Premier League 90s Kits

 Todays Premier League clubs in their best 90s kit (in my humble opinion). Bonus points if you can name all the players...

Hartlepool v Darlington

Hartlepool are now effectively without rivals after the original Darlington FC were wound up following relegation from the Conference. The new club, forced to play in the Northern League (a full seven divisions below Pools League One), and their fans no doubt harbour the same kind of animosity towards us. But if they don't make a swift return to the Football League then it'll be one of those forgotten rivalries, as the younger generation come through unknowing - I mean how many kids at Stoke City realise Port Vale are supposed to be their rivals, not West Brom or Wolves?

Its mad to think that when I started supporting Pools in the 90s, Darlo always seemed to have the upper hand. Not so much in results against us, we seemed to do better there as form went out of the window, but in league standing - they could have relegated us in the derby at Feethams in 1997 had it not been for a fortuitous and priceless 2-1 winner by Pools legend Joe Allon  They seemed to attract better players too, as in 1997/98 I remember grudgingly looking at their fancy dan international players in their line up - Austrians Duo Mario Dorner and Franz Resch and Canadian Jason De Vos, all capped by their nation. How were capped players allowed to join Darlo in the old division three? I couldn't get my head round it.

Then a few years later Darlo were going places with the squad most division two teams would have been envious of. Led by Premiership loanee Craig Russell and poacher Marco Gabbiadini the Quakers shot up the league and were much fancied when they made the playoff final (beating Pools in the semis). Their fans at Wembley singing 'Are you watching Hartlepool?'. Yes we were. And were having a good chuckle when Peterborough won.

The wheels fell off after that. That squad was disbanded as chairman Reynolds put his money into the new stadium, not players wages. I strongly believe if his policy was the opposite then Darlo would probably be an established Championship team now, such was the momentum behind that squad. The stadium should have come then and could have filled it with new fans from the large catchment area of south Co Durham and North Yorkshire. But they wouldn't come to watch Third Division football. And they didn't.

In later years it was Pools who were going places. Either in League One above Darlo or top of League Two while they struggled. The last league meeting at Darlo in 2007 resulted in a thumping 3-0 rout for Pools, including the best goal ever seen by Eifion Williams. Bar a League cup clash the following year at the Vic (3-1 to United) that's it for meetings between the two clubs.

Darlo went out of the league and had to do all they could to stay afloat - I remember reading an offer where if you bought an executive box for a season, your company name was put into a hat to become the shirt sponsors. I thought at the time is it worth my life savings to watch my rivals play with my company name of 'Darlo R Shit' plastered on their shirts?

New owners came and went, but with constant trouble on and off the field, with one common denominator - a vast money sapping half empty stadium. Except the highlight of the FA Trophy win in 2011 the club hit the ultimate low when it folded a year later, being forced to set up as new club, thus condemning themselves to being relegated further down the pyramid. They reformed as Darlo 1883 and sensibly elected to move away from Darlington, groundsharing at Bishop Auckland for now, but with a target of trying to move back to Feethams.

It's a strange feeling I have. Used to have a seething hatred of Darlo, but now it's impossible to summon up that kind of bile for both a new club and a non league one at that. They're enjoying life again - playing good football with a decent squad of ex pros for that level, getting a good gate every game and are currently unbeaten this season. I actually want my ex rivals, whom I once had such an irrational hatred of, to do well. And the painful thing is it doesn't pain me to say it.

Cardiff City - The Whobirds?

Cardiff City are suffering an identity crisis as the club's owners start a rebranding campaign, most notably in the difference of kit colours. The board of directors have sold the Bluebird's 104 year old soul to Malaysian investors in order to clear debt and raise a few bob. They'll now play in red which apparently will appeal to a wider market than their century old blue - presumably to offer them off as the Welsh Man United to oriental audiences (despite playing in an inferior league to country rivals Swansea). Perhaps more likely CCFC will appeal now because the dragon is a big cultural icon in the Far East - or is that a touch racial? I just can't believe that a board would sell the clubs identity and history just because the colourway doesn't fit in with what a couple of foreign millionaires want for their plaything. Actually I can believe it, it's all about the money even at Championship level. Sounds like they were dangling a big gold carrot - change the colours and get the wad.

Fans obviously protested when it was first mooted a month or so ago, and the plans seemed to be dead in the water, but today it became reality as it was pushed through quickly. The Bluebirds are no more. It's now the Red Dragons, with the national Welsh symbol taking pride of place on the new club badge. Sky Sports News editing only showed slightly disappointed fans who grudgingly admitted if it keeps the club afloat then they'll take it. But there'll be a real hardcore dead against it cursing the board as yet another club sells itself out losing its identity. And that's just the Cardiff fans - it's yet to be documented what original welsh reds Wrexham think about it?

A Traditional Reds vs Blue Subbuteo clash

However football fans are a fickle lot and as Simon Jordon pointed when asked about the subject - ''if they win the Championship next season the fans won't care will they?''. Which proved to be the point in Leeds in 1962 when Don Revie abolished the traditional 43 year old blue and yellow colours and changed it to all white, in order to emulate the great Real Madrid. It seemed to work as two years later they won the title and then set on a decade long spell dominating English footie like Liverpool and Man Utd did in the 80s and 90s respectively. I bet the Leeds fans couldn't remember what colour they originally played in after all the champagne consumed after yet another trophy triumph. The same couldn't be said for Millwall in 1999 when they went all white and ended up in League One. Come 2001 they changed back to royal blue and went back up to the Championship.

Leeds Home shirt (without Revie history)

However there's also the opposite end of the scale where you get the impression clubs should have changed their colours. About ten years ago our old sparring partners Darlington had safe cracker jack owner, the Sunderland born Georgie Reynolds, attempt to change their colours from black/white to red and white stripes after his beloved. The fans went apeshit but given their recent plight perhaps they'd have been better off as Sunderland B. And what about Notts County? The oldest football (league) club in the world have had a fairly mediocre time of it post war, especially when compared to their cross-city neighbours. And they gave their colours to help set up a newly formed Italian outfit in 1929, Juventus going on to become a massive club and making a major impact on Europe. On the other hand County are playing second fiddle to Forest on making an impact in Nottinghamshire. Change to blue anyone? Of course that would mean losing the moniker 'Magpies', but then the nickname 'Bluebirds' has just become available.

Magpies vs. Eyeties