JUMP TO... Home --- FEATURES --- Fanzine Memory Bank Biscuits for Scotland Star Saint of the Decade We're Here, We're There Europe '71 Playing in Style Blue Heaven Shop Forum Net Abuse Artwork Visitors' Book FAQ Around the Web --- INTERVIEWS --- Sergei Baltacha Roddy Grant Henry Hall Allan Preston Davie Irons Stuart Cosgrove Over the years Saints have played in many different rig-outs, some wearable, some just plain boufin'. Time enough then for blueheaven to go all Jeff Banks on you and separate the winners from the losers. Suits you sir! 1986-89 This attempt from Matchwinner was one of the first Saints strips that seemed to be intended more as a fashion item than a football shirt - and a particularly ugly fashion item at that. The designers obviously couldn't decide whether to give us a blue or a white shirt, so they combined the two and Hey Presto - they come out with something that even Mark Hateley would be embarrassed to wear. It's also one of those strips that seemed to be embarrassingly tight on everyone who wore it - fine if you're a bronzed Italian, not so if you're a tubby Scotsman. Absolutely humiliating. This kit also had the bizarre side-effect of being incredibly shiny, and it wasn't unusual for people wearing this one to sit down quite innocently on a leather sofa, only to end up stuck there for days, screaming for help. RATING: 3 out of 10, and it would have been lower had it not been for the rather nifty white flashes on the shorts. 1989-91 The first kit to bear the new club crest is amazingly still often spotted among the Saints support - in fact, at the time it was almost as popular as Barbour jackets and Emmerdale Farm. A winner every time, this one took much of its popularity from the lack of advertising for those egg-chasing rugger-buggers The Famous Grouse on the front. This is a strip which holds memories of the first season at McDiarmid, of Moorey and Zorro zooming down the wings with hamburgers and moustaches in equal measure, of pin-head Mark Treanor, and of thrashing Aberdeen 5-0. The only thing that lets it down is the shorter than short shorts that left little place to hide for the thunder-thighed among us. RATING: 8 out of 10 1991-93 A good ol' traditional design of blue shirt, white shorts, blue socks. Will we ever see it's like again? It's pretty difficult to fault this one, with the little touches of stripey thingies around the collar and cuffs bringing it up-to-date. It's just a pity that the rugby fans got their company name on the front again. Still, show them a proper-shaped ball and they'd probably run a mile. RATING: 7 out of 10 1993-94 This was actually on the verge of being a pretty nice strip had it not been for the crap collar. What are we, a baseball team? Bloody hell, that's almost as bad as rugby! A failure on the manufacturer's part to deliver enough long-sleeved shirts for the players meant that this was the last straw, and Saints finally decided that enough was enough from those Bukta scoundrels. Long-sleeved shirts? God, it's no wonder we got relegated. Jim Weir would have a fit if he knew. This strip was only kept for one season, and it doesn't take a genius to work out why (i.e. it's not very good). RATING: 4 out of 10 1994-96 The much-maligned "accident in a tie-dye factory" outfit - the oldies hated it, but then what do they know? They like bingo and stair-lifts. As the first attempt by Premier Marketing, it certainly did the job. Surely one of the best elements of having a Saints strip is getting to wear it on your holidays in places where nobody recognises it - and if wearing this thing didn't get you noticed, nothing would. The best of the lot. RATING: 9 out of 10 1996-97 Not a bad effort, but this number could well have been designed by someone who knows plenty about blue and white football strips, but nothing about Saints. The white sleeves are a total break away from tradition - we're St. Johnstone, not Arsenal (probably not something that's slipped your attention) and it would have been far better with white shorts instead of blue. As a football strip alone, it's OK, but it doesn't really do much for Saints. Having said that, we DID win the First Division AND hammer the Coagies 7-2 in this one, so it's not all bad. RATING: 6 out of 10 1997-98 Yet another strip that managed a life span of only one season. By now it was time for template-obsessed sports firm Xara to step in and provide us with a Chelsea-esque shirt with white flashes underneath the arms. Like it's predecessor, it loses marks for parting with tradition and having blue shorts instead of white ones. To make matters worse, the stripes on the shorts had Sportscene viewers all over the country frantically adjusting their sets, and were also apparently responsible for scaring the bejesus out of small children. Mind you, it could have been much worse - just imagine if those stripes had been horizontal. You can almost hear Roddy asking "Does my bum look big in this?" RATING: 5 out of 10 1998-2000 Gone are the scary shorts cos it's back to tradition for the millennium, and not before time. Xara once again were the providers but the sponsor's job was handed over to Scottish Hydro-Electric after The Famous Grouse' not-entirely surprising decision to pull out of football in favour of backing golfers and egg-chasers - still, it's their decision, so they're the ones that'll have to live with it. Much like the old Bukta kit of 1991 but it gets marked down a level for the obtrusive big white blob being passed off as a sponsor's logo. Perhaps The Famous Grouse weren't that bad after all? Nah, on second thoughts, they were. Still, Saints had their best ever season in this one so it picks up kudos for sentiment if nothing else. RATING: 6 out of 10 Top of pageEmail © 2004 Blue HeavenHosting by codeplacidly.comDesign by B.E.F.