Comments on: Mix and Mismatch – by Denis Hurley

By: antony "tony" spike

antony "tony" spike — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 09:21:12 +0000

i created edlington united when i was younger ……but unlike yours my team was made up of me (star forward #11) and my freinds ………i also drew kits for them and seeing your article made me dig them out ………it seems that even at the age of 8 i wasnt new to the mix and match theory ……..

we played in blue and white stripes with black shorts and socks for the home …….i also created blue alternates

our away was all white with blue trim (and could be worn with the alt blue shorts/socks of the home ………just as the home could be worn with the white of the away)

our third was a wednesday inspired gold and purple …..no colour mixing on this kit but the gold did look rather fetching with the home black shorts now i come to think of it lol

By: Denis Hurley

Denis Hurley — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 01:02:09 +0000

The thing is, from a distance that mightn’t have looked that terrible, given that the socks had vast amounts of navy too!

By: Stein

Stein — Sat, 07 May 2011 07:39:42 +0000

I have found this b/w picture showing that Arsenal wore what appears to be navy shorts with their home kit. The picture is taken from an away game at Goodison in 1982.

If this was the standard away short for the season, it would have had green trim along the side – slight clash of colors there..

http://www.sporting-heroes.net/football-heroes/displayhero_club.asp?HeroID=42661

By: John Devlin

John Devlin — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:38:48 +0000

Hello Jon – the link is broken – any chance of reposting please?

By: Jon

Jon — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 01:38:25 +0000

I’ve managed to find a black and white photograph of Arsenal wearing RED SHORTS with the home kit in the 70’s

http://cache1.asset-cache.net/xc/95689644.jpg?v=1&c=NewsMaker&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF878921A343B2C87A49D8F566A7EDE4168AB015997DD173C92BE9FF308494AE20C76AA9

Very rare!

By: Andrew Lees

Andrew Lees — Fri, 14 May 2010 16:36:33 +0000

It’s widely known that Arsenal only ever wear white shorts with their red/white home kit but I distinctly remember a night game at St.Andrew’s in the early eighties when they wore black shorts with a green trim with the standard shirt.Their away kit at the time was green shirts with the aforementioned shorts.Looked awful by the way !

By: Andrew Rockall

Andrew Rockall — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:24:57 +0000

Thinking back to Chelsea in the seventies and eighties they caused a few teams to wear away socks with home shirts and shirts due to the white socks. Remember Leeds with red socks in the 1970 cup final at Wembley, then Chelsea switched to yellow socks for the replay (in fact to a different home shirt and shorts with yellow trim). Also an FA Cup tie against Spurs in 1982 where Spurs wore yellow socks (and white shorts)

By: John Devlin

John Devlin — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:02:43 +0000

I don’t remember Liverpool wearing white shorts with the home shirt this season Matt – what game was it in? Interesting points by the way – cheers.

Denis is right, Arsenal did wear red several times in the 70s although as you point out Matt, they always stick with white shorts now and would rather play in their away kit then change them.

By: Denis Hurley

Denis Hurley — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:18:33 +0000

Hi Matt,

Arsenal did wear red shorts with the home kit on a few occasions in the 70s.

To respond to your comment, you have hit the nail on the head with what I was trying to say – in situations like that, clubs often end up with more than one set of shorts or socks which are the same colour, which is madness in my view.

I’m not sure you’re right about Liverpool wearing white shorts with their home kit though?

By: Matt B

Matt B — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:39:30 +0000

I agree with the mixing and matching as an ideal. As an Everton fan, I was amazed that in recent years we have had two sets of home and away shorts because the kits are not compatible. Whether our away kit was yellow with blue trim, or white with blue trim, either way blue shorts could have been included that would have in turn been the home change shorts.

And talking of home change shorts brings me nicely back to Arsenal. They don’t have any. Are Arsenal the only team who only ever wear one pair of shorts with their home shirt? I would have included Liverpool up to this year where they wore red shirts and white shorts for one game. But arsenal always wear white shorts when they play at Goodison park and we always wear blue shorts when we go to Arsenal?

Regardless, I believe that Arsenal have never worn red shorts? Rather odd really. Their kits in their centenary year when they wore maroon were interchangeable, and they did swap more, but I guess the fact they have a fair bit of white on their home shirt stops them going for a simple away design of reverse colours.

Man Utd are one of my favourites for swapping items between kits as they seem to always have worn black shorts as a change. This again might be fairly unique in that their change home shorts are not the same colour as their shirt. Most other clubs with white shorts have change shorts that are the same colour as their shirts. But having black change shorts lends almost infinite possibilities to having an away kit that can be interchanged with the home one.

Kidderminster Harriers had the same system for one year where they wore black shorts if their white ones clashed, the following season they decided they liked the black shorts and actually wore them as the home shorts for the next season keeping the same shirts!