By Mark HeathTHE shirt that Ipswich Town FA Cup hero Roger Osborne was wearing when he scored the winning goal in 1978 has raised £5,100 for charity.

By Mark Heath

THE shirt that Ipswich Town FA Cup hero Roger Osborne was wearing when he scored the winning goal in 1978 has raised £5,100 for charity.

Life-long Blues fan Andrew Hill beat off competition from other die-hard supporters to secure the prized shirt with his only bid in the month-long auction for breast cancer charity Breakthrough.

He will now take delivery of the historic shirt, which has hung in Ipswich Town's boardroom since the famous 1-0 victory against Arsenal at Wembley almost 26 years ago.

Mr Hill, who is known as Billy, said last night: “I am extremely excited about this - I never expected to win it.

“I'm going to get the shirt nicely framed, hopefully with a programme from the game, and it will take pride of place in my front room.”

The 29-year-old, who is originally from Brockley, near Bury St Edmunds, works as a currency trader for a German bank and lives in Frankfurt.

But he saw the auction in the East Anglian Daily Times while on a trip to England and was determined to get hold of the historic shirt.

“That was probably the only time we are ever going to reach the FA Cup Final. The shirt is the epitome of that era and the quality teams we had at the time,” he added.

“I could not believe it was up for auction - I saw it as a once-in-a lifetime chance to get hold of a piece of Town history and I had to go for it.”

Mr Hill, a season ticket holder in the North Stand, who lists Dalian Atkinson and Mauricio Taricco as his favourite Town players, said he had been a Blues fan for “as long as I can remember”.

He added: “Because the auction was for charity, I was quite prepared to bid a little bit more than I would normally have done because it was all for a good cause. The shirt is worth every penny of the money, without a doubt.”

Mr Osborne, 53, said he was delighted that the shirt had raised such an impressive four-figure sum.

“I'm surprised, I never thought it would go for that much. I thought it might make £2,000, but this is more than I ever imagined,” he added.

“It's all well and good, though, because it all goes to a very good cause and I'm very happy and pleased that it's done as well as it has.

“I won't really be sad to see the shirt go - I'm sure it will be appreciated and I'm happy with that.”

mark.heath@eadt.co.uk