This shirt was part of England's first ever change kit, worn against
Germany at White Hart Lane, Tottenham.
The tradition was for the home team to change
colours when entertaining a touring team with the same colour shirts, so whenever England visited Austria and Germany earlier
in the century, it was their hosts who switched from their usual
white shirts.
St. Blaize made the shirt and it was accompanied
by white shorts and the same black socks, with two white hoops across the
tops and a thick white calf band, worn with the first-choice white shirts.
The first two photos from the left, above,
are of the shirt worn by a 20-year-old Sir Stanley Matthews, on only his
third international appearance. It is reproduced here by kind permission
from
the Neville Evans National Football Shirt
Collection (curator: Simon Shakeshaft). The other shirt was worn by
George Male and includes one of the multi-coloured caps awarded to each
player. |