Last week's look at Watford's '90s stylings led Goat to ask if anyone had ever worn a flannel third shirt in the same time period. Amused by this, and armed with too much knowledge on the Scottish game, I answered that the closest we could get was Scotland's temporary plaid (for ease of reading, I am going to refer to all tartan patterns as plaid; I'm American that way) shirt rage. I even stated that a round up post would be nice. Since I figured that no one else was going to do it (because I am quite tight-fisted with these posts), I decided to take a look back.
None of these are good, some are quite bad, and one team earns WTF status for going to the well at least three times.
This is the best place to start. Yes, Scotland wore a plaid home shirt back in the '90s. I even own one. I pull it out for special occasions. You know--those days where I really don't care what I look like. No, I have no idea why they made the sleeves solid. I guess they were trying to keep away from overkill.
East Fife used plaid as a third jersey. Not too bad, it just looks like a golf pullover.
Kilmarnock also used a plaid pattern. This one looks more like a pair of boxer shorts I had in high school. Plus, I think those are buttons. A pair of suspenders and this shirt is great for a skinhead.
This was St. Johnstone's effort. The listing for this shirt implied it was used for a special occasion. I don't know about that, but I do know that this was from the time when the team manufactured its own shirts. Presumably because it could not find a decent sponsorship deal. It's liveable, considering.
It might be going a little too far to call this a plaid. The colors don't quite interplay correctly and it's terribly plain. Still, I do think Partick Thistle were trying to copy some other teams on the plaid bandwagon, and this is how it turned out. Bloody awful, especially with that sponsor logo.
The most dubious entry of the day, though, is Peterhead's. The rendering of this kit sure does look like it's meant to be plaid, but the one picture I saw, which purports to be from the same year, is definitely not. I will argue that the two shirts have enough differences in sleeve and collar style and color that the linked pic may be from the previous season. I'll put this one in the maybe column.
Raith Rovers get a special commendation for not following the herd. They did not put out their version of a plaid shirt until the new century. A bit dark, but possibly the most wearable of all of these.
But the real winner in the plaid sweepstakes is Greenock Morton (just Morton if you must). For a team that usually wears blue and white hoops, these are just odd.
See these? These are from the same season. The one on top was the home shirt. The second one was the third shirt. In between, a plain yellow shirt sufficed for the away games. My question is: which team could they have possibly played that would clash with both the blue plaid and bright yellow shirts enough to warrant a third shirt that season?
And this is where it got ridiculous. Somewhere along the way, Morton decided that they really missed that plaid home shirt from the '90s and decided that 2005 was the right time to bring back the look. Why, oh why?
While I'm guessing that this list is not definitive, I have not been able to find any other occurrences of Scottish teams wearing plaid. If you know of some, shoot us an answer in the comments or at the email address. Finally, I must thank both Historical Football Kits and Old Football Shirts (and the people who upload there). Without those two sites, This would have been a much shorter post.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
The Good, The Bad, The WTF
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
The Good, The Bad, The WTF
East Fife play their home games at Bayview Stadium in Methil, Scotland. I don't know why it's called Bayview. The view is not so much of a bay, but of an out-of-service power plant. This is the view from the stands
I guess the bay is the part you don't see. Maybe we'll find out when the power plant gets demolished in five year's time.
Anyway, back in 1995-96 East Fife, whose usual colors are black and gold, played in an away strip that is not fondly recalled. It reminds me of the Wang-sponsored Oxford United shirt, but it is uniquely crappy, not a knockoff.
My wife has this thing. She is attuned to all fashion rules, such as when you can wear white pants, open-toed shoes, or corduroy. One of the rules that I think she made up herself is the one that says "don't wear green and red, you'll look like Christmas". East Fife pay no attention to such rules.
And you know what? This shirt does not look like Christmas. The green isn't right. That isn't to say that it looks good. It doesn't, even if red and green are known as complementary colors in art theory (they are). These hues definitely do not complement each other.
A darker green would have made a difference. Kind of exactly like the green around the collar. Then, of course, it would have looked like an oddly-chosen Christmas sweater. Still, that would have been better than this washed-out mess.
What also might have worked was to reduce the amount of green in the shirt. While the stripes are not uniform in width, the number of green to red stripes should have been reversed. Then, at least, the main color would have been strong, rather than this almost-aqua.
Poor Andrew Forrester. No wonder he tried to erase his name off of the shirt.
It should also be noted that East Fife have returned to the same color green for this year's away shirt. Full marks for tradition, but on review, all points deducted for stupidity.
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