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The Play Off
Final Home Kit 2002-2004:
The third home kit of Errea's stint
will best be remembered for it's appearance coupled
with blue shorts and socks in that most memorable of
days that was the Division Two play-off final
victory over Bristol City at the Millennium Stadium
in 2004. It of course had some other not so great
moments, such as Martin Hinshelwood's reign in
charge and the 12 game losing streak that
effectively relegated the Albion the season before
that wonderful Cardiff afternoon. The sponsors logo
was frankly horrible given how cool the last one
looked and it was the first kit to feature both
white shorts and socks. |
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The Batman Away Kit
2002-2004:
How did this ever get put into
production? It is pretty horrific to think that
somebody could come up with the idea of putting a
giant seagull on the front of a black kit as it is,
let alone the fact that said seagull ended up
looking like a giant bat. Lasted one season as the
away kit during 2002-03 before being relegated to
third kit status the following year during which
time it was used in just four league games - away at
Blackpool, Swindon, Rushden and Diamonds and QPR.
And it was of course the shirt used for that 5-0
defeat at Selhurst Park. Painful memories all round. |
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The Batman Third Kit 2002-2003:
Identical in design to the away kit,
this third kit at least had the good grace not to be
black and so appeared to be less of a Batman based
theme. The "seagull" still looked bloody ridiculous
however. Lasting just the one season, it was used
for eight games in 2002-03 and had a quite
remarkable record of being used in just one single
victory - the 2-1 success against Reading at the
Madjeski Stadium in front of the Sky television
cameras. It's most fateful hour came when being worn
away at Grimsby Town for the final time as the
Albion were relegated back into Division Two. |
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The Silver
Goalkeeper Kit 2002-2003:
One of the best things about Errea's
work down the years have been their goalkeeping kits
with some wonderful designs showered upon the
multitude of men to wear the gloves for the Albion.
2002-2003 was an absolute abomination however with
the most boring of designs possible used across the
board. The most popular of which was the silver one
seen here modelled by Michel Kuipers. Used both home
and away, it came with black shorts and black socks
and was used by the Former Dutch Marine when he
suffered his career threatening injury away at
Norwich. |
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The
Gold Goalkeeper Kit
2002-2003:
Look familiar? This is the gold
version of the goalkeeping kit which is about as
good as a description as you can get for it.
Generally plain and boring, at least when the
pensioner Dave Beasant pitched up at Withdean he
decided to mix things up a little by combining it
with white socks which sent a ripple through the fan
base such was the controversy of the decision. This
particular number lasted another season, being used
at the start of 2003-04 by Ben Roberts until a new
batch of far more interesting kits turned up a few
weeks into the campaign. |
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The White Goalkeeper
Kit
2002-2003:
So we already have the silver
goalkeeping kit, as seen above. What, then, was the
point in bringing out a white version of it? White
and silver are about as close as two colours as you
get so the logic behind this one was frankly
baffling. It was however the favoured choice of Andy
"Stumble" Petterson which makes it ok in our books.
Just like it's gold cousin, it also made it into the
2003-04 season for a couple of outings, most notably
in the season opener at Oldham Athletic with Ben
Roberts wearing white shorts and socks with it to
look like some sort of religious fanatic. |
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The Green Goalkeepers Kit
2002-2003:
The emerald green goalkeepers kit
fulfilled the role of fourth choice during it's one
season of use in 2002-2003. And it is not hard to
see why it remained pretty unfavoured by the
Withdean custodians with it's list of matches
including that 5-0 game at Palace and the calamitous
home defeat to Grimsby Town early on in the season.
It was a bit of a shame actually as this is probably
our favourite one of the four just because it is
hard for somebody wearing such a vivid shade of
green to look boring. Particularly when that man is
Michel Kuipers. |
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The
All Yellow
Away Kit 2003-2005:
For many people, the traditional away
colours of Brighton and Hove Albion are yellow and
so this was a return to the past as the first yellow
away kit in six years. The badge was dispensed with
in favour of a seagull that looked like it had
stolen too many chips from locals on the promenade
and was as a result rather podgy. It was also a
nightmare to clean with many reports of said Seagull
turning brown after too many times through the
washing machine. It lasted two seasons and
introduced the longest serving Skint logo. Had
several memorable outings, chiefly in the FA Cup
away at Tottenham in 2005. |
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The
Play Off
Final Goalkeepers Kit 2003-2004:
This was more like it. Following on
from the terribly plain efforts of the previous
season, we got a set of goalkeepers kits with a bit
more colour to them for the play off season. Ben
Roberts' preferred number was this green one with
black down the sleeves and under the arms and a
white trim. Worn with black shorts and socks, it
famously stopped that Tommy Mooney penalty in the
play off semi final against Swindon before going
onto keep a clean sheet in the final itself. So
popular it was even used at the start of the
following campaign in the Championship. |
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The
Gold and
Black Goalkeepers Kit 2003-2004:
The gold and black version of the
2003-2004 goalkeepers kit was mainly used at
Withdean in the middle part of the campaign once the
previous years boring numbers had been dispensed
with. It was exactly the same design as the other
three although a little plainer, featuring just two
relatively boring colours in the form of gold and
black. Another shirt that carried forward into the
following season, it played a key role in the play
off winning campaign being used in Ben Roberts'
remarkable run of seven clean sheets in the final
eight games of the campaign. |
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The
Silver and
Ruby Goalkeepers Kit 2003-2004:
One of the best goalkeepers kits
Errea produced in their early years working as the
Albion's technical partner. The idea of combining
silver and ruby red would have been frowned upon by
a lot of fashionistas out there but thankfully they
didn't listen to the critics, producing this
wonderful number. While black was the name of the
game for the shorts and socks for the other keeper
kits of the era, this one used navy blue to match
the lettering of the Skint sponsorship deal.
