It seems this is quite popular – at the time of writing (yesterday at 3 pm) there have already been over 1000 votes, which means you’re loving the retro kits,

As voting doesn’t end on the qualifiers until later today, I’ve done a draw and left five group spaces blank in each of the last five groups. That gives us three complete groups to vote on today. You may not see much else from me today, it’s my birthday and I intended to do as little work as possible. can I make it the first day since New Year where I haven’t written a single thing?

Unlikely, especially as we’re recording the podcast this evening.

Thanks to https://footballshirthistory.weebly.com/ for most of the images (I think it is True Colours Kits on Twitter, which you can find here) – I couldn’t find anywhere on their site to ask for permission, so if you run the site I hope you don’t mind me borrowing the images and crediting you. As was the case yesterday, I’ll queue these up on Twitter too, but you’ll have to visit my Twitter page here to vote as I’m writing this yesterday and can’t tee a tweet up in advance.

Also, I genuinely did a draw for this, which was a bit pointless as biased wouldn’t come into it, but it satisfied the inner kid in me. even without the qualifier from the other vote in, Group H is looking like a proper Group of Death. Maybe, for someone out there, Group a might be the same?

GROUP A

[poll id=”54″]

To start us off in the Group Stage we have shirts from the late eighties right up to last season. Shirt A is the ‘pub shirt’ championed by the current Imps’ team. The idea behind this shirt is you can wear it down the pub with a pair of jeans and it not be too garish. It’s certainly a nice shirt, but is it up to the standard set by shirt B, worn during the GMVC season and after? Wheel Horse sponsored our first year back, which is the design we have opted for here. Shirt C is an outside, but personally, I think it looks alright here – probably better than in person. Done right, lilac or purple away shirt is an interesting prospect, but does it get your vote? Finally, shirt D comes from our National League stint and will always ben linked with that sparkling 3-1 win at Grimsby Town. Is that enough for it to top the group?

The top two shirts qualify for the next round and we will be seeding top and second.

GROUP B

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Here’s a real spread of colours for you, starting with another pub shirt, this time from our title-winning season. It is up against another recent shirt, the current third kit, which has proven to be very popular. The fans spoke out about wanting a green kit this season, hence the third shirt, does it get your vote? For the next two, we’re going back in time to successful seasons, which might give them a boost. Firstly, shirt C, our away shirt the year we won promotion in the late nineties. I was always a huge fan of the red and blue contrast and it is similar to another shirt from an earlier period. Finally, we have the away kit from 2001 through 2003. This is the shirt that saw us battle against administration and come out the other side, and the shirt we wore right up to the Scunthorpe play-off win. Which of the four will you choose?

GROUP C

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Finally for today, we have Group C, which has some controversial shirts. We start with the third ‘pub shirt’ in a row, this year’s away kit. Sleek, stylish, basic and effective, it has proven popular, but will that be enough to carry it through? It is up against our first white away kit of the Millennium, worn through Schofield’s sacking, as well as Peter Jackson’s era. Can it get your vote? I suspect it might have a chance when pitched against two marmite shirts, starting with C. It was an early-nineties creation, not often seen in action and perhaps synonymous with Darren Huckerby these days due to the stock photo of him wearing it as a YT. It might not have to get many votes to beat shirt D, one I describe as an Australia shirt. It was our away kit in 2000/01, a poor time on the field and not a great one for the kit designers either.