
This day 35 years ago saw the Republic of Ireland play their first game at a major tournament.
In one of those coincidences that football likes to throw up, their Euro 88 opener was against England – the country where a lot of the Ireland squad played their football, the country where some of the team were born and the country for whom manager Jack Charlton had won the World Cup in 1966.


Ireland had signed a deal with adidas in 1986, coinciding with Charlton’s arrival as manager, and this was the second home strip produced for them by the German firm. Orange trim was added to the neck and cuffs while there were two hoops around the arms.
One curiosity with the kit was the fact that a mix-up around the rules regarding makers’ logos on socks meant that they were devoid of the three-stripe marking that other adidas countries had at the competition.


England hadn’t launched a new kit for the 1986 World Cup – instead, they wore a modified version of their 1984 shirts – and the introduction of the next home strip in 1987 knocked them out of kilter with international tournaments until 2012.
A smart kit, the navy and red trim was restricted to ends of the sleeves while the grandad collar was very nice. The contrasting waistband on the shorts was ahead of its time.
While the England outfield kit wasn’t new, it was intended for a goalkeeper strip to be premiered. However, as relayed by Peter Shilton in his autobiography, there was a last-minute hitch:
England kitman Fred Street came to my room.
‘Peter, you’d better come and take a look at this,’ he said. I accompanied Fred to the kit room and when he produced the jersey I was assigned to wear against Ireland, my eyes nearly popped. The jersey Fred held up was predominantly green with black and yellow zigzags.
‘What on earth is that?’ I demanded.
‘The new England goalkeeping strip.’ replied Fred. I usually wore a grey top with blue shorts and socks. The strip, which I liked, had been introduced for the 1986 World Cup and I felt very comfortable wearing it.
I took one look at this zigzag strip and told Fred, ‘You’re joking. I’m not wearing that. It’s ridiculous.’
He told me that this new green shirt with black shorts and socks was the only goalkeeper’s strip that had been packed for the tournament.
‘I can’t wear it,’ I said.
‘You’ll have to,’ said Fred.
‘Nobody has thought this through,’ I went on.
‘How do you mean?’
‘I can’t wear a green top. Ireland play in green!’


I couldn’t believe we had arrived for a major international tournament and the FA had changed the goalkeeper’s top without asking if I would be happy wearing it – and without bringing an alternative strip. Fred went to see the England physiotherapist, Norman Meadows, to explain the problem. Norman brought out an old grey England jersey which had been packed somewhere, for use in training.
You will have gathered by now that I was meticulous in my preparation for games. Even as a schoolboy, I had taken great care that my kit was immaculate, even going as far as to wash and iron my bootlaces. For England’s opening match of the 1988 European Championship finals, I walked out at the Stuttgart stadium, ready to face the Republic of Ireland, wearing and old, faded grey goalkeeper’s training top, black shorts and socks. It felt very unprofessional.
While a blue version of the zigzag kit is often referred to as being worn at Euro 88, it was in fact not seen until 1989. The grey kit would get one further outing in October 1988 in the World Cup qualifier at home to Sweden.

Numbers-wise, Ireland marked their first match at a finals by lining out 1-11.
Ray Houghton, who scored the only goal, wore 8 on the right wing with John Aldridge wearing 9 – the opposite to what they had had for Liverpool in the previous title-winning season.

That meant that Paul McGrath wore 7 in central midfield and England’s number 7 was also in that area – captain Bryan Robson. Centre-back Mark Wright and winger Chris Waddle were the only England players with numbers above 11.
Wright’s partner at centre-back, Tony Adams, wore number 6 for the tournament, as he did for Arsenal and as he had done in eight of his previous 11 caps. Still only 21, Adams endured a tough tournament and, while he did play three games for England in the autumn, he then spent two years without winning a senior cap.
His only two caps in the Euro 92 qualifiers came against Ireland – on each occasion, England played a five-man defence and Adams wore number 4. He became a regular in the team again in the autumn of 1992 – with Gary Pallister having taken the number 6 by this stage, Adams donned number 5.
He earned 46 more caps and wore 5 in 44 of them, with the only exceptions being Greece and Norway in the space of six days in May 1994, when his Arsenal defensive partner Steve Bould wore 5 and Adams reverted to 6.