Criminally underused for our money in favour of the
less flair gold and green numbers. |
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The
Sky and Navy
Goalkeepers Kit 2003-2004:
Errea liked mixing their differing
shades of blue and this was no different. A sky blue
shirt featuring navy blue panelling with navy blue
shorts and socks was a nice break from the norm and
allows us to mention 50 Shades of Blue again for the
purposes of picking up randy women from Google. As
the poor photo we had to settle for indicates, (Ben
Roberts saving a penalty at Tranmere, if you are
wondering) this was another kit that was hardly
worn, only being able to appear when we faced a team
away from home who wore all white. |
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The
Argentina
Home Kit 2004-2006:
There is only so much you can do in
terms of designing a blue and white striped kit. So
in order to radicalise things a bit, the kit used
for our two season stay in the Championship under
Mark McGhee had the traditional shade of blue
changed in favour of a lighter shade. This made the
Albion look like Argentina or Huddersfield Town.
Unfortunately, they played more like the latter. The
stripes didn't run all the way to the bottom of the
shirt either with a huge white gap being left making
it appear as though the designer couldn't be
bothered to complete it. |
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The Christmas Tree Goalkeeper Kit 2004-2005:
Brace yourselves, 2004-2005 was an
absolutely ridiculous season for the number of
goalkeeper kits used. This was the favoured one, an
all dark green number with black under the sleeves.
There was a lot of variety this season with the kit
being worn with black shorts and socks and then with
green shorts and white socks on other occasions.
Four versions of the outfit existed, although we
have been unable to find a copy of the gold one
which is a shame as that was arguably the best of
the lot. It was this green number that was worn by
Chris May on his only first team appearance. |
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The All Red Goalkeeper Kit 2004-2005:
The first proper red goalkeepers kit
in Brighton and Hove Albion history lasted just the
one season for 2004-2005. Strictly used away from
home, it was a big favourite of Rami Shaaban during
his brief spell at Withdean as well as being
frequently worn by Michel Kuipers prior to his
season ending injury of January 2004. This
particular number had a plethora of short and sock
options to go with it, with black shorts and socks,
red shorts and black socks and red shorts and white
socks all being mixed and matched. You just never
knew what you were going to get. |
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The Coventry City Goalkeeper Kit 2004-2005:
Another blue goalkeepers kit, another
one that could hardly ever be worn due to the fact
Brighton and Hove Albion play in blue. This was in
fairness probably the best of the lot when it came
to blue, resembling a Coventry City kit in both
colour and design with sky blue shirt and navy blue
under the arms. It was often worn with blue shorts
and white socks or as seen here away at Nottingham
Forest with navy shorts and socks. Most memorably
worn away at Spurs, it's outings were restricted to
away games against teams who didn't wear blue when
Brighton wore their away kit. Hardly ever, then. |
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The
Palookaville
Third Kit 2004-2006:
Not many football clubs can have
introduced a special kit to promote a music album,
but that is exactly what the Albion did in October
2004. Originally intended as a one-off, the
Palookaville kit was worn at home against Sheffield
United with Withdean being rechristened Palookaville
for the day to promote Fatboy Slim's latest
offerings. It proved to be an extremely popular
number and subsequently lasted a lot longer than one
home game, becoming the third kit for both 2004-05
and 2005-06. It's skin tight material was however
less flattering on some of the larger among the
Seagulls fanbase. |
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The Green Palookaville Goalkeeper Kit 2004-2005:
Four standard goalkeepers kits for
the season not enough? Didn't think so, hence the
decision to introduce three more with the
Palookaville special edition kit. The first of which
was the most regularly worn, a green shirt wirh
white sleeves and black trim. It could go with any
number of combinations, including the black shorts
and white socks shown here against Sheffield United
or green shorts and white socks as was worn away at
Sunderland a few weeks later. Made of the same tight
fitting material as it's outfield brother, it looked
particularly good on Michel's muscley torso. |
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The White Palookaville Goalkeeper Kit 2004:
This one caused chaos when the
pictures of it were released, with many people
suspecting that it was in fact a fourth outfield kit
of the season. No, it was just a totally unneeded
goalkeepers jersey. Worn with black shorts and white
socks, it was used a grand total of twice with one
of those being in the performance that pretty much
summed up the Mark McGhee era, that 1-0 win away at
West Ham United. Again made of the figure hugging
material, it was a popular buy for fans who wanted
to show off their muscles despite hardly ever being
used. |
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The David Yelldell Pink Goalkeeper Kit 2005:
This kit was never meant to be worn
in a competitive game. A handful of fans managed to
buy it, but in 2005 wearing pink was still
considered an incredibly gay thing to do. Especially
somewhere as backwards as in Leeds. So when the
Albion went to Elland Road and the referee changed
into yellow at half time, it was a disaster waiting
to happen. David Yelldell, on his debut, faced the
prospect of 45 minutes in front of the home support
in the pink shirt. The abuse was something else but
the young loanee put on the performance of his life
in a 1-1 draw. The pink shirt was disappointingly
never seen again. |
