Season 1928/29
original illustrations of the kits worn during the season
Home Kit
Home Kit variant
Possible Change Kit
Possible Change Kit variant
Home Kit
Change Kit
The Season in brief
United again suffered injuries to key players. Tom Jones was ruled out with a hernia before the start of the season, and new signing Charlie Spencer, brought in to replace Frank Barson whad left on a free transfer, caught malaria. Hugh McLenahan suffered a terrible leg fracture in the second game of the season at Villa Park, captain Jack Wilson had quinsies and Billy Johnston damaged knee ligaments.
These injuries, together with Bamlett's perserverence with the traditional 2-3-5 formation and the tactics he had he had employed to great effect at Middlesbrough, ensured another season-long relegation battle.
With United bottom of the League at the turn of the year, Bamlett invested £1,000 in Tommy Reid, a reserve at Liverpool. Reid scored fourteen goals in just seventeen games as United ended the season with a flourish. They lost just once in their final fifteen games, and Bamlett was rewarded with a two year extension to his contract.
We believe United's home kit remained unchanged, largely as a consequence of the deepening financial crisis at the club. Indeed on occasion United reverted to kits worn many years earlier, the collars often held together with laces or worn open.
Unfortunately we have been unable to find any conclusive proof of their change kit. However, from photographs and match programmes from later seasons, it is probable that the shirt was royal blue. We have assumed it would also have been of a similiar design to the home kit. We are currently researching this period, and hope to find more concrete evidence.
We have been able to determine that United's goalkeepers wore a heavy woolen green jersey. We know from a photograph of the Reserve side that United's goalkeeper change shirt was royal blue.