The Good, The Bad, The WTF

East Fife play their home games at Bayview Stadium in Methil, Scotland. I don't know why it's called Bayview. The view is not so much of a bay, but of an out-of-service power plant. This is the view from the stands


I guess the bay is the part you don't see. Maybe we'll find out when the power plant gets demolished in five year's time.

Anyway, back in 1995-96 East Fife, whose usual colors are black and gold, played in an away strip that is not fondly recalled. It reminds me of the Wang-sponsored Oxford United shirt, but it is uniquely crappy, not a knockoff.


My wife has this thing. She is attuned to all fashion rules, such as when you can wear white pants, open-toed shoes, or corduroy. One of the rules that I think she made up herself is the one that says "don't wear green and red, you'll look like Christmas". East Fife pay no attention to such rules.


And you know what? This shirt does not look like Christmas. The green isn't right. That isn't to say that it looks good. It doesn't, even if red and green are known as complementary colors in art theory (they are). These hues definitely do not complement each other.

A darker green would have made a difference. Kind of exactly like the green around the collar. Then, of course, it would have looked like an oddly-chosen Christmas sweater. Still, that would have been better than this washed-out mess.

What also might have worked was to reduce the amount of green in the shirt. While the stripes are not uniform in width, the number of green to red stripes should have been reversed. Then, at least, the main color would have been strong, rather than this almost-aqua.

Poor Andrew Forrester. No wonder he tried to erase his name off of the shirt.

It should also be noted that East Fife have returned to the same color green for this year's away shirt. Full marks for tradition, but on review, all points deducted for stupidity.