As soon as the fixture list was released, the more knowledgeable Shrimpers supporters began to moot a red kit coming into being after Rochdale were picked as our second away opponents of the 2004/5 campaign. Of course, ‘Dale, like Southend, wear an all-blue strip, and with Football League rules meaning that no shades of the same colour can match, both United’s navy blue home strip and sky blue away one were ineligible for today’s match.
As a result, Southend have taken the predictable measure of releasing a third strip for the current campaign, and as you can see it bears a remarkable relationship to the Gunners’ Premier League-winning shirt of 2001/2. The shirt is predominantly two-tone red (Burgundy and blood red being the two colours striped horizontally across the material), with white sleeves. Both the shorts and socks are all white.
‘Blues’ will probably wear it for their next Coca-Cola League Two match away at blue-and-white quartered Bristol Rovers on Friday 27th August, if not on Tuesday 24th August away at West Ham United in the Carling Cup. We apologise for the quality of the picture revealing the strip, but draconian stewarding prevented us getting any closer to the pitch – more, slightly better quality photographs will be uploaded soon.
Robert Craven
www.thelittlegazette.com