By Rory Reynolds
FORMER Scotland keeper Alan Rough held his hands up last night and admitted to selling the jerseys.
But he’s not been caught in the latest sporting shame.
He’s decided the time is right to auction off his prize collection of shirts spanning some of the nation’s greatest games.
Roughie found more than 10 years worth of his own strips that his late dad Robert had kept over the years.
The goalie – who was capped 53 times for Scotland – used to hand over the jerseys to his dad after each game, but forgot about the collection until he was helping his mum clean out her attic.
He said: “What happened is that after every game I used to give the jerseys to my dad.
Forgotten
“He died 15 years ago and I was clearing out my mum’s attic just in November when I found this chest with all of these shirts in it.
“I’d completely forgotten about them, it was out of sight out of mind really.
“But he came to every game for 10 years and you get two jerseys per game, so you can imagine there was a lot.
“There was basically one from every game I played in there.”
After giving many away to friends and charity Alan decided to give avid fans the chance to own some of his dad’s collection.
The 58-year-old, now a Real Radio presenter, said: “I’ve given quite a few away to friends and to charity, and I’ve held onto a few myself.
Memorable
“The ones from the matches with Argentina, Spain and Mexico mean most to me.
“But the most important one that I’m putting forward is from Ray Clemence from 1976.
“That was the game where Kenny Dalglish fired the ball straight between Clemence’s legs to score, and it was a really memorable one for me.
“My dad was a fanatic when it came to supporting Scotland so I think they were all important to him.
“But as far as I’m concerned they weren’t doing any good in there and there’s a lot of collectors out there who would take a lot of pride in adding some of these to their collection.”
The sale, which is to be held at the Royal Highland Showground, in Ingliston, Edinburgh, on May 19, has already had interest from home and abroad.
Fantastic
David Convery, former head of Sporting Memorabilia Department at Christie’s and now owner of Convery Auctions, said: “The catalogue has been out for a week now and we’ve had a lot of interest.
“I collect shirts myself and if I could I would like to add a few of them to my collection.
“The condition of some of them is fantastic and will no doubt take pride of place in somebody’s collection.”
