Geek's Guide
to the shirts of 2008-9 season
The season of 2008-9 saw a separate sponsorship of the home and away shirts - quite a rare event for the Pies but a boon for the collector of authentic kit ! It meant that there were at least six issued to each player. The standard 'home' featured a 'Forward Pest Control' logo in green (courtesy of a fan with a few quid to spare). When the team went away, they still wore the stripes but with a 'Marston's Smooth' ad on the front. If there was a colour clash, the change strip also featured the Marston's logo.Each player got a long and short sleeved version of the three designs. Got that ? Well have a look at these nice pictures instead....
The standard home kit for all matches at Meadow Lane with the sponsors name on the front. Normal league epaulettes would also come on a player issue but the back would only have additional advertising of 'Hickling and Squires' if it was matchworn. The replicas were not produced with it.
The back of the home kit showing,for the first time ever, additional advertising. It's worth noting that, as there were only a small number of the transfers, the later loanees - like Forte, Picken and Richards don't have any logo under the numbers of their match issues, making the epaulettes the only way of distinquishing them from replicas. If you do buy one though, beware that epaulettes were readily available and could easily have been added onto a replica. All the major squad players had definitely had those H&S transfers.
The goalkeepers - Hoult, Pilkington and the loanee Lillis had an amazing 12 shirts each issued ! Each colour - grey, yellow and green came with a spare and a choice of home or away match sponsor. Yellow seemed to be the most popular if you are looking for a kit that is more likely to have been match worn.
A long-sleeved player issue showing the rarer 'Marstons' logo on it. These were highly sought after by fans because they were not made as replicas. Between sixty and eighty were produced - most going as player issue (and these are easy to spot because of the epaulettes which are not fixed as standard on replicas,although they can be added). There were a few remaining unused ones that did appear after the season finished. Similarly, some player's shirts appeared for sale in the club shop and several were thrown into the crowd after the last match (away at Wycombe). The popularity of the shirt design along with, what many considered a more suitable sponsorship logo combined to make this issue a rare and highly collectable bit of kit !
Let's have another look at that rare logo... what a nice bit of kit...lovely ! 
Out of interest...what other season had a brewery sponsoring a special 'away' version of the home kit ?
Click below to find out....
A front and back of the unusual away design. I think it's fair to say this never really caught on but was quite popular amongst older fans. Again, the early player issues carry the Hickling and Squires logo beneath the number. This particular shirt was worn by Canham, a goal machine at lower league level, he became another in the long line of strikers used during the season who struggled to make the grade.