May 23 2002

Palace Kit 2002/2003

Jamesey doesn't get the blues over the new season strip but sees red over a past decision...

Congratulations to my Holmesdale colleagues for their scoop story on the style of our 02-03 home strip. It's not often we can have a good debate over it as early as this.

Football non-aficionados might say: "What's so important about stripes, hoops, colours or whatever? Isn't it the game that counts?"

Well, any regulars on this site know all too well that our strip is vitally important.

It is part of our history, our upbringing, our youth, our neighbourhoods and, for the oungsters, our future.

Let me admit, at my first Palace game in the mid-50s the strip was white shirts with a smidgin of claret and blue piping and black shorts.

By the time we gained our first spell in the top division in 1969, the kit had evolved into claret and blue stripes, and a smart and attractive strip it was too.

I think it was in about 1973 that The Great Palace Revolution occurred. Malcolm Allison, our engagingly eccentric and high-living manager changed our colours to red and blue, created a new emblem for the club and renamed us, from the Glaziers to the Eagles.

Can you imagine a manager even daring to think about doing anything as cheeky as that these days?

Well, after a few flirtations with all-white and a diagonal red-and-blue sash, we have pretty well stuck with the beloved red and blue stripes ever since.

I think most of us associate the happy times of being a Palace fan in recent years with red and blue stripes....the Geoff Thomas/Ian Wright/Mark Bright era, promotion to the old first division, the 1990 Cup Final, the 1994 new first division championship, to name but a few instances.

However, I must recall one season when even a mellow and sweet-natured person as myself was sent incandescent with rage.

In 1998, Mark Goldberg had the effrontery to change our stripes to a red shirt with a bit of blue frippery here and there.

In one stroke he eliminated years of tradition and reduced us to looking like about 50 other clubs in the league.

Can you imagine Newcastle Utd changing to a white shirt with a bit of black scrambled egg; or Arsenal suddenly getting rid of their white sleeves; or Wolves turning out in blue shirts with gold collars?

No. Because there would be mass insurrections. To my surprise many Palace fans accepted the Goldberg outrage and even wore the atrocity.

Fortunately, we were soon back to our stripes and my first reaction on seeing the new kit was relief to see that this most important element was retained.

Red and blue stripes for ever...

Email Jamesey with any of your comments to Jevans3704@aol.com