Unluckiest Poppies Shirt Ever?

Unluckiest Poppies Shirt Ever?  Boy, that's category with a lot of runners and riders.  And an awful lot of front runners.  A lot of dodgy seasons swathed in a lot of dodgy kits.  But there's one shirt that always struck me as THE unluckiest Poppies shirt ever.  This one.

Why?  Well, to ruin your day, let's all look back at our last season in National North under the inspiring leadership of Lee Glover.  Lots of draws and defeats.  Just enough wins to keep us interested.  Great days (!)  A season where if we'd shown just 1% more gumption over nine months we'd still be in National North, enjoying regular Northern gumpings and 4 hour coach journeys.

That season, the away goalkeeper shirt, manfully modelled by the freakishly long-limbed Cameron Gregory struck me as a thing of exquisite beauty.  Grey and black with a two-tone Poppies badge.  Absolutely gorgeous.  Unfortunately, the half-mad, and three quarters blind officialdom of the National League decreed that the shirt was too close in colour to the referee and linesmen.  Obviously our betters believe not only that black and grey are the same colour but also that refs, linesmen and goalkeepers are stood alongside each other so much over the course of the average game that confusion might well reign.....

So, this fabulous shirt was hidden away from decent society for most of the season.  And then, IT happened.  We had an away game at fellow strugglers Bradford Park Avenue.  The day started well.  We parked no more than 20 feet from the entrance to the ground.  We then enjoyed a spectacularly fine pre-match meal in the their social club.  Gangly Gregory took to the pitch in THAT shirt and it looked fantastic.  And then we went into an early, deserved lead.  All was looking good for 3-points on the road and a moderate stride towards league survival.

And then.....

Gregory got caught up in some unfortunate shenanigans and received a red card.  Exactly why he was sent off I can't say.  I was at the other end of the ground on a dull afternoon and all I can recall is lots of chest-bumping and finger-pointing, followed by an early bath for our net-minder.  The still-gorgeous shirt was handed to George Forsyth who was equally moderately OK in goal as he ever was in midfield.

But, the damage was done.  Down to 10-men, BPA pummelled us.  It was well after the 90 minutes was up that Bradford finally snatched an equaliser.  In hindsight a devastating equaliser.  We can't blame the grey shirt directly, but....

• In it's first appearance, the goalie was sent off.
• In it's first appearance we dropped 2-points, which, in the final analysis, would have been enough to keep us up.
• In it's first appearance we saw the last appearance of Cameron Gregory who was more than happy to sit out his ban whilst nursing a new, improved contract at Boston United rather than continue fighting with us.

That's a lot to dump on a single shirt that was, to my knowledge, worn in just this one game.  That said, I have attempted a one man campaign to redeem this shirt's reputation.  A campaign that reached it's zenith last season when it and I finally managed a Klondike win at just the millionth attempt.