My Aldershot Football Club Shirt Collection – Mike Scott
Mike first went to an Aldershot Town FC game in the 80s and has followed them through many ups and downs including a liquidation and rebirth as Aldershot Town FC. His collection is made up of both clubs shirts with jerseys dating back to the season he began following The Shots.
Why Aldershot shirts?
I grew up in Alton in Hampshire and Aldershot were the closest football league team to me, the first game I attended was in 1986 with my older brother Martin, when we lost 2-0 at home to Tranmere. The season did, however, turn out to be a success, we went up via the first ever Play-Offs with victories over Bolton and Wolves which took us up to the third tier. I am now lucky enough to own a shirt worn against Wolves from that Play-Off final at The Molineux.
How many shirts do you have in your collection?
From Aldershot FC, I have 6 home shirts and 4 away ones dating from 1986 to 1992, when the club was sadly wound-up in the High Court. Since the reformation of Aldershot Town in ‘92 I have collected 24 home tops, 20 away shirts and 10 3rd kit, club anniversary editions, goalkeeper tops and promotion final special shirts. In total, I am approaching 70 items which range from club shop purchased replica shirts, player-worn match-day shirts and full-squad signed home shirts after match sponsoring various games through my own courier company, Scott 2 Go Ltd.
What was your first shirt and when did you buy it?
The first shirts I owned were from that very first season of supporting in 1986-87 and actually have both a plain one and a shirt with the club sponsor on from the time.
What is your favourite shirt and why is it so special?
There are a couple, simply for sentimental reasons. The TAGarages-sponsored shirts from my first season of supporting in 1986 are great to have and similarly the first shirts from Aldershot Town in 1992 are hugely important as I know how wonderful and vital it was to re-establish the club back then, along with all the fantastic memories from that first season in particular.
The range of shirts that I thought were excellent for the club, and popular with the fans, were the Datrontech-sponsored ones from the 1993-95 seasons. With the red-and-blue-striped home shirt, the light blue-and-white-striped ‘Argentina’ away shirt and the green-and-black-striped third kit, these three were actually amongst those that I managed not to lose through the years of various house moves and growing up.
I would say that the rarest one of my collection to date is that of a player-worn away shirt from the 1991-92 season. This was the last season of Aldershot FC and actually this shirt was worn in the very last game played by the club away to Cardiff City at Ninian Park before the club were removed from the League a few days later.
What is the shirt you would like most in your collection?
My overall aim is to collect EVERY single shirt from when I first started supporting in 1986 to the present day, unfortunately several from the last couple of seasons of Aldershot FC are proving tough to track down but I do have images of them so I know they are out there somewhere. The four shirts above would actually complete my quest which started a few years ago after a friend of mine, who also began supporting The Shots with me in 1986, showed me the shirts he had collected over the years and it inspired me to try and beat him to finding them all.
It was quite unique at the time for the club to be sponsored by LADA and i recall the club shop selling patches for £2.50 with the name on should you wish to sew it onto your existing plain replica shirt!
Do you have any other interesting stories?
In order to aid my collection and, with assistance from the club itself, I set up an idea to raise funds for the Boost the Budget scheme for then manager, Gary Waddock. The idea was to ask fellow supporters if they had any shirts that they had and were willing to give to me. In return, we agreed on a fee was donated to the club. After good publicity, an online auction and in respect of the shirts kindly donated and received, I was able to present a cheque to the football club in February 2018 for £1650. Not all shirts I have to date were secured this way and it has cost me a pretty penny over the years getting to this stage and so close to completing my challenge!
It was quite unique at the time for the club to be sponsored by LADA and i recall the club shop selling patches for £2.50 with the name on should you wish to sew it onto your existing plain replica shirt!
Maybe in the future, and when in a bigger house, I will have the opportunity to have an Aldershot-inspired room all to myself!. The football club is a huge part of my life and I want it to be the same for my children. In particular, I would love to pass this whole collection to my little boy when the time comes and for him to really understand what they and the club as a whole means to his Dad.
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