A romp through the history of Sunderland kits. And a prize competition

Simply the worst? Home top 1981
Simply the worst? Home top 1981

What are the best and worst SAFC shirts you can remember? Below, our occasional contributor John Penman takes you on a colourful tour of his own history of owning them whether good, bad or plain ugly.

BUT FIRST A COMPETITION – WHICH EXPLAINS WHY COMMENTS ARE DISABLED FOR THIS POST:

Salut! Sunderland and Classic Football Shirts combine to offer all SAFC fans around the world – in other words, no Guess the Score-type restrictions on overseas delivery addresses AND no one is ineligible to enter – the chance of winning a £50 voucher to spend, choosing from the huge Classic Football Shirts collection of original football kits from around the world.

‘Whether new products with the tags still on, rare player issue items or pre-owned classic shirts from the past, our site has something for any football fan,’ says CFS’s Danny Taylor, who describes working with a stock of 300,000 tops as like being a museum curator.

‘It couldn’t be simpler to enter all you have to do is answer the question: who is Sunderland’s all-time top goal scorer?’.

Enter the competition by sending your reply to marketing@classicfootballshirts.co.uk before the closing date of midnight on December 18 . No answers or comments below – the winner will be selected at random from all correct entries received. There is no special consolation prize for answering: ‘It’s either Jozy Altidore or Danny Graham.’

Every entrant will receive a £5 voucher towards purchases at Classic Football Shirts

And now over to John Penman for a look at the Sunderland replica kit he has known and loved …

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Whimsical tales of Sunderland’s world toppers

skpImage: Sunderland Shirts

Until David Cameron gets round to banning foreign travel as part of his austerity programme, we will be accustomed to coming across fellow Sunderland fans wherever we go. It may be the tops they wear, though caps, badges or rear window car stickers also give the game away.

If there is a grimmer town in the world than Portadown, I don’t wish to go there. I didn’t especially want to be in Portadown the day I went looking for a man widely assumed – and sometimes, in semi-private, claiming – to be a bloodthirsty sectarian killer. The newspaper I worked for wanted his reaction to being ordered, by other sectarian killers (nominally on the same side), to get out of Ulster.

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