Kit review - 2001/2002

 

Peo instructed the French company to come up with classic looking design for the home shirt, and they came back with images of three jerseys, all featuring a black v-neck collar, but each with varying amounts of black on them. The first had black arms and underarms, the second was nearly all amber but for the collar and some trim, and the third was a striped affair. The chairman’s preference was for the all amber shirt, he’d seen pictures of City in a plain amber shirt with a black v-neck from the 1950s and he wanted an updated version of that look. Users of the club's new official website were polled and though the striped shirts garnered many votes, more people concurred with the chairman, and plain amber shirts it would be. 

Patrick's three designs as shown on the clubs official website

Patrick didn't disappoint, their kit (as seen above left on Mark Greaves) was beautiful, and certainly classic looking. The shirt featured a needle cord effect with alternating amber/gold weaves that made the shirt glisten in the sun or under floodlights and a thick, black v-neck collar. Under the arms an amber side panel was book-ended by thin black piping. The shirts short sleeves were ended with a near atom thin rigid ring of black whereas the the long sleeved versions had thick black elasticated cuffs.

This kit’s shorts were black with two amber piping lines on each side, set at the same width as the black piping on the shirt underarms, though the pre-season campaign was played with City wearing plain black shorts with a white Patrick logo on the right side (as seen above right on whale slaying Faroe Islander Julian Johnsson) until the proper shorts were produced. The accompanying socks were amber with two thin black hoops below the word ‘Patrick’ on the foldover bands. This was a lovely kit, one that should be associated with a promotion season, instead it evokes memories of a year where we blew it after looking dead certs to go up.

The amber shorts (as seen on the foppish Lawrie Dudfield, above right) were first called into action away to Lincoln in November 2001 and were used again later that month at Luton. Lacking the contrast that black shorts provided, the all amber kit looked a bit washed out, the shirt certainly didn’t stand out as much as when worn at home.

It's odd that the ref at Darlo found the silver and navy away kit (worn, below left, by Theo Whitmore) unacceptable when at Derby County two months prior, the ref was happy for us to play out our Worthington Cup tie at Pride Park in that kit despite both Darlo and Derby both wearing white and black kits.

The away shirt was effectively the same design as the home jersey, but was less structured and looser fitting and didn't feature the needle cord weave. The matte silver shirt had a navy v-neck and the side panel under the arms was dark blue too. The shorts were navy with thick silver bands on both sides contrasting the shirts underarm panels and the kit was finished off with navy socks with silver hoops and the 'Patrick' logotype.

A silver set of shorts (evidently ordered at the same time as the amber pants) were used once only, at Oxford when the silver shirts and shorts were allied to amber socks. Not pretty (as Neil Mann, above right, playing for Hull City Staff v. a fans XI illustrates).

The rather chunky Sportcard logo was italicised on the City shirts to make it fit better. The updated City crest appeared on the shirts and shorts inside a larger shield, the colour around the City crest inside the outer shield mimicked that of the shirt itself, so amber for the home shirts, silver for away and green for the keeper jersey.

Les Motherby