Hull City wore their away kit at Southampton on Saturday. 
 
That’s not a statement that seems particularly novel or newsworthy, only it wasn’t expected that the full change kit as registered with the EFL would be worn in 2025/26. Let me explain, but in my own round the houses style… 
 
City first used alternate amber shorts midway through the 2001/02 season after a debacle at Darlington, but over the years the alts became a familiar item in the kitset. For example, Nick Barmby’s Tigers made great use of them in 2011/12, wearing them at Derby, Coventry, Crystal Palace and both home and away against Southampton. 

You see most clashes that we face on the road are not down to an amber shirt (although better understanding of colour blindness which affects one in eleven men, so on average one player in every XI, means we began avoiding amber shirts when away to teams in red shirts to help players contending with deuteranomaly and protanomaly), but because the home team has dark shorts, black or navy usually. 
 
Having amber alt shorts allows us to wear our traditional amber and black colours away from home at Derby, Preston et al and maximises kit distinction, and as a certifiable kit geek I think it looks cool and it’s a modern day club tradition that parallels club kit idiosyncrasies such as Manchester United wearing white socks at home in European competition.  

However, the EFL threw a spanner into the works a few seasons ago when they effectively outlawed the use of alternate shorts sets by saying clubs could only register three outfield kits*, and since alternate shorts would be considered part of another kitset, you can’t have them. You can mix and match elements of the three kits you’ve registered as much as you like to avoid clashes.  

*There is a provision for special kits, such as Blackburn’s 150^th anniversary kit, but they only get to wear that once.  

At the same time, the EFL said short clashes are no longer considered an issue, which is an odd thing to decide when you’ve said clubs should be mindful of colour blindness when mashing up elements of their three kits. If you’re a match official, short clashes aren’t that big a deal, it’s shirts and socks that need to be distinct when calling offsides, corners and throw ins, but for players with colour blindness having distinct shorts is a big deal.  

Tigers Hall of Famer Garreth Roberts has talked openly about the difficulty he faced when City played Liverpool in the FA Cup in 1989, and specifically said that he looked at the shorts of other players to distinguish team mates and opponents.  

Anyway, it seemed the use of amber shorts with the primary shirts and socks away from home was a thing of the past, but for 2021/22 the ‘wine’ coloured third shirt that was a homage to the lovely 1995-97 maroon away kit by Super League was released with amber shorts.

These were never intended to be worn with the third shirt however, and were employed as effective alternates with the home shirt and socks several times. The only time we wore the 2021/22 third shirt, at Huddersfield, it was matched with the black ‘home’ shorts, though the kids did wear Wine-Amber-Wine against Peterborough’s Under 23s and I challenge you to tell me it doesn’t look great.  

Onto this season then, and the much lauded black with amber chalkstripes change shirt by Kappa is registered with the EFL as paired with amber shorts, though again they are intended to be an option for use with the primary shirts, as seen at Sheffield Wednesday in December.  

Of course the video game firm Electronic Arts aren’t to know any of this and so in EA Sports FC 26 (look, I’m calling it FIFA 26, don’t @ me) City’s away kit has amber shorts, which caused me issues when I put City in League Two for LOLS so I could feel the thrill of rising up the leagues again.

Games against Barnet, Newport and Cambridge were really, really tricky. Maybe City should make any black and amber change kit the third in future to help out gamers.  

Still, that look wasn’t really intended for matchday use, but Southampton have red stripes in their home shirts, making amber shirts unadvisable for reasons already discussed and their shorts are black.

Not a problem for EFL match officials but us not having black shorts too might be handy for some players and spectators, so we went with the full change kit in the 2-1 win at St. Mary’s.  

I think this look is wonderful, and I’m glad we’ve used this combination at least once. It was only the second time in club history where we’ve gone Black-Amber-Black, the first time came in a League Cup tie at Doncaster in 2012, and though we stunk that night and lost 3-2, it remains one of my favourite City ‘fits, as the kids say. 

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