|
End of an Errea Part Five - 2011-2014
Errea
have made their last Brighton and Hove Albion kit after 15
long years
with the club naming Nike as their "technical partner" from
the start of the 2014/15 season.
The
Italian company proved to be popular with fans having
produced some of the best kits in the clubs history as well
as being around for some of the most successful times,
particularly with the move to The Amex.
In
this mammoth five part series (presuming we don't get bored
and give up after three), WeAreBrighton.com takes a look
back at every shirt worn by the Albion that Errea came up
with.
Part
Five means that, against all odds, we haven't given up after
three and have made it through the final instalment,
containing all the kits worn since the move to The Amex.
Thanks for the memories, Errea.
|
The First
Game at the Amex Kit 2011:
What better way to celebrate the
first game at a stadium you have waited 14 years for
than a special edition kit. This one was available
to purchase by fans and even came in it's own
commemorative box which was a nice touch to ramp the
price up. Simplistic in it's design, it featured
blue and white stripes, white sleeves, white shorts
and blue socks. The red numbers on the back and lack
of sponsorship all added to the feel of a kit
straight from the glory days of the 1970s which was
rather apt for it's only use to come on that
glorious day when The Amex opened for the first time
for a first team game against Spurs |
|
The First Game at Amex Goalkeeper
Kit 2011:
Alongside that special edition kit
for the first game at The Amex came a goalkeepers
number as well. Taking it's lead from the outfield
players kit, it too harked back to a bygone era
which made it slightly disappointing that Casper
Ankergren and Peter Brezovan didn't play the game
minus goalkeeping gloves and while wearing flat
caps. The gold inscription marking the significance
of the occasion stood out far more on this little
number than on its stripey cousin, as did Sexy
Pete's goalkeeping while wearing it after gifting
the winner to Jake Livermore with some typically
questionable goalkeeping. |
|
The First Amex Home Kit 2011-2013:
Statistically, this was the most
successful home kit in 30 seasons if you take into
account the league position it led the Albion two of
fourth in the second tier. It will of course forever
be associated with moments like hammering Palace at
home, Vicente conducting an orchestra of flair and
THAT game against Doncaster. It reverted to the
classic 1990's look of blue and white stripes, blue
shorts and white socks with the modern day addition
of a smidgen of gold trim and was the first (and
only) kit to be sponsored Brightonandhovejobs.com. |
|
The Green and Black Away
Kit 2011-2013:
First impressions were that this kit
was bloody horrible and resembled somebody who had
drunk too much Red Bull being violently sick onto a
black t-shirt. But if anything proves that you
should give something new time to grow on you, this
was shirt was it as it proved to be one of the more
popular away kits of the Errea era. Lime green and
black stripes, black shorts and lime green socks was
a bold and surprisingly successful mixture that also
worked well with alternative lime green shorts and
black socks when the occasion called for it. |
|
The Lime Green Goalkeeper
Kit 2011-2013:
The first goalkeeper kits of The Amex
did what few of the predecessors managed and
survived for two seasons. Somebody in the costume
department at Errea must have been going through a
serious fetish for lime green at this stage in their
design careers as not only was the away kit reliant
on that colour but the first choice goalkeepers
shirt was based around it entirely. It featured a
blue and white hoop around the midriff for the
sponsors logo and was teemed delightfully with navy
shorts and rather out of the blue, blue socks that
didn't seem to match the kit in any way. |
|
The Gold Goalkeepers Kit 2011-2013:
A lime green goalkeepers kit could
obviously not be worn with a lime green away kit and
so this gold little number came into being for the
alternative goalkeepers kit. Used in conjunction
with the away kit, it also made the odd appearance
at home when we faced a side who happened to wear
green. Exactly the same in design as the home
effort, it too featured the blue and white hoop
around the middle although this time the sponsor was
in a white box. It was also worn effortlessly with
navy blue shorts and again those out of place blue
socks. |
|
The
White Goalkeepers Kit
2011-2013:
Of course, two completely different
goalkeepers kits is never enough and so we needed a
third one. And it was a return to white for the
first time since the glorious days of 2009-10 and
the Graeme Smith reign. The blue and white hoop was
replaced with a black and - you've guessed it - lime
green number with black shorts and those blue socks
being paired together. This kit didn't have the
finest of records, with Steve Harper wearing it in a
3-0 defeat at Southampton and David Gonzalez keeping
a clean sheet in the most boring game in history on
the last day of 2011-12 away at Barnsley. |
|
The
American
Express Home Kit 2013-2014:
Errea's final foray into the world of
the Brighton and Hove Albion home kit bought us this
little number. Featuring the most white in a good
few years, it infact only had two blue stripes on
the main part down the front and white sleeves with
one thin blue stripe along the top. Blue shorts and
white socks remained in place while the well thought
out plan of having yellow names and numbers on blue
and white on the back of the shirt left many fans
scratching their heads as to who was who -
particularly from the West and East Upper - due to
the fact it was completely unreadable. |
|
The
Yellow Pin Stripe Away Kit 2013-2014:
Yellow has long been seen as the
traditional away colours of the Albion and so it
seems apt that Errea signed off with a return to
yellow for their final change strip. It was the
first time the colour had been used in five years
and as opposed to the normal deal of it being the
colour of the shirts, shorts and socks we were
treated to navy blue shorts. The shirt featured navy
blue pin stripes as well which represented yet
another stylish effort from the Italian suppliers.
And as became the case in their final years, it also
had it's own alternative shorts and socks of yellow
and navy respectively. |
|
The
All Green
Goalkeepers Kit 2013-2014:
With goalkeepers kits of all one
colour having been the rage for some time, it
incredibly took until their final season for Errea
to get into the game and provide three for Brighton.
The first choice among those was an emerald kind of
shade of green that was used for home matches. The
bizaarre design of a black colour complete with a
white trim made it appear as if it was one of those
fancy zip up cycling tops but alas no such
technology was present for Tomasz Kuszczak, Capser
Ankergren and Peter Brezovan to exploit on this kit. |
|
The All Red
Goalkeepers Kit 2013-2014:
If you have bothered to read the
entirety of this series, you'll know that we bloody
love our red goalkeepers kits. There frankly hasn't
been enough of them down the years to satisfy that
obsession which is why last seasons away goalkeepers
kit was one of, if not THE best that Errea produced
during their 15 years. Worn in conjunction with the
yellow number, it of course suffered the fate of
being used in that fateful play off semi final
defeat to Derby County. And while the Rams made it
through to Wembley by dishing out a hammering, at
least we had the stylish player on the field in
Tomasz Kuszczak that day. |
|
The All Yellow
Goalkeepers Kit 2013-2014:
So we've got a yellow away kit?
Check. Here is a bloody good idea - why not bring
out a yellow goalkeepers kit as well? Of course this
is not quite on the scale of the three blue kits
cock up of 2008-09, but was this little effort
really needed? It was worn on just a handful of
occasions, mainly at home against sides whom the
green couldn't be worn or presumably just because
Tomasz Kuszczak realised how damn good he looked in
yellow. It again featured that delightful little
fake zip colour with the American Express sponsor
being in a distinguished black. |
|
|