On Tuesday 12th September Scotland will host England at Hampden Park in the 150th Anniversary Heritage Match to mark the first meeting between the two sides in 1872. This is part of the year of events from the Scottish FA to celebrate the history of the association.

The original match is recognised by FIFA as football’s first-ever international match, at The West of Scotland Cricket Club in Glasgow, in front of a crowd of 4000 People.

The kits of the first match set the tone of majority of the 115 meetings between the two nations with Scotland in dark blue shirts. (however, not the origin of the blue Scotland shirt) and England wore white shirts. England wore caps, while the Scots wore red cowls.

When you think of England v Scotland in terms of kits the traditional look is often considered as the following…

However….

As part of the qualification of the 2018 World Cup, Scotland and England were drawn together in Group F and the Kit Designs of that time from Nike (England) and Adidas (Scotland) were the following…

Scotland’s Primary Kit was paired with white sleeves and navy socks, with England’s Primary Kit having “Sky Blue” sleeves and Red socks… and created what was considered to be a sleeve clash between the two kits

So when the two teams met in their group games, secondary kits were used by the Away Country to give a new look for both games of this most historic of International fixtures…

On 11th November 2016, the match at Wembley (3-0 to England) gave us Scotland in their Pink Secondary Kit, with Black Shorts and Socks…

The return fixture at Hampden Park on June 10th 2017 (finishing 2-2), saw England in their secondary kit paired with Red Home socks to give an all red look for The Three Lions.

Both fixtures proved controversial in terms of kits, traditionalists on both sides expressed their disappointment on the choice of kits of the countries, however given the kit guidelines of the time there was no option for the primary kits to be used in this campaign.

An “honourable” mention to when the two countries met in Group D of Euro 2020 at Wembley on 18th June 2021, in the goal-less draw the teams wore just a single colour each, with England in All White and Scotland in All Navy, this due to the default Scotland look being all Navy at this Tournament, but those complaining at what happened in 2016/17 should take comfort in the fact that both nations wear in their Primary Shirt Colours.

For the match on Tuesday 12th September 2023, Scotland will wear their special 150th Anniversary Kit which was first worn in the Euro 2024 qualifying match against Cyprus on 25th March 2023, this will be the second and final appearence of this quite wonderful kit.

England, although wearing their current default Primary Kit from Nike for the actual match, they will be wear a one-off Pre-Match Shirt containing the National Crest worn in 1872…. many fans commenting that should this kit be worn in the actual game… I will let you decide your opionion on that one!

There we have it, England v Scotland, not looking like England v Scotland, let me know your thoughts in the comments below and of course all shares of this post are appreciated.