple of years later and included some of the country's other bigger clubs. There's a section for us in Vol. 2.

 

Thanks for this - have found some used copies and ordered.

 

Glad to have been of assistance, they're cracking little books.

 

I was trying to work out who might have worn that shirt but during the season we wore it (95-96) no less than 6 players played in the no 10 shirt... Gary Porter, Jamie Moralee, Gary Penrice, Geoff Pitcher, Kerry Dixon (boo!) and towards the end of the season.. Tommy Mooney.

Lets say it was Tommy's yeah?!

 

I'd guess they may well all have had a turn in it, the lifespan of match shirt was expected to be a fair bit longer in those days. The following season's Rothmans Yearbook points to Porter as having worn it most that season.

 

Mother just found this, I hope she's not setting it on fire. I think I got for my birthday in 1988.