As all Eagles fans will testify, the club have in the past never been shy of donning a plethora of superfluous kits throughout a single season (see True Colours Vol 2 for proof of this). This year is no exception, as the club’s recent match against Southampton left the fans scratching their heads when the side ran out sporting a white away shirt that was notably different from their regular white shirt launched at the beginning of the season. It turns out that the Eagles’ white shirt (which also features a large asymmetrical red strip down one side) was deemed by officials to be just too close for comfort to Southampton’s traditional red and white striped jersey. Palace’s solution was to turn to their plain white training shirts and adapt them with names, numbers and Football League badges thereby creating an anomaly and a target for all Palace shirt collectors.
THE FOOTBALL KIT HISTORY SITE
Yeah it was very strange to see Crystal Palace play in a “makeshift” kit on the opening day, even wearing a plain white shirt against Southampton is a touch odd given the latter’s home kit having more white than red to it from what I can see.
In addition I’ve noticed Palace have worn the training shirt away from home even against teams in plain red. I’m sure they have worn the “official” away strip in an FA Cup tie though. I could be wrong.
Of course they’re not the only Erreà sponsored team to have lacked the use of a third kit, I recall Middlesbrough wearing a white kit with dark red sleeves at, ironically, Southampton a few seasons ago which to me looked like a bad case of kit clashing.