Great one-offs – Blackburn Rovers, 1993

The early 1990s were when kit manufacturers began to realise that there was an ever-growing market for their wares, and so the releases became more common.

Blackburn Rovers had worn a plain yellow third kit in 1992-93, but not that often – Crystal Palace, Sheffield United and Southampton were opponents which might have been troublesome for a team with a blue-and-white-halved home and red and black stripes away, but they got by with their first-choice shirt on those occasions.

That third shirt wasn’t sold, as far as we know, but the matchworn set was recycled:

The 1992-3 all yellow kit was given to our school and we wore it as our kit in Year 11 and in 6th Form. Not a great look for a Burnley school! @mejs31

— Mark (@Boblordclaret) August 7, 2018

I remember playing against your school when they wore that kit. It was from an away game vs Arsenal. The yellow and black third kit was only worn once against spurs in the league cup

— desmond (@mejs31) August 7, 2018

In the summer of 1993, it was supplanted by a new yellow version featuring large black panels at the sides.

A somewhat unusual, but nice, design, its only outing would come away to Tottenham Hotspur in the Coca-Cola Cup fourth round on December 1, 1993, a 1-0 loss. Perhaps Blackburn’s away kit wasn’t allowed due to being too close to the black of the officials, but that hadn’t been a problem for their second-round opponents Bournemouth, who of course wear those colours as their first choice.

In February 1994, Blackburn would return to White Hart Lane for a league game. This time, they wore the away shirts and socks with change shorts – similar to, but different than, the home set – as they won 2-0.

While the yellow was retained for the title-winning 1994-95 season, it remained unused.