Although I’m not Scottish and have no Scottish connections I do look back at the Scottish teams of the late 1970′s and 1980′s with some fondness. Although Scotland never achieved all they should have done with the players at their disposal during this period, it was still a great period for Scottish football. With players such as Graeme Souness, Kenny Dalglish, Alan Brazil, Joe Jordan and Archie Gemmill it was a time when Scotland felt they could go and conquer the world.

It was a tough choice between the 1978 shirt, the 1982 shirt and the 1986 shirt. In the end I plumped for the 1982 kit because after going out in the group stages of the 1978 World Cup (despite huge expectations that Ali’s Army were going to win the cup) and failing to qualify for the 1980 European Championships in Italy, Scotland were able to return to form and qualify for their thrid consecutive World Cup.

Again, Scotland didn’t qualify from the group stages but at least they were there and only narrowly missed out on qualification by goal difference. And considering they were in a group containing a Brazil team made up of Sócrates, Zico and Falcão as well as a Soviet Union team boasting Oleg Blokhin, the boys from Scotland could still hold their heads high.

The kit itself is what I would describe as classically simple, with the V-neck collar that makes up the quintessential 1980′s football strip. So whilst the kit itself may not have been at the cutting edge of design, the fact it was worn by so many greats whilst representing their nation at home and abroad makes it an all time great.