Brighton & Hove Albion new 07/08 away Errea football kit

Tuesday, 17 July 2007

Albion will have a new yellow change shirt next season - replacing the old maroon strip - alongside the home shirt and existing white away strip .

The new shirt - which can be worn with blue shorts and white socks to give a distinctly Brazilian flavour, as demonstrated by new signing Nicky Forster - is available to buy from the Seagulls Shop To celebrate the launch of the new shirt, the club is offering all supporters who buy the new shirt the opportunity to buy the white away shirt at half price.

The team have historically played play in blue and white stripes, though this changed to plain blue for a period in the 1980s.

The first known crest (1946-1975) to be used by Brighton & Hove Albion was the traditional coat-of-arms design of the twin towns of Brighton and Hove. A hybrid design employing the shield of Hove and the dolphin crest of Brighton was also used at times while a calligraphic shield was worn on the team shirts in the latter 1950s.

During the 1974/75 season the club became known as 'The Dolphins' and by the beginning of the following season, a new club crest had been introduced. Both this nickname and crest were to prove short-lived, however, following an incident said to have taken place in the Bo'sun public house in Brighton. Prior to a 'derby' fixture with fierce rivals, Crystal Palace, a few away supporters started chanting, "Eagles, Eagles" to which a group of Brighton & Hove Albion fans responded with a chant of "Seagulls, Seagulls".

Current club director, Derek Chapman, is said to have been among the group who first christened the club with this nickname. The club has been known as 'The Seagulls' ever since and in 1977 the club crest was changed once again to represent this.

A round seagull crest was used on club shirts until 1998 when the current design was introduced. New chairman Dick Knight wanted to sweep away all the remnants of the old, disgraced regime and saw an updated crest as a sign to supporters of new beginnings and happier times ahead.

During the 2001/02 season, however, the club shirts displayed no seagull crest at all. For the club's centenary season a return was made to the traditional shields of the former boroughs of Brighton and Hove (now officially one city). The Brighton shield shows martlets (birds used often in Sussex heraldry) and coral which both represent the sea. T

he Hove shield also displays martlets and a ship that has run ashore, representing a French galley, commemorating the French attacks on the coast of Hove during the early 16th Century.

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