, Craig Stoddart looks back on some Darlington playing kits of the last 25 years.

1993-95

The barcode strip. Scan this through the self-service till at Tesco and it would cost about the same price as Gary Chapman - zilch.

You would never get away with this shirt now but this was, after all, the 1990s when football kit had no limits, so reckoned 2Unlimited anyway (a 1990s dance music reference there, one for the kids...).

Super Robbie Painter made his debut in this strip during a match at Crewe in September 1993 - we lost 2-1 with Jason White scoring our goal in the last of his four games on loan from Scunthorpe. It was also used on that unforgettable night in November ’93 when Quakers defeated Colchester 7-3.

With Hutchison Telecom remaining as sponsors, blue continued as the club’s ‘trim’ colour of choice on a kit that, if memory serves, was designed by a college student – does anyone the veracity of that tale, or perhaps it’s an urban myth.

He wasn’t called Jack Hatfield, that was the name of a sports shop in Teesside that supplied the kits. Having been involved in Quakers’ kits since 1989-90, this was to be the last strip that the Jack Hatfield logo was emblazoned across.

Their final involvement coincided with a striped shirt, a rarity in Darlington’s kit history. The horizontal sort, ie hoops, however, are much more common and they returned after this kit was last used.

A 4-0 win over Rochdale in April 1995, with goals from Gavin Worboys, Steve Gaughan (2) and Gary Himsworth was the last time this shirt saw light of day, with an Orange-sponsored hooped shirt given an outing for the final two matches of the campaign.