Season 2005 - 2006 Part 3 
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Ian Richardson Testimonial Match
Richo comes back - as the Ref !
The Story So Far......
It's a topsy-turvy season but as Wycombe, Orient, Grimsby,Carlisle etc all contrive to lose periodically, the league remains open and a play-off place seems very much up for grabs.Unfortunately, having disposed of Hurst in the January window, the Ice Man is unable to find a comparable striker and the team suffers from a lack of goals and consequently, points.Budget shortfalls lead to a succession of nearly men brought in to play up front and the team's great start is wasted as they plummet downwards.  As the season nears its conclusion, the unthinkable looms ever larger with Notts stuck in a morass of clubs unable to avoid the threat of the drop. It's like a Great Escape season - in reverse. As they head to the final game, still needing a mixture of points and luck, the league position is slightly better but the consequences of failure are much worse. In addition, their opponents in the fixture are Bury, a team not entirely in the clear themselves and unlikely to be as reluctant as Huddersfield to persue a victory against a side so easily beaten. The stage is set again then, for Meadow Lane to host another breakout.....
The new official kit for the season shows the added green 'swirl' above the Paragon logo which, itself, no longer has a white border. These two changes are exclusive to player issue in this season after September (before that see previous page for earlier design) No home replica sales ever had this logo.
When the season finished, the club, for the first time, formally honoured two obligations in letting the players who wanted their shirt have it and letting their second home kit go to sponsors. This meant there was no guarantee at all that any would be sold off. A plan was hatched for the players to change at halftime on the final day so the club could have the shirts in the shop by the end of the game. In the midst of that drama though, this rather fell apart and in the end, less than half made it and none of these had been worn in the first half of that actual match. Of those, the players themselves threw several of them into the crowd at the end or gave them away (as with the Great Escape season) so there is a fair probability that they will appear for sale in online auctions in the years to come. Whether, after such an unsuccessful campaign,they will attract the interest the others did, remains to be seen.
The Third Kit

Here's the story of the kit that never was.With the first two shirts already being marketed, everything was just hunky-dory until the game with Chester loomed in mid-January. The previous season, a yellow kit was devised for the corresponding game and the one with Bury. The same thing was to happen again but with the fixture looming up, the club clearly weren't going to beable to send to Italy (home of Errea) for a new design . Time to go shopping ! The solution lay in an off-the-peg  shirt which was quickly named and numbered for the eighteen man squad chosen to go to Chester. However, all the quickly bought gear bore the kit manufacturers logo - Uhlsport, rather than the usual Errea and so, to avoid a rumpus, The Pies went out in their customary away light blue kit to play against the oppositions dark blue meaning the 'third kit', remained unworn. Always imaginative and very keen to get something back on their outlay, Notts decided to get some wear out of it by using it in a friendly reserve match - against Crewe in early February. Unfortunately, this fixture featured few first teamers so the idea was scrapped. Instead the shirts were just signed and sent to the club shop as curiosities. There were eighteen named ones sold off for £30 and nearly all went within the first day. Four blank spares were autographed by the whole squad and put up at £65. If you have any of these, you have an unusual item indeed. With the football league epaulettes and regulation name and number attached, this was the third strip that was never worn.

A great collectors item - the unused, un-issued players third strip. The club shop had them all autographed where possible.Other than that they were ready to wear before fear of violating the Errea kit deal meant their scheduled debut between Notts and Chester ended up as a light V dark blue clash. Cmon you blues !