- Many thanks to Rob Fletcher for his assistance
Perhaps the signs were there 1997-98 would be an unusual one in terms of mashups for Middlesbrough came when they played York City in a testimonial for Steve Tutill in July, before the season began.
Boro wore their white and blue 1996-97 away shirts but, as York’s kit was red shirts and navy shorts, the visitors had to use their white and home shorts from the previous season – and yes, that is former Barcelona and Spain star José Mari Bakero, who was on a brief trial at the Riverside Stadium.
New kits were on their way for Boro, who had finished in the last two of every competition they entered in 1996-97 – unfortunately that translated to relegation from the FA Carling Premiership and defeat in the two domestic cup competitions.
For the first time in a decade, the distinctive white stripe was back on the home shirt, trimmed in navy. The blue change shirt had the stripe going vertically and flanging outwards at the neck – coincidentally, a style that was not unlike York’s ‘Y-Front’ design.
Both sets of default shorts were white so a mix-and-match like at Bootham Crescent were almost impossible – in any case, there was a back-up blue set for the away kit. For the home strip, things were far from straightforward.
The first away game against a team in non-red shirts and white shorts was when Middlesbrough faced Ipswich Town at the start of December – on that occasion they ended up borrowing the black and cream shorts from the hosts’ third kit.
Two and a half weeks later, on December 20, Boro were able to wear their usual kit away to Manchester City with both sides in white shorts but, between then and Christmas, a red set materialised and these were worn at Huddersfield Town on Boxing Day.
One would think that that was them sorted for shorts-clashes for the remainder of what would prove to be a promotion-achieving season – but no. In the third round of the FA Cup on January 3, red-white-red was worn at Queens Park Rangers in the FA Cup and then, three days later, they travelled to another blue-and-white-hooped side, Reading, in a Coca-Cola Cup quarter-final.
Boro won that 1-0 and were clad in all-red again – but this time it was a new set of red shorts, which looked like a reversal of the 1995-96 home set, but with the white hoop on the opposite leg and no corresponding vertical side stripe.
But that wasn’t the end of things, either. These new red shorts would only been seen once more – the league game at Reading, coincidentally, with the plain red shorts called upon for the rest of the season as required.
That included a trip to Fratton Park to take on Portsmouth in March.
Pompey are of course renowned for their blue-white-red tricolour kit format but Boro neglected to bring alternative socks and so, like at Ipswich, they were the beneficiaries of a donation of the home side’s blue and yellow socks.
The 0-0 draw marked their fifth different home-shirt combination of the season, a seventh in all – thankfully the wardrobe issues did not affect their push for promotion as they finished second to Nottingham Forest to secure an immediate return to the top flight.
