Great one-offs – Celtic, 1988

• Thanks to The Celtic Wiki for providing us with the information on this kit’s only outing

It seems illogical for a team with stripes or hoops to have a change kit which features one of its primary colours prominently, but there are instances where it makes perfect sense.

In the early 1990s, for instance, Juventus had a solid black away strip as all of their clashes were against teams in white and there was no hint of a problem. However, there are instances where reworking your traditional colours on an alternative strip is not a good idea.

Celtic have often had plain white or plain green shirts as back-up options, but by the mid-1980s, yellow had become the first-choice second choice, as it were.

That was the case for 1986-87, with the shirt featuring a nice diamond shadow pattern and green and white incorporated as trim colours. It was sufficient to solve any clashes that arose, meaning that their third kit wasn’t called into competitive action – and, realistically, it could only have been used against sides that didn’t clash with the hoops.

It was similar to the Leeds kits of the time and was quite pleasing on the eye. Nowadays, such a kit would be worn against Aberdeen or Hearts or Dundee and probably sell well, as well as provoking a hostile reaction for needless changing, but this strip wasn’t used at all in 1986-87 or 1987-88.

In fact, its only outing was in a friendly on Celtic’s tour of Switzerland in July 1988, a 6-2 win against Selection Jura.

While it’s hard to judge from a black-and-white picture, it appears white featured heavily in the opposition’s kit, too. With it being Celtic’s fourth game in five days, it’s quite possible that their other two kits were being laundered, hence why this long-sleeved set was called into use.

Whatever the reason, it was a unique occasion and matchworn examples are quite rare.