WITH football fans across Newport bracing themselves for the FA Cup clash with the Premier League champions this weekend, one fan has unearthed a throwback to the last time the sides met.
Andrew Davies, 35, is the proud owner of a Newport County shirt which was worn by Keith Oakes against Manchester City in 1982.
The shirt formed part of a kit specially commissioned for the game arranged as a testimonial to legendary manager Len Ashurst.
Only 16 kits were produced, and Mr Davies has been searching for others who may have a piece of footballing history hidden away in their home.
“I appealed in the Argus back in 2013 for any other surviving shirts from this rare batch but no one came forward,” he said.
“Perhaps a more high-profile game could jog people's memories.”
Mr Davies, who runs his own engineering and Surveying company, came across the kit as a child.
His father, Brian Davies, was loaned the kit for his Cross Hands Pub football team. The kits were subsequently left inside a car which caught fire.
“My dad managed to rescue this one and he thinks some others may have survived the blaze,” said Mr Davies.
“It would possibly make it the rarest Newport County shirt I know of.”
That would be saying something, as Mr Davies has made it his life’s work to compile a collection of football kits from around the world.
Sparked by his discovery of the 1982 Newport County shirt, he has now amassed a hoard of nearly 1,000 shirts.
“The pride of my collection are my Wales and County shirts,” he said.
“I’d love to see the lot in a museum one day alongside shirts from other collectors. It would make a great exhibition.”
For the game on Saturday, Mr Davies has said that most of his preparation will involve deciding on which shirt to wear in order to bring Newport County AFC luck against Manchester City.
“I always spend hours picking a shirt for County games, it baffles my wife,” he said.
“It will be a toss-up between the shirt Dave Bruton wore away to Carl Zeiss Jena in the 1981 European Cup Winners Cup quarter final, my match-worn Robbie Willmott shirt from 2012/13 or the last ever shirt from Newport County’s "Ironsides" era.”
He admitted that although he has a soft spot for 90s kits, the “Ironsides” shirt “certainly did the trick against Middlesbrough”.
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